2019 U. S. Grand Prix Free Practice & Qualifying Thread

UnlikeUday · Post by **UnlikeUday** » Mon Oct 28, 2019 1:12 pm

Source - Imgur

Herb · Post by **Herb** » Mon Oct 28, 2019 3:52 pm

Always look forward to this race!

FormulaFun · Post by **FormulaFun** » Mon Oct 28, 2019 5:57 pm

Herb wrote:Always look forward to this race!

Yeah great circuit... If they brought back Malaysia and got rid of bloody Abu Dhabi the last few races of the season would be amazing

M44 · Post by **M44** » Mon Oct 28, 2019 8:55 pm

Surely Ferrari territory this weekend?

j man · Post by **j man** » Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:28 pm

FormulaFun wrote:
Herb wrote:Always look forward to this race!
Yeah great circuit... If they brought back Malaysia and got rid of bloody Abu Dhabi the last few races of the season would be amazing

Austin is one of the best races of the year. That series of corners after the DRS zone is just perfect for wheel-to-wheel racing. It's one of the few circuits where DRS does what it's supposed to do; the straight is short enough that it only gets the attacking driver alongside and then they have to finish the job themselves over the subsequent turns.

Invade · Post by **Invade** » Mon Oct 28, 2019 11:07 pm

M44 wrote:Surely Ferrari territory this weekend?

I'll take Mercedes and Hamilton.

Mort Canard · Post by **Mort Canard** » Mon Oct 28, 2019 11:50 pm

M44 wrote:Surely Ferrari territory this weekend?

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVMib1T4T4

DFWdude · Post by **DFWdude** » Tue Oct 29, 2019 12:01 am

I checked the ESPN Stats... Hamilton has won every year at COTA since its 2012 inception, save 2013 (Vettel). That's 6 of 7 races. No reason to expect anything else in 2019.

Johnson · Post by **Johnson** » Tue Oct 29, 2019 12:22 am

Kimi won last year

Ja'a · Post by **Ja'a** » Tue Oct 29, 2019 5:22 am

DFWdude wrote:I checked the ESPN Stats... Hamilton has won every year at COTA since its 2012 inception, save 2013 (Vettel). That's 6 of 7 races. No reason to expect anything else in 2019.

Wrong.. don't u remember "f**cking finally" last year?

DFWdude · Post by **DFWdude** » Tue Oct 29, 2019 11:44 am

Johnson wrote:Kimi won last year

I stand corrected. So it's 5/7 for Hamilton, then. HAM clearly enjoys this track.

M44 · Post by **M44** » Tue Oct 29, 2019 7:21 pm

Invade wrote:
M44 wrote:Surely Ferrari territory this weekend?
I'll take Mercedes and Hamilton.

I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.

I feel the pit-straight and long back straight will be pure Ferrari territory.

As a Lewis fan, I am willing to be pleasantly surprised

Exediron · Post by **Exediron** » Tue Oct 29, 2019 7:30 pm

M44 wrote:I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.

Yeah, but what I do see is Ferrari throwing away a front-row lockout due to strategy.

Mort Canard · Post by **Mort Canard** » Wed Oct 30, 2019 12:42 am

M44 wrote:
Invade wrote:
M44 wrote:Surely Ferrari territory this weekend?
I'll take Mercedes and Hamilton.
I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.

I feel the pit-straight and long back straight will be pure Ferrari territory.

As a Lewis fan, I am willing to be pleasantly surprised

There are also a lot of slow to medium speed corners where the Merc does well.

The wide open entrance to turn one also means that there is above average opportunity for overtaking on track.

Ferrari will be strong, but I am not ready to concede the weekend to Team Red yet.

M44 · Post by **M44** » Wed Oct 30, 2019 8:00 am

Exediron wrote:
M44 wrote:I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.
Yeah, but what I do see is Ferrari throwing away a front-row lockout due to strategy.

How cynical

Or realistic?

mikeyg123 · Post by **mikeyg123** » Wed Oct 30, 2019 8:55 am

Mort Canard wrote:
M44 wrote:
Invade wrote:
M44 wrote:Surely Ferrari territory this weekend?
I'll take Mercedes and Hamilton.
I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.

I feel the pit-straight and long back straight will be pure Ferrari territory.

As a Lewis fan, I am willing to be pleasantly surprised
There are also a lot of slow to medium speed corners where the Merc does well.

The wide open entrance to turn one also means that there is above average opportunity for overtaking on track.

Ferrari will be strong, but I am not ready to concede the weekend to Team Red yet.

I think it will be extremely difficult for the front runners to overtake at this circuit with the cars the way they are. I think anyone following will lose so much time through sector 1 and 3 that nobody will get close enough to attempt an overtake.

kleefton · Post by **kleefton** » Wed Oct 30, 2019 4:42 pm

mikeyg123 wrote:
Mort Canard wrote:
M44 wrote:
Invade wrote:
M44 wrote:Surely Ferrari territory this weekend?
I'll take Mercedes and Hamilton.
I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.

I feel the pit-straight and long back straight will be pure Ferrari territory.

As a Lewis fan, I am willing to be pleasantly surprised
There are also a lot of slow to medium speed corners where the Merc does well.

The wide open entrance to turn one also means that there is above average opportunity for overtaking on track.

Ferrari will be strong, but I am not ready to concede the weekend to Team Red yet.
I think it will be extremely difficult for the front runners to overtake at this circuit with the cars the way they are. I think anyone following will lose so much time through sector 1 and 3 that nobody will get close enough to attempt an overtake.

It won't. This is a track that actually promotes overtaking. With the track as wide as it is, multiple racing lines are possible so dirty air is not that big of an issue here. Merc will still have trouble overtaking the Ferrari in the long straight of course, but there are plenty of other places where a talented overtaker can do some damage. I'd say watch out for Verstappen in this race. Hamilton on the other hand will not take any chances I feel, but he just loves it here so you can never count him out. The circuit also punishes the tires and usually it's at least a two stopper. Should be a great show.

I am a big fan of the circuit. I think it could use some more grass or gravel instead of all those runoff areas but otherwise, this is one of the best circuits on the calendar.

mikeyg123 · Post by **mikeyg123** » Wed Oct 30, 2019 4:46 pm

kleefton wrote:
mikeyg123 wrote:
Mort Canard wrote:
M44 wrote:
Invade wrote:
I'll take Mercedes and Hamilton.
I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.

I feel the pit-straight and long back straight will be pure Ferrari territory.

As a Lewis fan, I am willing to be pleasantly surprised
There are also a lot of slow to medium speed corners where the Merc does well.

The wide open entrance to turn one also means that there is above average opportunity for overtaking on track.

Ferrari will be strong, but I am not ready to concede the weekend to Team Red yet.
I think it will be extremely difficult for the front runners to overtake at this circuit with the cars the way they are. I think anyone following will lose so much time through sector 1 and 3 that nobody will get close enough to attempt an overtake.
It won't. This is a track that actually promotes overtaking. With the track as wide as it is, multiple racing lines are possible so dirty air is not that big of an issue here. Merc will still have trouble overtaking the Ferrari in the long straight of course, but there are plenty of other places where a talented overtaker can do some damage. I'd say watch out for Verstappen in this race. Hamilton on the other hand will not take any chances I feel, but he just loves it here so you can never count him out. The circuit also punishes the tires and usually it's at least a two stopper. Should be a great show.

I am a big fan of the circuit. I think it could use some more grass or gravel instead of all those runoff areas but otherwise, this is one of the best circuits on the calendar.

The problem is unless they can get much closer than normal then it doesn't matter how wide or or how many racing lines the track has. With this years cars the layout will be a nightmare for dirty air.

I hope I'm wrong.

WHoff78 · Post by **WHoff78** » Wed Oct 30, 2019 6:38 pm

Hamilton may actually decide he can afford to take chances. His main priority is of course the WDC, but if he is racing the Ferraris or anyone other than Valtteri for the win, then chance is are that Bottas will drop at least 7-points anyway. May free him up to take a little more risk and try and wrap it up in style. He may as well push on for race wins now!

TheGiantHogweed · Post by **TheGiantHogweed** » Wed Oct 30, 2019 6:58 pm

I do wonder how mercedes have managed to have such good reliability this season. When has there been a year without some technical retirement for either of their cars? I suppose hamilton didn't have any in 2017, but Bottas did in spain. They both did in austria last year. But this is the only thing that could easily delay Hamilton's WDC. But I don't see it being likely. But if both cars can do a full season without a single technical retirement, that is pretty impressive.

Mort Canard · Post by **Mort Canard** » Thu Oct 31, 2019 12:53 pm

TheGiantHogweed wrote:I do wonder how mercedes have managed to have such good reliability this season. When has there been a year without some technical retirement for either of their cars? I suppose hamilton didn't have any in 2017, but Bottas did in spain. They both did in austria last year. But this is the only thing that could easily delay Hamilton's WDC. But I don't see it being likely. But if both cars can do a full season without a single technical retirement, that is pretty impressive.

Leclerc has not had a retirement that was the fault of the car. IIRC he did have a power loss in Bahrain but was still able to finish the race in the points. Sebastian Vettel had one mechanical failure in Sochi. So Ferrari has also had a remarkably consistent year for mechanical reliability.

Max's two retirements have been due to accidents so he has had no mechanical retirements. The second RBR (Gasly, Albon) has one. Gasly had problems with a drive shaft in Azerbaijan.

All in all, it's been a remarkably trouble free season for the big three teams as far as mechanical problems.

I have to wonder where McLaren would be if they had been the beneficiary of similar mechanical reliability.

I hope they can get their problems turned around.

Exediron · Post by **Exediron** » Thu Oct 31, 2019 2:14 pm

WHoff78 wrote:Hamilton may actually decide he can afford to take chances. His main priority is of course the WDC, but if he is racing the Ferraris or anyone other than Valtteri for the win, then chance is are that Bottas will drop at least 7-points anyway. May free him up to take a little more risk and try and wrap it up in style. He may as well push on for race wins now!

It's not even that.

Bottas can only prolong the title battle with a win AND Hamilton finishing lower than 8th place.
If Hamilton finishes in eighth place -- irrespective of where Bottas finishes -- he is WDC. If Bottas doesn't win -- irrespective of where Hamilton finishes -- Hamilton is WDC.

If Lewis is fighting Valtteri for the win he's already won. The last thing he'd want to do is DNF and fulfill the only scenario where he doesn't clinch the title at COTA. After 2007, I expect Hamilton to play it safe until the title is actually sealed.

shoot999 · Post by **shoot999** » Thu Oct 31, 2019 4:04 pm

The announcements, regulations etc from FIA and Liberty live on youtube now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JddVHu ... OXFEzK%3A6

Mort Canard · Post by **Mort Canard** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 2:54 am

Exediron wrote:
WHoff78 wrote:Hamilton may actually decide he can afford to take chances. His main priority is of course the WDC, but if he is racing the Ferraris or anyone other than Valtteri for the win, then chance is are that Bottas will drop at least 7-points anyway. May free him up to take a little more risk and try and wrap it up in style. He may as well push on for race wins now!
It's not even that.

Bottas can only prolong the title battle with a win AND Hamilton finishing lower than 8th place.
If Hamilton finishes in eighth place -- irrespective of where Bottas finishes -- he is WDC. If Bottas doesn't win -- irrespective of where Hamilton finishes -- Hamilton is WDC.

If Lewis is fighting Valtteri for the win he's already won. The last thing he'd want to do is DNF and fulfill the only scenario where he doesn't clinch the title at COTA. After 2007, I expect Hamilton to play it safe until the title is actually sealed.

Mort Canard · Post by **Mort Canard** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 3:03 am

Interesting graph I found.

Source: https://i.redd.it/dqtak32bf4301.jpg

I am assuming this is on track overtakes but it may not be. Austin is not the circuit with the most overtakes but it looks to be more than average.

I guess I should not be surprised that Brazil has a very large number of overtakes.

Mercedes-Benz · Post by **Mercedes-Benz** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 5:37 am

I think RBR are going to be strong. It should be close between top3 teams.

JN23 · Post by **JN23** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 7:17 am

Mort Canard wrote:Interesting graph I found.

Source: https://i.redd.it/dqtak32bf4301.jpg

I am assuming this is on track overtakes but it may not be. Austin is not the circuit with the most overtakes but it looks to be more than average.

I guess I should not be surprised that Brazil has a very large number of overtakes.

Brazil in 2016 was wet and in 2017 Hamilton and a Ricciardo started out of position which probably artificially increases the number of overtakes.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 2:23 pm

Exediron wrote:
M44 wrote:I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.
Yeah, but what I do see is Ferrari throwing away a front-row lockout due to strategy.

Ooohhhhh NO, not again

kleefton · Post by **kleefton** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 5:26 pm

Hamilton and Merc are just pounding so many laps on that test compound, perhaps ensuring a healthy head start for next year...

JN23 · Post by **JN23** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 5:32 pm

kleefton wrote:Hamilton and Merc are just pounding so many laps on that test compound, perhaps ensuring a healthy head start for next year...

Ah does that explain why they’re so low down?

F1_Ernie · Post by **F1_Ernie** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 5:35 pm

Doesn't get much better than listening to Crofty talk about burgers

Invade · Post by **Invade** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 5:36 pm

JN23 wrote:
kleefton wrote:Hamilton and Merc are just pounding so many laps on that test compound, perhaps ensuring a healthy head start for next year...
Ah does that explain why they’re so low down?

It's at least a significant part of the reason. Hamilton ran the 2020 test compound for almost the entire session.

M44 · Post by **M44** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 5:36 pm

Its bumpy as hell out there.

UnlikeUday · Post by **UnlikeUday** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 5:38 pm

FP1 done:

Source - https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EITefP-XsAE ... ame=medium

shoot999 · Post by **shoot999** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 6:30 pm

JN23 wrote:
kleefton wrote:Hamilton and Merc are just pounding so many laps on that test compound, perhaps ensuring a healthy head start for next year...
Ah does that explain why they’re so low down?

Yes, although Croft was spending so much time talking about food and de Resta so keen to rubbish what Hamilton was doing that they failed to notice what the Mercs were actually doing. Davidson finally pointed it out to them with 6 minutes to go. Although to be fair to croft and de resta they couldnt have spent much more than 20 minutes in total talking about what was happening in FP1.

JN23 · Post by **JN23** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 9:42 pm

shoot999 wrote:
JN23 wrote:
kleefton wrote:Hamilton and Merc are just pounding so many laps on that test compound, perhaps ensuring a healthy head start for next year...
Ah does that explain why they’re so low down?
Yes, although Croft was spending so much time talking about food and de Resta so keen to rubbish what Hamilton was doing that they failed to notice what the Mercs were actually doing. Davidson finally pointed it out to them with 6 minutes to go. Although to be fair to croft and de resta they couldnt have spent much more than 20 minutes in total talking about what was happening in FP1.

To be fair is there 20 minutes worth of stuff to talk about in an FP1 session?

JN23 · Post by **JN23** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 10:21 pm

Just seen Hamilton’s lap and he got a really good tow on the main straight. I wonder if that will affect anyone’s thinking for quali

BMWSauber84 · Post by **BMWSauber84** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 10:22 pm

Looking at Ferrari's long run pace, they need to commit to a competitive two stop strategy I think. Soft-medium-medium if possible.

Mort Canard · Post by **Mort Canard** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 10:26 pm

JN23 wrote:
Mort Canard wrote:Interesting graph I found.

Source: https://i.redd.it/dqtak32bf4301.jpg

I am assuming this is on track overtakes but it may not be. Austin is not the circuit with the most overtakes but it looks to be more than average.

I guess I should not be surprised that Brazil has a very large number of overtakes.
Brazil in 2016 was wet and in 2017 Hamilton and a Ricciardo started out of position which probably artificially increases the number of overtakes.

wolfticket · Post by **wolfticket** » Sat Nov 02, 2019 1:28 am

People will complain that it's harsh, but since they worked on the car after missing the weighbridge it is unfortunately an absolutely black-and-white thing in the rules. The basic principal that for rules to be effective missing a test has to be treated similarly to failing a test is a common one.