Four full weeks have passed since the last Formula One race in Singapore and after a swing in Asia and a summer stint in Europe, the paddock is finally headed back to the Americas. This week, F1 comes stateside for the United States Grand Prix in Austin.
Always a favorite location for racing fans and drivers alike, the Circuit of the Americas will play host to the most compelling championship battle since 2021, as three-time reigning driver’s champion Max Verstappen leads Lando Norris by just 52 points with six races remaining. The McLaren challenger has taken a noticeable dent out of the gap over the most recent four races since the summer break, but will need a statement this weekend for his chance at a title to become tangible.
Outside of the heavyweight fight at the top, teams are jostling for ever-coveted positioning in the standings and a familiar face will make his return to the grid. Here are the top story lines going into the 2024 U.S. Grand Prix.
How Verstappen, Norris Adjusted Over the Last Four Weeks
It’s been apparent for some time that McLaren has overtaken Red Bull as the best team on the grid this season. Whether or not Norris has done the same to Verstappen is a murkier hypothetical and still one that remains unanswerable going into this weekend.
Coming out of the summer break, Norris finally began to convert on his blistering times in qualifying, headlined by wins in the Netherlands and Singapore. But even with what pretty clearly seems to be an inferior piece of machinery at this point, Verstappen nabbed second in each of those two races, limiting the damage and preventing the McLaren driver from ever feeling like he’d truly applied significant pressure. To top it all off, Daniel Ricciardo’s fastest lap in his possible F1 swan song in Singapore means that Verstappen can finish as the runner up to Norris in every remaining Grand Prix and sprint race and still win a fourth straight drivers’ championship. That doesn’t seem out of the question given the form of each driver over the last four races.
The U.S. Grand Prix is the last true barometer by which to gauge this season’s Red Bull and McLaren cars. Each team has been given four weeks to make their last significant tweaks and bring forth their final consequential upgrades. The majority of teams are expected to do so in Austin, and Red Bull and McLaren will be wary of what the other has done to improve during the time off.
Of course anything can happen on the track when the lights go out, which is what will make the conclusion of this season one of the most entertaining of the last decade.
What About the Rest of the Field?
Ferrari hasn’t been mathematically eliminated from a second or even first place finish in the constructors’ championship, but it’s hard to see a path for the Prancing Horse to steal a title this season. That being said, Charles Leclerc has plenty to play for individually as he leads Oscar Piastri, Norris’s McLaren teammate, by just eight points for third place in the drivers standings.
Leclerc vs. Piastri has delivered a few times in recent races (see: Piastri's daring overtake of Leclerc in Baku) and has been illustrative of just how many compelling story lines exist up and down the grid going into the U.S. Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton will begin his final stretch as a Mercedes driver and trails Carlos Sainz, the man he’s replacing at Ferrari, by just 16 points. Sergio Pérez has been on a horrid run for the last 10 races and may be driving to keep his Red Bull seat next year. RB leads Haas by four points for sixth place in the team standings with six races to go.
This championship race is absolutely worth following, but when the cars take to the track at COTA for Saturday’s sprint and Sunday’s Grand Prix, make sure to keep an eye out for what plays out behind the top two.
Liam Lawson Is Back
A driver change so late in the season isn’t unheard of, but the addition of Lawson at this juncture bears watching for its ramifications beyond this year.
Lawson, 22, made his F1 debut last year in place of an injured Ricciardo and pieced together a number of admirable drives across his five races, including a ninth place finish in Singapore. This season, he’s been waiting in the wings as Red Bull’s reserve driver and will now replace Ricciardo due to performance—and also as an audition for a full-time spot in 2025.
Red Bull has been knocked off of its pedestal this season and the reigning champs came down to earth quickly. Between key staff departures, headlined by chief technical officer and designer Adrian Newey leaving for Aston Martin, and inconsistent performances on the track, Christian Horner is looking for solutions. That begins with settling on the four drivers that will round out the seats across the two teams under Red Bull’s domain.
Lawson and RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda are options for the top team to pair alongside Verstappen, or to hold their seats at RB. But performance down these last six Grands Prix and three sprint races will be weighed heavily.
That starts this weekend for Lawson, who unfortunately will begin his 2024 season with an engine-related grid penalty, Horner said earlier this week. How the 22-year-old manages that adversity will be an indication of what to expect from now until the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Sprint Weekend Brings Added Opportunity
Already alluded to above, the sprint race is back for the first time since Austria in late June. Of course, that sprint and subsequent race in Spielberg proved to be eventful with a surprise George Russell win after a collision between Verstappen and Norris.
There are two main reasons the sprint is something to watch Saturday. Most importantly, it’s an additional opportunity for drivers to pick up points, and as Verstappen and Norris know, every single point will count down the stretch when it comes to the championship. The second reason to keep an eye on the sprint’s impact in Austin is because of the shorter preparation time teams will have to get their cars up to top performance. With only one practice session, and a number of teams bringing upgrades to COTA, there won’t be a lot of time to make adjustments before drivers take to the track for meaningful racing.
Sprints will have an outsized impact down the stretch this season, with two more coming in Brazil and Qatar. That means more high-stakes sessions, which can only be a good thing with a championship battle this tight.
Austin’s American Flair
There’s no denying that the fierce fervor for F1 in the United States dimmed in the latter part of the last two seasons with Verstappen racing away from the field and clinching championships well before the final race weekend. But the passion on display at COTA for the U.S. Grand Prix has been consistent, which means a year with this type of competition could be more raucous than ever.
Drivers and fans will surely be decked out in their most star-spangled attire when the gates open. And Austin will be a hub for sports all weekend long with the No. 1 Texas Longhorns set to host the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs in football on Saturday.
There’s no doubt that the U.S. Grand Prix will serve as a spectacle this weekend, but also the ideal table-setter for a fiery end to the 2024 F1 season.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Max Verstappen, Lando Norris Battle Resumes at U.S. Grand Prix.
