Austin F1 Sprint Preview

This weekend’s US Grand Prix will have the added intrigue of a sprint race. How will this affect the Norris/Verstappen championship fight?

It’s the first sprint race since Austria, and each team’s car developments have changed a lot since then. That weekend Max Verstappen dominated the sprint race on the medium tyres. However, on Sunday, Lando Norris was more competitive on the hard tyres resulting in the two fighting for lead before colliding.

Source: Jure Makovec/Getty Images

With the top four teams so close at the moment and Pirelli tyres very unpredictable, results and pace could change between Saturday and Sunday.

One of the biggest criticisms of the sprint race format was that the pace of the cars for Sunday’s race would be spoilt for Saturday’s sprint race. It reduced the unknown for the actual Grand Prix.

However, as the Austrian weekend proved, that isn’t always the case and may not be for Austin either. As well as different tyre compounds, Pirelli’s tyres are very vulnerable to changes in track temperature.

Source: Dan Istitene/Getty Images

There doesn’t seem to be much of that in the weather forecast for this weekend, but the sprint race starts an hour earlier and finishes two hours earlier than Sunday’s race. Even this could change the order.

McLaren are the team to beat this weekend, but will they be willing to prioritise qualifying on the softs, the sprint race on the mediums, or the actual race on mediums and hards? With only one practice session to find the right set-ups, this may make this weekend one of the most difficult to predict.

One specific detail about Austin is its starting grid. The driver starting from second position usually has an advantage over the one starting from pole and will often take the lead. Watch out for that on both Saturday and Sunday

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