Both championships are wrapped up but there’s plenty left to play for as F1 heads to Texas for the latest Sprint weekend of the season. Here’s what to watch out for and who to back in the 2023 United States Grand Prix!
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Max Verstappen was crowned World Champion at the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix and with Red Bull having clinched the Constructors’ Championship at the previous round, F1 is set for five ‘dead rubber’ weekends. The title challenge may be off for another season but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty left to race for.
Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas is host to Round 18 of the 2023 season. The venue has been a popular addition since first joining the calendar as host of the United States Grand Prix back in 2012. The drivers love the circuit and the fans love the event weekend, flocking to COTA in their thousands. Another sell-out is expected this weekend.
The 2023 United States Grand Prix is the first of four successive races in the Americas – and the first of three back-to-back race weekends. There’s double the fun to look forward to at COTA, with an additional Sprint event taking place on Saturday. With time running out for the teams to amass as many points as possible in their respective battles, it’ll be game on in both races!
Another milestone for Verstappen?
Freshly crowned 2023 World Champion Max Verstappen could be set for yet another milestone weekend at the 2023 United States Grand Prix. He’s now just one win away from becoming only the fifth driver in history to secure 50 Grand Prix victories.
A win at COTA would see him equal his own record – from last year – for most wins in a single season. Verstappen has won 14 of the 17 races held so far this year. It’s a total winning percentage of 82% – the highest winning percentage for any driver over a single season in Formula 1. All things considered, it’s no surprise that the Red Bull driver is the firm favourite to take victory in the 2023 United States Grand Prix.
The Pressure is on Perez
While Verstappen continues his almost unrivalled dominance of the season, the pressure continues to mount on Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez. After failing to qualify in the top ten for the eighth time this year last time out in Qatar, Perez could finish the race no higher than 10th, continuing a run of dismal results.
Perez does have a contract to race with Red Bull in 2024 but as we’ve seen so many times in the past with the team, a contract is not an absolute guarantee of actually driving. Perez needs to up his game in the final five races of the season – especially if you believe the recent rumour that a 2024 drive is reliant on him picking up second place in this year’s Drivers’ Championship.
30 points is the gap between Perez and Lewis Hamilton in the battle to be best of the rest in this
year’s championship standings.
Ricciardo returns… again!
Talking of the second Red Bull seat… Daniel Ricciardo is back in business once again at the 2023 United States Grand Prix. Eight weeks on from the accident in which he broke bones in his hand during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, Ricciardo feels recovered enough to race at COTA.
Ricciardo makes no secret of the fact that the United States Grand Prix is one of his favourite events of the year and his results here usually reflect that fact. Last year was the first time since 2012 that the Australian had been out-qualified by his team-mate at COTA, a track at which the Australian has twice finished on the podium.
With stand-in driver Liam Lawson having been able to pick up points three races ago in Singapore, Ricciardo will surely want to have a top ten finish to his name before the season is out. Points have to be the target for Ricciardo as he makes his return.
Stroll hoping to turn fortunes around
Lance Stroll has failed to pick up any points since Formula 1 returned from its summer break. Aston Martin team owner, Lance’s father, Lawrence Stroll puts it down to “an unfortunate amount of bad luck”.
Stroll’s chances of picking up points at the United States Grand Prix appear slim, given the fact that he has never previously finished in the top ten at COTA. Stroll did at least hold a 100% finish rate at the track until 2022, before retiring in a collision with now-team-mate Fernando Alonso.
With Aston Martin now just 11 points ahead of McLaren in the battle for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, the Silverstone-based team really need both of their drivers to be at the top of their game for the last five races of the year.
Gasly has never scored points at COTA
Another driver who has never previously scored in the United States Grand Prix is Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. From four Texas appearances, the Frenchman’s best result is 12th place, recorded on his first appearance back in 2018. Despite the lack of points, Gasly has never been out-qualified by any of his team-mates here.
The Enstone team has scored points in all but two of the ten races held at COTA to date. Can Gasly finally score his first points at the track this weekend?
How far can McLaren go?
The aforementioned battle between McLaren and Aston Martin looks set to be one of the talking
points of the weekend, with McLaren likely to move ahead of Aston Martin should their recent form
continue at the 2023 United States Grand Prix.
Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have finished on the podium in each of the last two races. The
last time the team managed to record three consecutive double podiums was back in 2010. It would
be a big ask for McLaren to make any impressions on Ferrari in third in the standings, with the gap
being 79 points with five races remaining – but it’s not impossible, especially if the McLaren duo
bag another double top three at COTA.
Haas bring upgrades to their home event
Haas will be running a special livery at the 2023 United States Grand Prix for their home race weekend. The team has a significant upgrade package to play with too, which they hope will help them move up the order after scoring only one point in the last seven races.
Haas’ home race has not always been kind to them. They’ve scored at COTA only twice – with a tenth place finish for Romain Grosjean in their maiden 2016 season and ninth in 2022 for Kevin Magnussen, the team’s best result to date at the United States Grand Prix.
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