The In Lap: United States Grand Prix

    After debatably the most boring Sprint Race to date, The expectations for the United States Grand Prix were hovering around disappointment. Aside from a unique qualifying session with Verstappen finding himself in P6, there wasn't much to be excited for. The sprint demonstrated a seemingly poor tyre life for the Ferrari, excellent pace on the mediums from the McLaren and Mercedes, and of course an annoyingly dominant performance from the Red Bull. This was all very interesting to watch, but a problem for many with the sprint format is that it spoils the seemingly unknown race pace of the cars for the feature race. This was being discussed in bulk afterwards, with many fans expecting a predictable decline in pace for the Ferrari drivers and a smooth drive for the two Mercedes-powered teams. 

    After the lights went out on Sunday, Lando Norris immediately took the lead from pole sitter Charles Leclerc into turn 1. This has become a common occurrence at COTA, and it seems that having the inside line into 1 is more valuable than the extra few meters that P1 has to work with on the racing line.

    Lando managed the gap well in the first stint, allowing the drivers behind to scrap amongst themselves while he tried to cautiously pull away on the medium tyre. However, after Verstappen triggered the first round of pit stops, the undercut paid off as he gained 2 seconds on Norris after all was said and done. Max went for a second stint on the mediums while Lando went for the hard compound, and after a few laps of the second stint we found ourselves once again staring at VER in the net lead. Leclerc, however, opted to shoot for a one-stop strategy and held the lead of the race for much of the second stint. This was an odd choice by Ferrari considering their tyre wear was among the worst in the field, but at the end of the day, it's just Ferrari being Ferrari.

    One of the more surprising things we saw in the race was the pace of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes. Lewis cleaned up both Ferraris and even Lando Norris's McLaren with relative ease, and even looked to hunt down Verstappen in the final stint. The pace of the Mercedes on the hard tyre opposed to the McLaren was notably better, and in the final stint where Lewis was back on the medium while Max was on the hard, it seemed possible for a last-lap showdown to take place considering the Red Bull driver was nursing a braking issue.

    However, it proved to be no match for Verstappen despite the gap being closed. If Lewis had two more laps he would have caught up to Max, but managed to cross the line approximately a second behind Max with Lando a good couple of seconds behind the two. Carlos Sainz, the only Ferrari on a two-stop, pulled in a respectable P4 followed by Sergio Perez in fifth. Charles Leclerc, however, went from pole position to P6 in classic Ferrari fashion. I think it's fair to say Charles stood no chance at a race win with the tyre degradation problems the team in red has been facing at this track, but a six-position drop was not in the forecast for the Monegasque driver. The points positions were rounded off with Russell in P7, Gasly P8, Stroll P9, and Tsunoda in P10 securing the point for fastest lap as well.

    But things would change for the worse (or better if you're a Williams fan) after post-race inspections were conducted. The 16 car of Charles Leclerc and 44 of Lewis Hamilton were referred to the stewards after the inspection of the planks under their floors showed too much wear to be in compliance with the regulations. This resulted in the pair of them being disqualified from the race, promoting Norris to P2, Sainz to P3, Perez to P4, and all drivers below P6 jumped two positions. This turned into a notably good result for Gasly, who took home eight points for an Alpine team who desperately needs some good news. Stroll managed a couple more points as well, but still not earning enough to keep Aston Martin in fourth place in the Constructor's Championship ahead of McLaren. The most eye-catching change in positions, however, was the Williams drivers. Alex Albon posted a P11 with Sargeant in P12 only a few seconds behind, but were bumped to P9 and P10 after the DSQs. This not only meant a double-points finish, but Sargeant's first points in his career, and what better place to do it than on home soil. 

OPINIONATED BANTER

    Alright. Let's crack this open. The disqualification WAS justified. Sorry TeamLH. It's a situation that's hard to read, because with the Sprint Weekend format the teams only have one practice session to tune the car. More notably, the ride height. The track at COTA has reportedly been much bumpier this year than in years prior, especially in turn 1. This, in turn, means more wear on the planks especially if the ride height is too low. It seems like nothing more than an error on Ferrari and Mercedes's part, and that seems to be the general consensus on social media, but I'd like to propose the question: Why didn't Sainz and Russell have the same issue? 

    This could be because their planks weren't inspected at all, as sometimes these things are totally random, but if they were, why lower the rear ride height of one car and not do it on the other? Lowering the ride height maximizes aero and high-speed performance, but runs the risk of the car bottoming out or porpoising like we saw in 2022. If it works, it works, but at the cost of ruining your entire race? I don't think so. I believe that it was a calculated risk that Ferrari and Mercedes took, increasing the performance of the two cars mentioned, but a risk that they simply crossed their fingers for due to the lack of practice data. They took a chance, and it backfired. Nothing more, nothing less. (And it didn't even matter for Charles because of the dogshit strategy)

    As for Logan earning his first points, good on him. He drove a clean race and managed to only be a couple seconds behind Alex across the line. Lots of people are saying his points weren't deserved, and albeit with five cars out of the running it's hard not to get points, but it was still a very clean drive for his standards and he should be proud of it. At the beginning of the race it wasn't looking good, as he got overtaken by one of the cars starting from the pit lane straight out of turn 1, but other than that it was a flawless drive and he deserves the credit he's getting.

TEAM CHECK-INS

Red Bull

    Another great performance from Max per usual. It's hard to say how dominant the RB19 was this weekend because we don't exactly know the severity of the brake issue, but honestly I feel like it wasn't as bad as Alex Jacques was making it sound on F1TV. With that being said, I think the pack is catching Red Bull quicker than ever and we (hopefully) could see some fantastic racing towards the end of the season. Aside from that, Checo had an okay race, but luck heavily played into his favor with Lewis being disqualified. If this ultimatum rumor that Checo must finish P2 in the championship is true, he was bailed out massively and should be wiping his forehead after this mediocre performance.

Mercedes

    A very strong weekend for Mercedes was unfortunately dampened by Lewis's DSQ, but again I think Mercedes knowingly took this risk to increase his pace so it's hard to say how much they've improved here. Looking at Russell's pace it seemed like nothing drastically changed, but in my opinion Lewis is also a much more quality and consistent driver (proven by his amazing drive on Sunday) so that must be taken into account. Point is, I think Mercedes have made big strides since the summer break, but not as big as they might seem.

Ferrari

    Any track with high downforce and lots of demand for constant aerodynamic grip will be a bit more of a struggle for Ferrari than any of the other top teams, so COTA was knowingly going to be tough. However, I think that despite these struggles Ferrari looked relatively good here. Sainz's race pace on the two stop was solid, and Leclerc was definitely slipping away in the sprint but managed to hang on with the medium. This is definitely an improvement from the first half of the season and even since Qatar, where they were hardly seen at all compared to the RB19 and MCL60.

McLaren

    Lando was quoted as saying he was expecting COTA to play into their weaknesses more than their strengths, but the quali pace and race pace showed that they can still hang with the big dogs. P2 in both qualifying and the race is exceptional when faced with such tight competition from Mercedes and Ferrari (specifically in qualifying) and the team in papaya should be very proud of their performance. Piastri was on for at least a P6 as he had an absolutely stonking line into turn 1, but I guess we'll never know after Ocon threw his carcas into the Australian's sidepod ending both of their races.

Aston Martin

    Everyone is anticipating the Aston Martin to be barely on the cusp of points at this point in the season, and although that was true this weekend, the pace shown in the feature race proved that the pit lane start was the right call. The setup seemed to improve drastically, and any race where Lance Stroll is organically in the points means that the car was pretty quick. A shame that reliability troubles plagued Alonso's race, but I think this race has given this team much-needed motivation going into Mexico.

Alpine

    For the first time in what feels like years, the Alpine showed some glimpses of competitiveness in all areas. The qualifying pace was surprisingly quick, and they were able to back it up in the race. Ocon forgot he wasn't playing bumper cars and decided to give Piastri's McLaren a big fat smooch on the cheek, but Gasly made up for it with a solid drive. Don't be fooled though, because for this French team it seems like no two things can go right. I'm very interested to see if they can keep up the P7-10 range in Mexico City.

Williams

    No team benefitted more from the DSQs more than Williams. A very happy ending to a solid weekend all around for a team who relies on straightline speed. Both drivers pulled their weight for the first time all season (except maybe Bahrain?) and everyone seems very happy in the garage. I don't expect much from them on the very slow street circuit that is Mexico, but hopefully Sargeant can utilize this milestone and get more confident behind the wheel.

Alfa Romeo

    When is there ever much to say about this team? They finished the race sandwiched between two Haas's in the very bottom of the cars that saw the chequered flag and showed no signs of pace all weekend. I don't put this poor performance on the drivers as I believe it's almost impossible to get anything out of this car, but nobody was expecting another performance as strong as Qatar anyways so it's back to business as usual for the Sauber boys.

Haas

    I distinctly remember being jumpscared by Hulkenberg soaring to the top of the timing table in Q1, but it proved to just be track evolution and nothing to do with the new upgrades they brought this weekend. Starting from the pit lane seemed not to help anything either as both cars were overtaken by the Williams drivers in the race, so there's very little hope in the American team to improve before the end of the season.

AlphaTauri

    With Daniel back in the car for the first time in months, you'd be out of your mind to see a mind-blowing performance from him here. He did exactly what he needed to do: drive a clean race and bring the car home in one piece. The qualifying pace looked decent from both cars, with the only Q1 exit being Yuki Tsunoda in the Sprint Shootout. They both exchanged P11s in the two qualifying sessions this weekend, a seemingly infamous number for the AlphaTauri garage this season as Daniel quoted on the radio. I'm excited to see these two compete against each other in the coming races and hope Daniel finds his footing as quickly as possible.

RACE RATING & AWARDS

This race was unique despite there not being a safety car because there were so many possible strategy calls and so many things to watch unfold. Verstappen was moving through the field, Lewis was catching everyone, Lando was trying to hold on for dear life, and Ferrari did Charles dirty once again. Don't get it twisted though, this race got kind of boring after the first few laps. It had its highs and its lows, but overall a decent US Grand Prix.

6.5/10

Sigma Male Award: Lewis Hamilton

Clown of the Week Award: Esteban Ocon

Juiced Up Team Award: Williams

Change Your F*cking Car Award: Haas

WHAT A STUPID ACTION Award: Mercedes & Ferrari ride heights

Everyone liked that. Award: Logan Sargeant