Circuit of The Americas is offering to buy back United States Grand Prix general admission tickets purchased by “early bird” pass holders at more than face value as it prepares to announce its music acts. The “early bird” GA sales period saw tickets …
Circuit of The Americas is offering to buy back United States Grand Prix general admission tickets purchased by “early bird” pass holders at more than face value as it prepares to announce its music acts.
The “early bird” GA sales period saw tickets sold at $299, but COTA will offer to buy back those tickets at $350 over the coming weeks, with the concert lineup set to be confirmed on April 29. COTA chairman Bobby Epstein says the aim of the initiative is to allow more than 10,000 fans a chance to cash in if they are unable to attend the race or simply want to make a profit on their earlier commitment.
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“We know that when we announce our performers for this year’s grand prix weekend that those tickets are going to be worth well more than they paid,” Epstein said. “We think that’s an unusual thing.
“But it continues to be about delivering a spectacular event that pleases racing fans and music lovers and campers and basically anyone who looks forward to sharing time with friends or family at a non-stop, something-for-everybody, fun environment. That’s what we always try and do and I think we’re going to do it better than ever this year.”
The buy-back period will run from now until May 6, meaning fans can make a choice about whether to sell their tickets after the concerts are announced at the end of April. Epstein acknowledges that could lead to COTA being bypassed in search of even higher resale prices, but says the initiative guarantees fans a profit if they want it.
“I think they’ll be able to do that, but you usually go through a reseller and they charge a commission and I don’t know where that really winds up,” he said. “But we clearly want to buy them back because we think we’re going to be able to sell them higher.
“We don’t have a reseller’s fee, but that is the point — we’ll make it easy. I don’t think many people will take us up on it but I think it makes a strong statement for us.”
Epstein says the offer shows just how highly he rates the quality of music act that will be performing at the track just outside Austin later this year.
“We’re going to put a limited amount of tickets on sale again after the music announcement at a little bit of a higher price. Still below where we went out with GA tickets last year, so we do want to show there’s value in our tickets and we will do that in a number of different ways.
“No clues, but we did a lot. Taylor Swift was the first we did that with and we’ve had a lot of superstars since — whether it’s Bruno Mars, or Pink, or Billy Joel, there are a lot of big names — but I think this is going to be perhaps the biggest since the Taylor Swift announcement. Well, this will be.”
The Haas request for a right to review the results of the United States Grand Prix due to track limits violations has been dismissed by the stewards. The petition was lodged over the weekend in Interlagos and focused on the stewards’ decision to …
The Haas request for a right to review the results of the United States Grand Prix due to track limits violations has been dismissed by the stewards.
The petition was lodged over the weekend in Interlagos and focused on the stewards’ decision to take no further action over Alex Albon potentially exceeding track limits at Circuit of The Americas, despite an investigation at the time. Haas was also wanting a review of the final classification due to a number of other instances it had spotted, including by Logan Sargeant, Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll. All related to the drivers leaving the track at Turn 6 on multiple occasions, with Williams, Red Bull and Aston Martin part of the hearing as a result.
However, with Haas only basing its petition on the on-board footage from each of the cars involved — Albon, Sargeant, Perez and Stroll — the stewards dismissed its request, determining that the footage is not new and was available to Haas at the time.
Explaining why the footage was not accepted at the time to punish Albon, the stewards explained that it’s due to the need for consistent camera angles for all competitors at all times.
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“Track limit infringements are almost universally enforced based on principal video evidence from a fixed CCTV camera of adequate resolution positioned to clearly see a car’s position in relation to the track limit boundary,” the stewards’ decision read. “The CCTV camera for Turn 6 did not meet that standard as it did not cover the apex of the corner.
“Because onboard cameras are only useful for verifying a breach when viewing a car in front of the camera car and not the camera car itself, the stewards believed they could not accurately and consistently conclude whether a breach occurred for every car on every lap.
“Anecdotal usage of trailing car video, which may or may not be available for any given car’s potential breach at any given time does not meet that accurate and consistent evidence standard.”
Haas’ request to revisit the final classification based on potential other breaches was also dismissed as the on-board footage was available at the time, and because that can only be dealt with by protesting the lack of decisions made at the time, rather than requesting a right of review.
“The stewards reaffirm that a petition to review the final classification must concern the classification itself,” the stewards’ announcement stated. “It is not possible to exercise the right of review on the final classification to question decisions taken prior to it. This also applies to incidents for which no ruling was made during an event.”
Despite dismissing the case, the stewards noted that the fact there was evidence of so many potential unpunished breaches at Turn 6 highlights the need for the FIA to make improvements, requesting better solutions are found by the start of the 2024 season.
“Given that, notwithstanding the formal outcome of this decision, the stewards have seen individual pieces of evidence that show what appear to be potential track limit breaches at the apex of Turn 6, they find their inability to properly enforce the current standard for track limits for all competitors completely unsatisfactory and therefore strongly recommend to all concerned that a solution to prevent further reoccurrences of this widespread problem be rapidly deployed.”
Haas will have the chance to have its right of review into the results of the United States Grand Prix heard on Wednesday, with Red Bull, Aston Martin and Williams all involved. Guenther Steiner’s team lodged its petition for a right of review over …
Haas will have the chance to have its right of review into the results of the United States Grand Prix heard on Wednesday, with Red Bull, Aston Martin and Williams all involved.
Guenther Steiner’s team lodged its petition for a right of review over the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend, with RACER understanding the matter relates to track limits violations and the way they were policed. The FIA has now set a hearing for 1500 CET (0900 ET) on Wednesday, when it will hold a virtual meeting to discuss whether Haas has found a significant and relevant new element that was not available to the stewards at the time the decision was made.
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Three other teams have been summoned as part of that hearing, with Red Bull, Aston Martin, and Williams all named. The Williams connection is obvious, with the petition citing the document that outlined the stewards’ decision not to give Alex Albon a further penalty for exceeding track limits at Turn 6 in Austin.
“Based on the video footage available (which did not include CCTV), the stewards determine, whilst there might be some indication for possible track limit infringements in Turn 6, the evidence at hand is not sufficient to accurately and consistently conclude that any breaches occurred and therefore take no further action,” the decision read.
Albon finished ninth after already receiving a five-second time penalty, but would have been given a second penalty for that infringement had the stewards decided a breach had occurred. The Williams driver was classified under five seconds ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in 11th.
Another team had previously flagged Sergio Perez exceeding track limits at Turn 6 but without taking the matter further, while from an Aston Martin perspective, Lance Stroll was classified seventh.
Should Haas be able to convince the FIA that there is a significant and relevant new element, then that will lead to a further hearing that will be convened in due course.
Logan Sargeant was told about his first point in Formula 1 on a plane home from the United States Grand Prix to Florida, but while obviously delighted the young American is more focused on building momentum from a strong performance. Lewis Hamilton …
Logan Sargeant was told about his first point in Formula 1 on a plane home from the United States Grand Prix to Florida, but while obviously delighted the young American is more focused on building momentum from a strong performance.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s disqualifications post-race promoted Sargeant from 12th to 10th in the final classification, earning him the first point of his F1 career. The Williams driver was also just a matter of seconds behind teammate Alex Albon across the line after a strong performance, and he says the consistent pace he showed was more encouraging than the end result.
“I was halfway through my trip from Austin to Florida, going home to see the family for a couple of days,” Sargeant said. “James (Vowles, team principal) called me. I sort of already had a sense as someone had texted me earlier saying they’d had a hearing about it or whatever, but middle of the sky, on my way home.
“I think to be honest it was more just cherry on top to a really good Sunday, so I was already very happy with the race we’d just had. I felt I’d performed very well, and for me to get my first point, and for the team to get three at this point of the championship was obviously a nice little bonus to walk away from a good Sunday.
“Obviously everyone’s excited, happy, I’m still at the point where I want to do it crossing the line in the top 10, but still it was a very nice bonus to what was already a really good Sunday. I’m sure everyone was happy to get that out of the way and move forward from that, it’s very much a momentum sport, so to try and use that to go on and keep progressing forward.”
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Sargeant says he is starting to see the benefit of the experience he is gaining this year, having avoided the sort of error that has overshadowed former strong showings.
“I was quite happy with how Friday went at COTA — bar the fact I didn’t get a clean lap together in qualifying — but the fact I was able to find the pace at a sprint weekend at a track I didn’t know well was nice,” he said.
“Not overstepping and making a mistake, it’s all moving in the right direction in that sense, and I think as well there were points in the race where — I made a mistake in Singapore when the tires were degrading and it got to a point in Austin where through the second stint the tires were going and I could feel a sense that I was at risk and was quite vocal to change. I think in the past I wouldn’t have been — I would have just sort of let it catch me out, whereas I knew we needed to get to the last stint, and it’s little things like that that can help you move forward and not make mistakes.
“For sure (experience helps). Just knowing how difficult the car can become to drive when the tires are going off just gave me a sense of, ‘they want me to keep going but now is the time to stop’ — that’s from previous errors.”
Picture the scene: You’ve just been to watch a thrilling race, where any one of three drivers looked to be in with a shout of winning for much of it, and there was uncertainty about the outcome right up until the final lap. Then you’ve made your way …
Picture the scene: You’ve just been to watch a thrilling race, where any one of three drivers looked to be in with a shout of winning for much of it, and there was uncertainty about the outcome right up until the final lap.
Then you’ve made your way onto the grid, watched the podium ceremony surrounded by thousands of others, slowly walked off after a few photos, sat in traffic for a while but still made it downtown to grab some dinner while buzzing about the day you’ve had.
Suddenly you start to overhear strange comments and shouts of annoyance or unusual laughter… And then you’re pretty sure the word “disqualified” was said. You grab your phone and check online and there’s the news.
So it turns out there wasn’t uncertainty about the outcome right up until the final lap — there was uncertainty about the outcome right up until over three and a half hours after the checkered flag had been waved to call off the battle.
It just doesn’t seem right, does it?
Podium ceremonies are a big part of the fan experience at F1 races…which makes their being rendered irrelevant by subsequent revelations all the more of a buzz kill. Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
I’m sure at this point some of you are already busy typing “Do you not know motorsport?! Cars take time to go through technical checks!” And yes, they do. This is not a dig at the FIA, which cannot be expected to check everything on every car within seconds of a race finishing.
In fact, the technical brilliance that is inherent in Formula 1 is something that needs to be protected, but that doesn’t mean the time it took for the result to be changed on Sunday night can’t be looked at and learned from.
In some ways, it’s a tougher challenge than sporting penalties, because of how complex F1 machinery is and the level of detail that needs looking into during post-race scrutineering to ensure that cars are conforming with the technical regulations. But in other ways, it’s much easier.
As we evidenced by the decision that came out from the stewards on Sunday night, there is a zero-tolerance approach to technical breaches.
“The stewards note that the onus is on the competitor to ensure that the car is in compliance with the regulations at all times during an event,” the decision said. “In this particular case, the rear skid in the area defined in the Technical Delegate’s report was outside of the thresholds outlined in Article 3.5.9 e) of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations, which includes a tolerance for wear. Therefore, the standard penalty for a breach of the Technical Regulations is imposed.”
And it’s not as if Mercedes or Ferrari argued that case at all. Mercedes technical director James Allison has since admitted there is embarrassment within the team for such an error that led to it being disqualified as the rules are so clear cut.
“Of course the disqualification is a significant blow,” Allison said. “It’s a miserable feeling. It hurts and everybody here feels it. Everybody is upset, embarrassed to a degree as well because we absolutely don’t like like being on the wrong side of the rules and just lamenting the lost points.
“Austin is a track with a very bumpy surface and therefore you are a bit more vulnerable to bumping the car on the ground. We just simply didn’t take enough margin at the end of Free Practice 1. When we had done our setup we checked the plank and everything all looked fine, untouched after the FP1 running.
“But the results of the race speak for themselves. We were illegal, so clearly, we should have had our car set a little bit higher up to give ourselves a little bit more margin. It’s of course a mistake — it’s an understandable sort of mistake in a sprint weekend where it’s so much harder to get that stuff right, especially on a bumpy track. But a lesson for us in the future to make sure that we take more margin, especially at a track like that with all its bumps.”
The issue I have is that if there are aspects of a car that can be worn during a race and need to be checked in terms of tolerances, and then a certain car — or two in this week’s case — is proven to be the wrong side of the line, why does it still take so long to be decided upon?
A lesson to be learned from an organizational point of view would be to inform teams they will be called immediately during parc ferme checks to discuss what has happened. There was nearly an hour and a half between Mercedes and Ferrari being summoned and the decision to disqualify both cars being published.
In cases like this, it doesn’t need to take that long. It’s obviously not going to be as simple as the FIA dropping everything to handle that specific situation at a certain time but that’s where resource and investment continues to be required. In a week where the governing body increased the maximum fine amount to competitors in F1 to over $1 million — money that is intended for grassroots motorsport — there surely can be other revenue streams found.
The Remote Operations Center (ROC) in Geneva that was established in the aftermath of the Abu Dhabi 2021 debacle has been up and running for more than a year but doesn’t appear to have had a hugely noticeable impact so far. Perhaps those in the ROC could be tasked with hearing from a team representative as quickly as possible when an issue with a car is found, allowing post-race checks to continue uninterrupted but a decision to be made more quickly.
And perhaps more importantly, there’s got to be flexibility when issues occur. Thresholds surely should be in place for when random technical checks produce multiple infringements of the same type, as was the case at COTA.
Four cars were checked across the top four teams — those of Hamilton, Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris — and two of the four were found to be in breach of the regulations. With a 50% hit rate, checking the planks of at least one car from each team should surely become the required follow-up.
The counter argument is everything needs packing up to take to Mexico City, but then we’re in danger of seeing the desire to chase more revenue by constantly adding more races be to the detriment of the actual sporting competition itself. Maybe we’re not quite at that point yet, but that balance needs to be kept in mind.
Austin wasn’t a case of the FIA doing anything wrong — in fact, doing it right by finding discrepancies that then act as deterrents to all teams — but lessons can certainly be learned to ensure fans have a better chance of actually knowing the outcome of a race before they’ve left a track, and teams feel they’ve all been judged equally.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are both at risk of being disqualified from the United States Grand Prix due to excessive wear of their cars’ floor planks. The Mercedes driver had finished a close second to Max Verstappen while Leclerc committed …
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are both at risk of being disqualified from the United States Grand Prix due to excessive wear of their cars’ floor planks.
The Mercedes driver had finished a close second to Max Verstappen while Leclerc committed to a one-stop strategy and faded from pole position to finish sixth, but the pair could lose those results after failing post-race technical checks.
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FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer carried out a physical floor and a plank wear inspection, and noted that the skids in the middle of the plank — that is located in the center of the floor under the car — was not in compliance with the technical regulations on both cars.
The matter has been referred to the stewards, with disqualification the usual penalty for a breach of technical regulations.
Should both cars be disqualified, multiple drivers would be promoted including Logan Sargeant from 12th to 10th for his first point in Formula 1.
Haas and Aston Martin have confirmed both teams will start both cars from the pit lane for today’s United States Grand Prix in order to change setups. Both teams have brought upgrade packages to Circuit of The Americas but Aston Martin’s Fernando …
Haas and Aston Martin have confirmed both teams will start both cars from the pit lane for today’s United States Grand Prix in order to change setups.
Both teams have brought upgrade packages to Circuit of The Americas but Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were eliminated in Q1 on Friday. While Haas fared better, with Kevin Magnussen qualifying 14th and Nico Hulkenberg 16th, both drivers struggled in race trim and slipped backwards in the sprint on Saturday.
Now with a picture of how the heavily updated Haas is behaving, the team has decided to make significant setup changes to both cars to learn more about the developments across a full race distance, rather than repeat Saturday’s issues.
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The same decision has been taken by Aston Martin, but the team will split approaches with Alonso reverting to the Qatar specification of car and Stroll staying with the new spec but making setup changes to ensure both are similarly configured for comparison.
Deputy technical director Eric Blandin says some initial simulation errors were to blame for the team struggling from the start of the weekend.
“In FP1 we [were hindered] because of a mistake on the sim,” Blandin said. “We put too much blanking on the front brakes so they effectively caught fire, that’s why we couldn’t run more than two laps with Lance in the morning and that really put us in the back foot for the whole weekend.
“In FP1 we couldn’t really optimize the setup of the car with the new package. As a consequence, I think the car is far from its optimum setup [for the race] with the new package.
“So we will start both cars from the pit lane, and we are effectively changing the setup. We think there is a lot more performance to come from the car, but we took the pragmatic approach to start both cars with, one with the Qatar spec, and one with the new package.”
The result is Daniel Ricciardo will be promoted to 14th on the grid ahead of Williams pair Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant in 15th and 16th respectively.
Max Verstappen led the sole practice session at the Circuit of The Americas ahead of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton heading into qualifying this afternoon for the United States Grand Prix. The sprint weekend format meant the single hour of free …
Max Verstappen led the sole practice session at the Circuit of The Americas ahead of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton heading into qualifying this afternoon for the United States Grand Prix.
The sprint weekend format meant the single hour of free practice was busy on track, with teams attempting to cram a usual weekend’s 180 minutes of practice into a single session.
All three tire compounds featured over the 60 minutes, but it wasn’t until the final 10 minutes that most drivers switched to soft rubber for qualifying simulation laps just a few hours out from the grid-setting session.
Newly crowned world champion Verstappen rocketed immediately to top spot with a best lap of 1m35.912s. Leclerc came close to matching the time with a lap that began with the fastest first sector of the day, but he lost touch over the final two splits to end up 0.156s off the pace.
Hamilton made it three different constructors in the top three at 0.281s adrift. The Briton was fastest in the middle sector, which is dominated by the long back straight, but shipped time to the leader through the slower corners of the final split.
Sergio Perez was 0.3s slower than teammate Verstappen to finish the session fourth.
The Haas team had a heartening opening session at its home grand prix, with Kevin Magnussen taking his heavily upgraded VF-23 to fifth and 0.56s off the pace. Teammate Nico Hulkenberg was 0.2s further back in ninth.
Sandwiched between them were George Russell, Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.
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Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10 as the lowest-placed driver within a second of the leader, his best lap clocking in at 0.793s down.
American rookie Logan Sargeant finished 11th ahead of Esteban Ocon and AlphaTauri duo Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo.
Lando Norris was the best-placed McLaren in 15th, but neither he nor teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished 19th, used the soft tire in the session. Instead the team’s session highlight was Piastri’s spectacular save from near disaster at Turns 8 and 9 during his medium tire run.
The Australian clipped the tall orange apex curb on the inside of Turn 8, which send him sliding out of control over the curbs at the exit of Turn 9. His car slipped onto the grass, where six big snaps threatened to send him spinning into the barriers, but Piastri managed to keep hold of his machine to rejoin the circuit unscathed.
Alfa Romeo teammates Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas finished 16th and 17th.
Fernando Alonso ranked 18th after both he and Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll suffered brake overheating problems after completing just five laps apiece, just over 10 minutes into the session. Mechanics frantically worked on the front discs and calipers, with the team explaining that both cars were experiencing extremely high front temperatures.
Alonso lost around 25 minutes in pit lane before being sent back out, but Stroll was unable to rejoin, with his left-front corner requiring additional work. It leaves the Canadian last in the order and on the back foot on a weekend comprising only this practice session before qualifying later today.
The organizers of the Las Vegas Grand Prix expect to see an increase in ticket sales off the back of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Austin. Circuit of The Americas welcomed 440,000 people in 2022 and is looking at a similar figure this …
The organizers of the Las Vegas Grand Prix expect to see an increase in ticket sales off the back of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Austin.
Circuit of The Americas welcomed 440,000 people in 2022 and is looking at a similar figure this year, but chairman Bobby Epstein recently admitted to RACER he felt it had been a little slower in selling out due to interest in the inaugural race on the new Las Vegas circuit. For Las Vegas Grand Prix CEO Renee Wilm, each event has a unique selling point but she believes the interest created by Austin’s USGP will lead to further ticket sales for next month’s race.
“I do think there’s a symbiotic effect,” Wilm told RACER. “When you look at the U.S. races, all three are so different. Miami, you have East Coast, you have the glamour, the Latin America theme. Austin, heartland of America, like a big carnival fair mentality, fun cowboy boots. And then you look at Las Vegas, pinnacle of glamour and speed. When you look at all three of those together we’re really, I think, firing on all cylinders here in America.
“So I do think that there will be some additional boost coming out of Austin and it always re-ignites American interest. And we are seeing by and large, the demographics for our buyers and Vegas are largely North America, which I think will probably change going forward.
“The European fan base, I think was a little skeptical of what Vegas would be like in year one. So they’ve hung back in terms of the ticket buying, and we’re seeing most of our demand very strongly out of North America.”
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While Wilm insists interest in the race has “absolutely” remained at a high level, she also says it’s not just ticket prices that can influence people committing to attend the race.
“Hotel rates are still pretty high, which I do think is having a little bit of an impact … I think some people are probably waiting to see if those rates adjust before they they decide where they’re going to stay,” she said. “But, significant interest.
“There’s been a boxing match ended, there are some concerts that are being added for that weekend — our partners are fully aware there’s going to be a lot of people in town who may not have a ticket to sit (at the) track, but they want to be part of what is going to be an epic weekend of Las Vegas.”
Haas, AlphaTauri, Aston Martin and Mercedes all have notable upgrade packages at the United States Grand Prix despite the sprint weekend format. There’s only one practice session for all teams to analyze any new parts, but that hasn’t stopped a …
Haas, AlphaTauri, Aston Martin and Mercedes all have notable upgrade packages at the United States Grand Prix despite the sprint weekend format.
There’s only one practice session for all teams to analyze any new parts, but that hasn’t stopped a whole new car concept being brought by Haas at the start of a tripleheader of race weekends, with the list of updated items consisting of front brake ducts, the floor body, floor edge, sidepod inlets, the engine cover and cooling louvers.
While not as clear visually, AlphaTauri has a similar number of modifications this weekend, with the majority focusing around the floor via a revised floor body, floor edge and floor fences. There’s also a change to the engine cover — with the central bodywork exit tweaks improving cooling — and the rear brake ducts. Perhaps the most notable change from AlphaTauri though relates to the chassis itself, with the team submitting revised surfaces local to the inboard front suspension.
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Aston Martin broke the curfew overnight as it worked on upgrades that include changes to the floor edge in conjunction with the engine cover, diffuser and beam wing to produce increased loading on the floor as an overall package.
As has been the main focal point for most teams during the season, the floor is the only area Mercedes has modified as it tries to understand the direction it is taking for next season. The floor body has a raised leading edge that improves flow to the rear of the car and increases rear downforce, while that is balanced by changes to the forward floor edge flap that is designed to improve forward floor load.
The only other new part submitted for the USGP is a floor edge modification at Alfa Romeo — a continuation of the major upgrade package it brought to Singapore — while Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Alpine and Williams have no updates this weekend.
