Technical updates: United States Grand Prix

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.

Perez dismisses retirement as ‘the easy route’

Sergio Perez says retiring from Formula 1 would be “the easy route” out of his current struggles at Red Bull and that he will fulfill his contract with the team next year. Rumors surfaced ahead of the United States Grand Prix that Perez was …

Sergio Perez says retiring from Formula 1 would be “the easy route” out of his current struggles at Red Bull and that he will fulfill his contract with the team next year.

Rumors surfaced ahead of the United States Grand Prix that Perez was preparing to announce his retirement in Mexico next week following a tough run of form since finishing second to Max Verstappen in Monza. Perez said the claims are completely false and that he is relishing the challenge of trying to turn results around.

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“There’s nothing I can do, I’m fully focused on my job,” Perez said. “That really sums up my season: a guy says something about me and all of a sudden it becomes true. But I have a contract for next year and I have no reason to not fulfill that contract. I’m going to give my very best to it, I’ve done a commitment but it will not be my final contract in Formula 1.

“It’s not ideal when you go through a difficult period of your career. But I just love the challenge of getting back at it. The easiest thing would be to just walk out of it. But that’s not me, that’s not who I am and I will not give up.

“I have zero doubts about being back to my best level and that is my only target that I have in mind. I don’t even think about retirement or anything like that because that’s just the easy route.”

Asked if he will be with Red Bull in 2024, Perez insisted “100%,” saying he feels he has the full support of the team.

“I’m with Red Bull and I want to stay with Red Bull,” he said. “But obviously it has to work out for both sides… I have a contract and conversations with the team as well. There is no reason for me not to fulfill that contract.”

Perez puts his recent struggles down to setup issues that then spiraled as he searched for a more comfortable configuration.

“I think the last two races in particular, we were just lost,” he said. “I think we are back at it. I had very good days with my engineers, I had the full support of the team and now it’s time to really pull it back.

“Basically, it was important for us to understand where it went so wrong. And once you go into these fast weekends, for example with the sprint event in Qatar, if you don’t have a good set-up, you can easily get lost. And it’s what happened to us. We just got really lost in Qatar.

“But this is how this sport is: you have a good weekend, a bad weekend. We haven’t really been able to get consistency through the year, but there are still five races where things can change for us.

“We cannot have this sort of gap (to Verstappen in future). I think, basically, to go back to the first six races or so and we were fighting with Max. That’s the target, to get back to that level of comfort with the car. My issues have been real and we’ve been struggling with the car a bit and hopefully next year can be a different story, but also these next five races.”

Andretti bid won’t affect USGP interest, says COTA’s Epstein

Circuit of The Americas chairman Bobby Epstein wants to see Andretti join the Formula 1 grid but doesn’t believe it will have an impact on interest around the United States Grand Prix. Andretti Cadillac’s application was approved by the FIA, …

Circuit of The Americas chairman Bobby Epstein wants to see Andretti join the Formula 1 grid but doesn’t believe it will have an impact on interest around the United States Grand Prix.

Andretti Cadillac’s application was approved by the FIA, allowing the team to move onto the next stage of the process with Formula One Management (FOM) to try and discuss commercial terms. As much of the focus has been on the financial impact of adding a new team, race promoters are likely to be asked their opinions on expansion and Epstein says it is only likely to make a major impact on the USGP if Andretti is in a position to win races.

“It doesn’t (change much),” Epstein told RACER. “I’m interested in what sells tickets and a winning U.S. team would help sell tickets. Otherwise, I hope it happens simply because Mario Andretti was very good to us and has been a very good friend of the track. So it’s one on a personal level that I hope it happens, rather than necessarily on a business level.”

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Epstein says the Austin F1 venue doesn’t need Andretti in the sense that the huge fan base that already exists has connected with the current set of teams and drivers regardless of nationality.

“No, you don’t (need an American team). A winning American driver would be fantastic. In the absence of that … I think the rest of it is just some nice to have,” he said. “It doesn’t move the needle for us.”

Michael and Mario Andretti are expected to be present at COTA for part of the United States Grand Prix weekend, but RACER understands no direct discussions with FOM are currently planned.

Mercedes has ‘clear idea’ of where to find 2024 improvements

Mercedes has “a very clear idea” of what it needs to fix with its 2024 Formula 1 car to be competitive against Red Bull next season and the team has been buoyed by the work being made toward achieving it, according to technical director James …

Red Bull’s domination over the past two seasons has come at a time where Mercedes has struggled under new technical regulations, changing its car concept mid-season. Currently second in the constructors’ championship, Mercedes faces competition from Ferrari and more recently McLaren this year, but Allison says the focus on 2024 has enabled the team to identify exactly what it needs to do in order to provide a clear step forward.

“I feel like all of us have got a pretty clear-sighted view of what we want to do with the car,” Allison said. “This championship, while we haven’t made the really impressive progress that say McLaren have, we have nevertheless been charting a path through the season that gives us a very clear idea of what we need to put right. That makes next year very exciting to look forward to — and this period of the year extremely enjoyable.

“Over the years, most of the good cars that I’ve been lucky enough to be around when they’ve happened, the driver gets in it and doesn’t exactly say ‘spend your bonus’ but they more or less do. And unlocking potential is not really something that takes very long if the car is well-born. That will be the aim with this one.”

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As part of its work for next year’s car, Mercedes will introduce an upgraded floor at this weekend’s United States Grand Prix. While Allison says the new floor is likely to have some impact on current performance, it is more focused on longer-term goals.

“We’re bringing a modified floor … and hopefully it will give us a bit of lap time. But it is mostly a useful thing because it’s a bellwether for whether we’re on the right track,” he said. “In lap time terms, it will be small. Useful but don’t expect us to have leapt past Max (Verstappen).”

Racing on TV, October 20-22

All times Eastern; live broadcasts unless noted. Friday, October 20 COTA practice 1 9:15-10:00am COTA practice 1 1:25-2:30pm COTA practice 1 1:25-2:30pm COTA practice 2 2:55-3:35pm COTA qualifying 4:55-6:00pm COTA qualifying 4:55-6:00pm Homestead …

All times Eastern; live broadcasts unless noted.

Friday, October 20

	COTA practice 1	9:15-10:00am
	COTA practice 1	1:25-2:30pm
	COTA practice 1	1:25-2:30pm
	COTA practice 2	2:55-3:35pm
	COTA qualifying	4:55-6:00pm
	COTA qualifying	4:55-6:00pm
	Homestead practice/ qualifying	6:00-7:30pm
	COTA qualifying	6:30-7:10pm
	Indianapolis	7:00-8:30pm (D)
	Indianapolis	8:30- 10:30pm (D)

Saturday, October 21

	Homestead practice/ qualifying	9:00-11:00am
	COTA race 1	10:45-11:20am
	Homestead	11:30am- 12:00pm pre-race 12:00-2:00pm race
	COTA sprint shootout	1:25-2:30pm
	COTA sprint shootout	1:25-2:30pm
	COTA race 1	2:10pm
	Homestead	2:30-3:00pm pre-race 3:00-6:00pm race
	COTA race 2	4:30-5:00pm
	COTA sprint	5:55-6:30pm
	COTA sprint	5:55-6:30pm

Sunday, October 22

	COTA race 2	10:50am
	Road Atlanta	10:30- 11:30am (D)
	COTA race 3	10:40-11:30am
	Road Atlanta	11:30am- 1:30pm (D)
	Australia	1:00-3:30pm (SDD)
	USGP	1:30-3:00pm pre-race 3:00-5:00pm race
	USGP	1:30-3:00pm pre-race 3:00-6:00pm race
	Homestead	2:00-2:30pm pre-race 2:30-6:00pm race
	Indianapolis	2:00-3:30pm (D)

Key: SDD: Same day delay; D = delayed; R = Repeat/Replay

A variety of motor racing is available for streaming on demand at the following sites:

MAVTV.com

MotorTrendOnDemand.com

SRO-america.com
SCCA.com
SpeedSport1.com
Ferrari Challenge
The Trans Am Series airs in 60-minute highlight shows in primetime on the MAVTV Network. For those wishing to tune in live, the entire lineup of SpeedTour events will stream for free on the SpeedTour TV YouTube page. SpeedTour TV will also air non-stop activity on Saturday and Sunday (SVRA, IGT and Trans Am). You can also watch all Trans Am event activity on the Trans Am YouTube page and Facebook page.
All NTT IndyCar Series stream live on Peacock Premium.

Haas to introduce new car concept at USGP

Haas is planning to change the concept of its car at the United States Grand Prix next month as it looks to turnaround its frustrating race pace form. Qualifying has often seen Haas enjoying competitive sessions in the midfield, with Nico Hulkenberg …

Haas is planning to change the concept of its car at the United States Grand Prix next month as it looks to turnaround its frustrating race pace form.

Qualifying has often seen Haas enjoying competitive sessions in the midfield, with Nico Hulkenberg making multiple Q3 appearances this season. But the team has not scored a point since Kevin Magnussen’s 10th place in Miami, and team principal Guenther Steiner says the decision has been made to follow the now widely adopted Red Bull design direction, which will result in the car changing “quite a bit,”

“The concept of the car will change, going in that direction,” Steiner said. “You know you’re limited with the chassis and a few other things, but we’re trying to go to that common downwash shape like everybody else has got.

“The radiators and stuff like this, we cannot change them now — just haven’t got time. Your chassis you can change, but it wouldn’t work out. I don’t think it’s down to Ferrari — their electronic boxes are there, but I wouldn’t blame Ferrari for that one.

“Some of the stuff obviously we need to go close to them (Red Bull) — we could have put it somewhere else if we wanted, but we put it very similar. That concept we are running now asked for the side impact structure to be where it is. I think we got out whatever we could to go to a downwash options — we cannot push it any further.”

Steiner says the decision to make the change was made in July, and driven by the fact the team was struggling to find other gains with its existing car.

“That was our biggest problem with the concept we have now: we couldn’t find any more performance. We developed the whole year and there was nothing there anymore and at some stage you need to decide, ‘We need to do something different here, we cannot keep banging our head against the wall.’

“McLaren changed the system like this and they found something. At some stage you need to say, ‘Hey, we need to change concept, we need to face reality.’”

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The new car won’t be ready until the USGP at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas in October, but Steiner says that the information Haas will get can still then inform next year’s design.

“We’ll always be careful and we cannot be sure as our development time was not long, but you have to take risks,” he said. “Looking to ’24, that is worthwhile to take a risk, and say, ‘Hey, we should have kept it in the wind tunnel to develop it’ (but) let’s do it, find out what it gives, and then at least next year we’re in a better place.”

COTA eyeing 500,000 fan milestone for USGP in 2024

Circuit of The Americas is aiming for half a million fans during a race weekend from next year’s United States Grand Prix, according to circuit boss Bobby Epstein. Last year’s event saw a record 440,000 attendance in Austin, the highest of the …

Circuit of The Americas is aiming for half a million fans during a race weekend from next year’s United States Grand Prix, according to circuit boss Bobby Epstein.

Last year’s event saw a record 440,000 attendance in Austin, the highest of the season as Formula 1’s growing popularity was demonstrated by spectator numbers. At the time Epstein stated that he’d like to see the venue break the 500,000 mark, and while he says it’s not the time to push capacity that high this season, there will be trials taking place to allow it to attempt to do so in 2024.

“I think that comes down to transportation and food service and enough restrooms, and we can solve all of those,” Epstein said. “We really found that our bus shuttle service is working well — we’ll upgrade it this year because we just got a new road before last year’s race. I think with some other enhancements and some tests we’re doing this year both on food service and on transportation we’ll be in a position to do that next year.

“We’ll have to see if the demand is there but we’ll have the capacity, certainly next year, assuming the things that we are trying this year go as well as we hope they will.”

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Epstein says the addition of more races in the United States that are positioned so differently to COTA helps advertise the sport to more fans, but feels F1 has largely become a more accessible sport wherever the events are taking place.

“I think we saw that last year with the massive crowd that came, that was a combination of additional exposure in the U.S. both from the Miami race and from Netflix (with “Drive To Survive”), and from what we’ve done in the past. So I think the other races can work sort of as a commercial and they can be very complimentary to what we’re doing.

“It’s great too see the race on in the spring in Miami in May, because it allows us to just get the attention of the U.S. viewer; but at this point in the world, as global as all of our wired environments are, it’s much easier to follow global sports today than it was even five or 10 years ago. So Miami is complimentary but truly just the ability to follow the sport has become a lot easier in the U.S.”