After starting from the rear of the field, Sebastian Vettel recovered to 10th and scored a point for Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team in the 2021 United States Grand Prix. Lance Stroll was tipped into a spin at Turn One on the opening lap, but the Canadian rebounded to finish in 12th.
We only scored one point today and we had to fight hard.
Sebastian's review
"We only scored one point today and we had to fight hard. It was a good recovery after the grid penalty yesterday and when we were in clean air the pace was good. As we expected, it was a difficult race for everybody trying to manage the tyres with the hot track temperatures. I was happy when everybody pitted quite early because we knew we would have a chance by running longer. It gave us fresher tyres at the end, when it mattered, so we could move up into the top 10. It was a good strategy by the team. With a couple more laps, we would have caught [Yuki] Tsunoda, but, from where we started, I think scoring a point is a good result."
It's a race to forget, and we will move on and look to come back stronger in Mexico.”
Lance's review
"It was not our weekend. After yesterday's qualifying, where we were affected by the yellow flags, I was hit at Turn One on the very first lap today. The contact dropped me to the back of the field and I picked up a significant amount of damage on the front wing. It cost us some performance, but we still managed to fight our way up the field. However, points were just out of reach in the end. It is a race to forget, and we will move on and look to come back stronger in Mexico."
Our strategists made the right call to go for comparatively late first pitstops and we maximised all the opportunities available.
Otmar's review
"Lance was the innocent victim of a clumsy lunge by [Nicolas] Latifi at Turn One on the opening lap, which relegated him to P19 and caused damage to his front wing. From there, although he passed both the Haas cars on lap two, he was never going to be able to recover to a points-scoring position; he did his best and ended up 12th. Sebastian got off to a clean start and was running 12th, just ahead of Lance, for much of the last third of the race. On lap 52 he passed [Antonio] Giovinazzi for 11th, a well executed move, and that became 10th on the next lap when Kimi [Räikkönen] ran wide ahead of him. A solitary World Championship point was scant reward for a fine drive, but our strategists made the right call to go for comparatively late first pitstops and we maximised all the opportunities available to us."
In review
Maria, USA
Though she's only been an F1 fan for a short while, Maria is as passionate as they come. This is Maria's story, in her own words.
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Future Makers
Guide to Austin
Featuring high-speed sections, technical corners and overtaking opportunities, the Circuit of the Americas is one of Formula One's most popular modern venues. Analysing recent car performance and historic data, our Title Sponsor Cognizant presents the challenges expected in the United States Grand Prix.
Cognizant's Keys to the Race
Designed to evoke the majesty of corners such as Maggotts and Becketts and Istanbul's Turn Eight, there are many highlights across a lap of the Circuit of the Americas. Our official Cyber Security Partner SentinelOne presents the key challenges behind a lap of Austin.
Unlocking the lap
Blasting along the start/finish line at 300km/h (186mph), drivers are met with the first key moment of the lap: an incline to Turn One that's steeper than Spa’s Eau Rouge/Raidillon.
Braking starts while driving uphill, and the entry is largely blind, meaning it's easy to lock-up. The sharp-left corner then tightens, offering multiple points of attack and defence, but the narrowing exit can be a flashpoint in the race.
Next up is the slaloming high-speed run through Turns Two to Six, which is inspired by the Maggotts-Becketts-Chapel complex at Silverstone, taken at an average of roughly 260km/h (162mph). Entry speed, finding the flow, and throttle precision are key to this section.
Turns Seven and Eight are modelled on Interlagos's Senna Esses, and Turn Nine ends the quick-fire right-left transitions.
Unlocking the lap
The circuit begins to open up when drivers reach the elevation change of Turn 10, which is followed by a hairpin and then the longest straight on the circuit at 1,016 metres. It’s one of the best overtaking spots on the lap, and boosted with DRS ahead of a hard braking zone conducive to passing.
The slower and technical Turns 13 to 15 evoke Hockenheim's Stadium Section. It begins with a hard-braking point, with speeds dropping to as low as 97km/h (60mph).
Turns 16 to 18 are modelled on Istanbul's Turn Eight. It’s a sweeping multi-apex corner where any errors are compounded in lap time due to the length of the corner.
Turn 19 is the last challenge of the lap, where running wide is often punished with lap time deletions or in-race warnings, before the final corner brings the drivers back onto the start/finish line to end the lap.
From sweeping elevation changes to quickfire changes of direction, the Circuit of the Americas packs a punch. Global Partner NetApp delves into the United States Grand Prix archives to bring you the best stats and facts from Austin.
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