ROUND 18: 🇺🇸 United States
FORMULA 1 PIRELLI UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX 2024
Circuit stats
- Circuit name: Circuit of The Americas
- First Grand Prix: 2012
- Number of laps: 56
- Circuit Length: 5.513 km
- Race Distance: 308.405 km
- Lap record: 1:36.169 Charles Leclerc (2019)
- 2023 winner: Max Verstappen
I think Max had pole in the bag. Ominous for the remaining races to be honest. I feel like the championship will be his by probably Qatar?
That said, definitely excited for tomorrow’s race. Everyone seems competitive
The sprint victory didn’t look super easy and self evident though. And looking at Perez’s results it’s also obvious the red bull probably still isn’t the best car on the track again.
So I still think this just means more actual racing and a very exciting championship, that is still his to lose.
I’m not sure I agree with that assessment, but I hope you’re right. The Red Bull has looked more hooked up this weekend than it has in months (at least in Max’s hands) and to me the sprint victory looked fairly comfortable and assured. Part of it will have been enjoying clean air but Lando was far from the fastest car yesterday - would have been overtaken by both Ferraris would it not have been for his excellent start I think.
To me it looks like the Red Bull upgrade package finally put them back on top (or at least even) and Max will win most of the races from here on out - he is the best driver after all so you need clearly superior machinery to have a chance against him, which it looks like is no longer the case.
It looks like the upgrade put the car again into a window where Max can operate it. That window still propably is way more narrow than the McLaren’s, since Checo struggles with it.
Yeah McLaren will need superior machinery to beat Max - or luck. We know that Max is prone to being impatient and making stupid moves when he is under pressure, so that could help McLaren over the next few races.