[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by Andrew Benson, BBC

"This is only its third year, but already the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, has established itself as a highlight of the F1 season.
A well thought-out track, with some properly demanding corners not far from one of the coolest small cities in America adds up to a winning combination for all concerned.

The steep rise up to Turn One is unique, the sweepers through Turns Three and Nine pose a challenge similar to - if not quite as extreme as - Silverstone's Becketts, and after a fiddly 'stadium' section, the penultimate corner, Turn 19, is a tricky, downhill, off-camber left that always provides action.

An intimate paddock and gorgeous Texas skies add the final ingredients for an event that is hard to fault. The only cloud on the horizon is the forthcoming return of the Mexican Grand Prix. Twinned with Austin next year, how many of the Texas track's spectators will it take away, and at what cost to the US Grand Prix's viability?

Circuit Layout
The Circuit of the Americas, which runs anti clockwise, is a wonderful mixture of many of the most famous circuits on the F1 calendar; it has more corners at over 250 km/h than Spa and more below 100kph than Hungary, which is quite a combination!

It has one very long straight with a hairpin at either end. There were a total of 55 overtaking moves during the 2012 race, but only 18 in the 2013 edition.

Austin: On board with Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes simulator!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ruI9Nft_g

Weather Forecast
The forecast for the weekend is for warm weather, with temperatures of 24 to 26 Centigrade.

Likely tyre performance
Pirelli tyre choice for Austin: Soft (yellow markings) and Medium (white markings) This combination has been used six times already this season.
For the last two seasons, Pirelli has brought the medium and hard tyres to Austin and it has led to one-stop strategies. This year they have gone for the soft and medium tyres, but that is because the 2014 compounds are harder than last year’s. So we could have one or two stops as the preferred strategy, Pirelli thinks two.

Tyre warm up has been a factor at this race track in the past as it can be very cool, in the mornings especially.

In the 2012 race drivers found themselves doing five lap runs in qualifying to set a fast time. The track is now three years old so the surface will have matured and there should be more grip.

The big question mark will be the difference in performance between the two compounds; we have seen some significant differences, for example in Russia the soft tyre was clearly a second a lap faster than the medium, which meant that in the first part of the race, none of the runners on the soft were in any hurry to make their pit stop for the medium. At other venues the pace difference has been closer. The main limitation is front inner shoulder wear from sliding.

Number and likely timing of pit stops
Friday’s practice session will be vital for working out whether one stop or two is the faster race strategy. The pit lane is of average length at 395m and it takes around 21 seconds to make a stop, so there is no discouragement there from making an extra stop.

A typical one stop strategy is to start on soft tyres and pit around lap 20 for a new set of medium tyres.

Two stops would mean starting on the soft tyre, taking another set of softs around lap 15 and then a set of mediums around lap 37. Alternatively, two stints on the medium tyre if the wear on the soft was marginal and the medium had good pace.

Race Strategy Briefing



Updates for the week
There will be only nine teams participating in the Grand Prix after Caterham and Marussia went into administration. This means that the FIA is likely to change the format of qualifying with four cars dropping out at the end of Q1 and four cars at the end of Q2.

There is some debate about whether Vettel will take part in qualifying in Austin. He needs to take a 6th power unit and wants to take one with all the new components, which means starting from the pit lane. But the FIA is believed to have told the team that he can still use some of the other components from his original allocation of five for the season together with a new Internal Combustion engine, in which case he will have to go out and qualify on Saturday and then take a grid penalty.

Courtesy: JAonF1, BBC Sport, F1Fanatic

PS: Please excuse the shortage of pics. For some reason uploading pics onto this thread is failing. Will get them loaded with the help of Mods.

[gtonsing]

Thanks for this thread deetjohn.
It would be extremely interesting to watch this race. I have not seen this race since the start - the hours are just not conducive to working the next day :(. I have hardly seen a re-run of the F1 races. Is there any available especially on the star network? It would greatly help.

[deetjohn]

Thank You Aditya for updating the pics.

Originally Posted by gtonsing

Is there any available especially on the star network? It would greatly help.

gtonsing, here you go! TV Listings can be found here

Sat
Qualifying 11:20 PM SS4 HD2

Mon
Race Day 12:30 AM SS4 HD2
Main Race 1:00 AM SS4 HD2

[gtonsing]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

Thank You Aditya for updating the pics.



gtonsing, here you go! TV Listings can be found here

Sat
Qualifying 11:20 PM SS4 HD2

Mon
Race Day 12:30 AM SS4 HD2
Main Race 1:00 AM SS4 HD2

Thanks Deetjohn. I was looking for more of a re-run rather than the live telecast since the Race of the Americas is in the early morning and if there is a more "relaxed" timing

[thetinywanderer]

Originally Posted by gtonsing

Thanks Deetjohn. I was looking for more of a re-run rather than the live telecast since the Race of the Americas is in the early morning and if there is a more "relaxed" timing

Re run is usually during mid night or the next day afternoon, you can check your network's schedule. Usually star sports 4 will telecast a Re run.

This race will be very interesting, with Mc Laren saying that they would be giving their best in last part of the season, last few races have been good for them. Is Raikkonen getting a new chassis this grand prix? I remember reading somewhere he will be?

[zenren]

Originally Posted by thetinywanderer

Re run is usually during mid night or the next day afternoon, you can check your network's schedule. Usually star sports 4 will telecast a Re run.

Star Sports has scheduled the re-runs at an even worse time - 2.30 AM on 5th and 6th!

And Bernie wonders why there is a drop in viewership!

[thetinywanderer]

Originally Posted by zenren

Star Sports has scheduled the re-runs at an even worse time - 2.30 AM on 5th and 6th!

And Bernie wonders why there is a drop in viewership!

Here is an article that talks about how F1 is lacking in audience engagement.

Bleacher Report: What Formula 1 Can Learn from the NFL About Fan Engagement. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIw1-Hd4x8

[deetjohn]

Nico claimed his ninth pole of the season after a stunning final flying lap outpacing Lewis by 0.376 seconds.



Some pics from Sat.


Button in the new look McLaren


Bottas in the stunning Williams


Alonso


That's a nice capture


Remember this fella in that mighty Williams BMW?

[deetjohn]

Lewis took his 10th victory of the season thanks to a late and brave move down the inside of Nico at Turn 12 after the first pitstop. Lewis now leads Nico by 24 points with 75 available in the two remaining races, where 50 is from the last one due to the stupid double points rule. And the drivers title is now mathematically between the 2 Mercedes drivers.

Lewis is now the Briton with most wins (32) and on a tie with Alonso.

I missed the live telecast and reports say it was an exciting race with no backmarkers.

[sgiitk]

I found the race pretty boring. I had recorded it and played it this morning. What I do not understand is so many tyre changes by Vettel.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

What I do not understand is so many tyre changes by Vettel.

RBR clarified that one of his two pit stops at the beginning (during the safety car period) was due to a puncture picked up by running over the debris of the Perez-Sutil collision.

Brave of them to convert to a 3 stop strategy (counting the first 2 as 1 stop, since they occurred within the same safety car period and didn't lose him place), since a 3-stopper was said to be preferable for only those who were good on overtaking (i.e. the Mercedes-engine cars).

[gtonsing]

This is probably the least commented F1 thread this year!! Show how a good timing is a lot of help to the viewership and interest the race holds - though this is almost purely indian point of view.

[Hatari]

Originally Posted by gtonsing

This is probably the least commented F1 thread this year!! Show how a good timing is a lot of help to the viewership and interest the race holds - though this is almost purely indian point of view.

Well pointed out. Though it is probably the least watched race in India, given the 1.30am-3am telecast time.

[myavu]

I watched it live and slept at 3:30am. Cannot miss a GP like COTA and never did I for last two years. After all it happens once in a year.

It was a good race to watch and initially I thought Nico will runaway with P1. But on lap 24 hammer boy was up there with a super inside dive.

There was lot of overtaking up and down the field (Daniel was on a mission) and either I didn't miss the two (normal) back-marker teams badly.

Cheers!

Vinu

[aim120]

I watched the entire race.Fantastic drive by Hamilton.

In the last year race or so ,the podium finishers used to get a cowboy hat but this year lewis had to ask for the podium presenter for his hat.