Driver’s Thoughts Before Grand Prix of the Americas

Drivers from the 2023 United States Grand Prix met with reporters on Thursday to share their thoughts from the last race in Qatar, and the implications for Austin.  Here the highlights. 

Logan Sargeant, a rookie on the Williams team and the only American driver in the field,  may be new to F1 but not the Circuit of the Americas. Sargeant tackled the track in the 2021 Driver Academy and the 2023 Grand Prix of the Americas FP1.  The exposure may help Sargeant, especially in the sprint race. 

“I think it’s definitely going to help, considering the sprint,” said Sargeant.  “It’s quite a tricky track to get to grips with for sure, sector one in particular, but I think having that knowledge from last year is going to help.”

Sargeant should enjoy that help, as he is one of three Drivers without a point in the Drivers competition. 

“I mean, that’s the goal (to win points)”, he said. 

Weather conditions in Austin are expected to set record-breaking high temperatures, drawing comparisons to the Qatar race, which ran on October 8th. 

The comparison prompted Lance Stoll of the Aston Martin team to say, “my ass was on fire. I think all of all of ours were!”

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz could not start the race in Qatar because of equipment problems. 

When asked if he had concerns about the reliability of his equipment he said, “no, we’ve changed a lot of parts in the car to try and obviously correct the issue that affected us in Qatar. We are trying also to find solutions in the long term, not only in the short term because it’s definitely something that we are not happy.”    

Valtteri Bottas finished eighth in Qatar, earning much needed points for Alfa Romeo. 

“Much needed,” said Bottas.  “We proved for everyone in the team, yes, we can do it. If we get everything right, we can score.”

Lando Norris of the McLaren team has earned three consecutive podium positions, but he’s not confident that the performance will extend to COTA. 

“Just a lot more slow speed corners, which is not our strength. I think it’s tough when you look at it,” Norris said.   “I’m not saying it’s going to be a bad weekend. I think we can still fight. It’s just going to be a much bigger fight, I think.” 

Alpha Tauri’s Daniel Ricciardo rejoins the competition after missing five races due to a broken hand. 

Commenting on the recuperation, Ricciardo said, “I would say, tougher than I thought.” He went on to say, “the break was a lot worse than it first seemed. So, I think that’s what took a lot longer for the recovery, and probably made it a little more painful for myself.” 

Lewis Hamilton enters Austin coming off one of his worse performances.  The Mercedes driver did not finish, his first non-point scoring race. 

Reflecting on that, Hamilton said, “the great thing about our sport is that there’s always another day to get back on the horse and just been pushing, moving forwards and nothing I can do about the past. There’s definitely things we can learn from, I can learn from, which I have, and just now focused on getting back in and excited for these next races that come.” 

Kevin Magnussen enters this weekend’s race with an upgraded package from Haas. 

“It’s nice to see the upgrade on the car, finally. We haven’t had many upgrades to the car this year. It’s been a tough year in terms of just finding performance,” said Magnussen.  “ I think this upgrade is an exciting one, because it’s very different. On paper, it’s not actually meant to be more downforce as such, but it’s a new concept.” 

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc expects the team to do better in Austin than Qatar. 

“Qatar was probably one of the worst tracks for us, for the conditions, but also for the track characteristics in itself,” said Leclerc.  “Having said that, I think on Sprint weekends, the thing that has the most influence is how your FP1 goes, because then from FP1 you cannot change the car anymore. So the priority is to start FP1 strongly, and then to take the right decision with the set-up.” 

Max Verstappen enter the race having secured the 2023 Driver’s Championship, and Red Bull the Constructor’s Championship.  He also enters COTA having won the last two races.  A win on Sunday would be his 50th career win. 

Reflecting on the pending accomplishment Verstappen said, “It’s a nice number that I never thought I would hit. But now that we are getting close to it, I mean, we want to, of course, try and expand a little bit more.  I mean, it’s more important that we just focus on the weekend, not on the number.”