Can Ferrari Spoil Red Bull’s Championship Party at the US Grand Prix
F1 is going to the circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas this weekend as the sport returns to the States for the second this season.
Red Bull are looking to put the nail in the coffin when it comes to Ferrari’s title hopes, as they could wrap up the constructer’s championship this weekend.
Charles Leclerc is likely to take a grid penalty which would leave him with a lot of work to do on Sunday.
The Haas team will be looking for a strong result this weekend as it is their second home race of the year.
After wrapping up the driver’s championship in Suzuka with Max Verstappen, Red Bull look to bring home the constructers champion. There three ways Red Bull can take the title, the first of these being either driver winning the race. The second way is that the drivers finish in third and fourth. The final way Red Bull can win the championship is if they outscore Ferrari by 19 points.
It is a tough ask for Ferrari to stop Red Bull from winning the title this weekend. This is even before you factor in that Leclerc is starting from the back of the grid due to engine penalty. Even though the circuit of the Americas is a track were there are some overtaking opportunities its going a long Sunday for Leclerc. There is no doubt that he can get up the grid it is just a question of how far the likes of Verstappen be up the road will.
It is a home race for the Haas team so this means that they would be looking to have a strong performance. They will be hoping to end their drought of points which has seen them in the to 10 since the Austrian Grand Prix in July.
When being ask about if the team is feeling any extra pressure of home race. Haas team principal Gunther Steiner had this to say.
“It’s always great and everybody loves coming to Austin. There’s nothing negative about Austin, it’s all positive. Hopefully we can get a good result as well.”
Austin’s turn one is icon, Kevin Magnussen shares on how to master.
“It’s a pretty unique corner. It becomes very wide towards the apex, you can’t actually see the track as it’s over a crest and it’s super wide. The apex itself is very narrow so it creates opportunities for a lot of different lines. Overtaking there is a big opportunity with it being straight after a DRS zone as well. There aren’t many corners that have that sort of width to it. It’s kind of easy to lock-up towards the apex because you go over that crest but as you hit the brakes, you’re on that hill so you can brake very hard because of that. After Turn 1, you go downhill again into those ‘esses’ and that’s where following becomes a bit tricky so if you’ve got the position, it’s pretty easy to keep it afterwards because of the high-speed corners.”
Mick Schumacher who has been rumoured to be replaced at the end of the year, sets objectives for this weekend.
“Austin is a track we expect to work pretty well for our car. We know that recently things have been difficult and usually we’ve been struck by an unlucky race, or weekend in general. Hopefully we’ll be able to turn it around at our home race and as we have some nice stuff coming up, that will hopefully bring us luck. I’m excited about hopefully scoring points in the States.”
It should be a great race in Texas, let’s see if Red Bull can bring it home