From a driver perspective

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.

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 quickfire right-left transitions.

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.

DRS Zones

There will be two DRS zones at COTA again this year.

The detection point of the first is 150m after Turn 10, with activation 345m after Turn 11.

The second zone's detection point is 65m after Turn 18, with activation 80m after Turn 20, on the start/finish straight.

Changes for 2021

The track has been resurfaced from the entry of Turn 16 to the entry of Turn 3 and from the entry of Turn 9 to the entry of Turn 12.

New kerbs have been installed in Turn 9 on the right-hand side, in Turn 10 on the left and in Turn 18 on the right side.

New TecPro barriers have been installed in the run-off at Turn 1, in Turn 2 on the left-hand side, in Turns 6 and 8 on the left-hand side, on the right-hand side in Turn 10 and between Turns 13 and 15 on the left-hand side.

The asphalt verges at the apx of Turn 6, Turn 13, Turn 14 and Turn 15 have been shortened to 1.5 metres.

The concrete walls between Turns 11 and 12 on the left side have been realigned.

From a power unit perspective

Just under 60% of the lap is taken at wide open throttle, rising to over 60% in qualifying. The average speed will be a touch over 125 mph (200kph) with top speed peaking at over 200 mph (320kph).

Since gradient changes a lot over one lap, engine speeds and turbo rotation vary constantly, and settings must be constantly adjusted to give optimal performance.

After the first corner the driver goes back up through the gears to reach seventh for turns 2, 3 and 4, which are taken flat out with an average speed of 168 mph (270kph). Similar to Maggots and Becketts at Silverstone and the Esses at Suzuka, the driver needs to be precise on the throttle and carry the speed all the way through rather than brake and accelerate. The power unit needs to be correspondingly smooth throughout the turns, delivering constant levels of torque.

The low ambient humidity of the Texan grasslands has a big effect on the power units. The air will contain more oxygen and the ICE will generate more power, but the aridity is very taxing on the internals. We will watch ignition timing very closely.

Similar to Abu Dhabi, the longest straight is not the pit straight. In Austin it is the burst between turns 11 and 12, which is 1,016m. The car will be at full throttle for almost 12secs. It will also spend over two seconds at maximum velocity at the end of the straight. The driver will brake heavily at the end of the straight for the hairpin so rear-end stability and stability under braking will be crucial.

From a tyre perspective

This year's United States Grand Prix, the first leg of an all-American triple-header also sees changes to the track at COTA (the Circuit of the Americas) as much of it has been resurfaced, completing the work begun two years ago. This includes the sections between turns 9 and 12 and 16 and 3, which thus includes the two longest straights where DRS can be used. The abrasiveness of the track could therefore have changed since last year, given that a new layer of bitumen is usually smoother than an old track surface. This adds to the importance of acquiring as much data as possible during the one and only hour of free practice, early on Friday afternoon as the Sprint format returns for the Austin weekend. Other changes include the use of fake gravel for the run-off areas at some corners, as already seen at other tracks, Zandvoort for example. This has been done to alleviate the controversy that can arise over exceeding track limits, without the problem of real gravel being thrown onto the track. The new surface should also have dealt with the problem of the small bumps that have developed on the racing line at some points over the years, which made life hard for the drivers and upset the car's handling.

The dry weather compounds chosen are the same as those used for the past two editions of the Austin round, namely the C2 as Hard, the C3 as Medium and the C4 as Soft. COTA really does have a bit of everything, partly because the track designed by Hermann Tilke takes its inspiration from some of the most demanding and much loved tracks such as Silverstone and Suzuka (turns 3 to 6), Hockenheim (a sort of Motodrom from 12 to 15) and the section from 16 to 18, which owes something to the never-ending turn 8 at Istanbul's Otopark. However, Austin's stand-out feature is the steep climb off the line to the first corner, which is very wide and therefore sees drivers taking a variety of lines through it, which always makes for spectacular viewing.

In terms of the forces exerted on the tyres, the loads at COTA are fairly evenly distributed between the front and rear axles and are more lateral than vertical. Usually, degradation is thermal and is therefore linked to the ambient temperature which in Texas in October can fluctuate considerably from one day to the next. In terms of strategy, one will need to wait and see how this might be affected by the new surface, keeping in mind that Saturday's Sprint should provide plenty of useful data. In last year's short race, the Medium was chosen by the majority of drivers, although some risked using the Soft, which was then only used in the final stages of the following day's Grand Prix in an attempt to secure the additional point for setting the fastest race lap. Normally, a two-stop has always been the quickest here, especially as a one-stop involves a lot of careful degradation management, to the obvious detriment of performance. In 2023, the most used compound was the C3, which was more effective than the C2 and now it will be interesting to see if the new asphalt could bring the Hard back into play.

Austin is the second of three races this season in the USA, following on from Miami and preceding Las Vegas. It seems that Formula 1 has finally found its way into the psyche of the star-spangled fans, even if there were three races back in 1983, in Long Beach, Detroit and Las Vegas. In fact, the USA sits fourth on the list of countries that have hosted the most races with 77, although that includes 11 Indianapolis 500 races that counted towards the Drivers' World Championship from 1950 to 1960. Heading this list are Great Britain and Germany on 79 apiece and Italy on 107. There have been eleven venues for the USA GP: Austin (11), Dallas (1), Detroit (7), Indianapolis (19), Las Vegas (3), Long Beach (8), Miami (3), Phoenix (3), Riverside (1), Sebring (1) and Watkins Glen (20). An unusual statistic: the two drivers with the most USA Grands Prix will be on track this weekend, as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen both have six wins to their name. As for the teams, here too there are joint leaders, with Ferrari and McLaren both on 13. Will this weekend see a clear leader emerge?

Fast Facts - Provided by Mercedes

• The 2024 US Grand Prix will be the 300th for Mercedes in F1 since the marque returned as a works team at the start of the 2010 season.

• It will also therefore mark the 300th Grand Prix for PETRONAS as our Team Title and Technical Partner.

• COTA is one of nine tracks on the 2024 F1 calendar that is fully anti-clockwise, alongside Jeddah, Miami, Imola, Baku, Singapore, Interlagos, Las Vegas and Yas Marina.

• It is tied with Baku for the second-most corners on any F1 2024 track, with 20, behind Jeddah (27).

• The incline from the starting grid to the apex at Turn One is 134 feet, one of the highest elevation changes on the whole F1 calendar.

• Drivers generate over 5G under braking for Turn 12, one of the biggest of the season - a driver weighing 70kg will experience around 350kg of centrifugal force when they brake.

• No one has more wins at COTA than Lewis Hamilton (5). Lewis also clinched his third (2015) and sixth (2019) F1 titles at the track.

• Mercedes has five wins at COTA - more than any other Constructor. Lewis has four of those, while Valtteri Bottas also has one US GP win, coming in 2019.

• In 2024, COTA will host the fourth of six F1 Sprint races during the 2024 season.