TBK-Light.com

1097th GP
Circuit of the Americas, Austin, TX


Last year's race

In a race plagued by track limits penalties and pit stop mistakes saw a late launch from Verstappen to overtake Hamilton to win again

Season standings
after round 17

DRIVERS
POS   DRIVER   NATIONALITY   CAR   PTS
1   Max Verstappen   NED   RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT   433
2   Sergio Perez   MEX   RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT   224
3   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   MERCEDES   194
4   Fernando Alonso   ESP   ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES   183
5   Carlos Sainz   ESP   FERRARI   153
6   Charles Leclerc   MON   FERRARI   145
7   Lando Norris   GBR   MCLAREN MERCEDES   136
8   George Russell   GBR   MERCEDES   132
9   Oscar Piastri   AUS   MCLAREN MERCEDES   83
10   Lance Stroll   CAN   ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES   47
11   Pierre Gasly   FRA   ALPINE RENAULT   46
12   Esteban Ocon   FRA   ALPINE RENAULT   44
13   Alexander Albon   THA   WILLIAMS MERCEDES   23
14   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   ALFA ROMEO FERRARI   10
15   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   HAAS FERRARI   9
16   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   ALFA ROMEO FERRARI   6
17   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT   3
18   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   HAAS FERRARI   3
19   Liam Lawson   NZL   ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT   2
20   Logan Sargeant   USA   WILLIAMS MERCEDES   0
21   Nyck De Vries   NED   ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT   0
22   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT   0

CONSTRUCTORS
POS   TEAM   PTS
1   RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT   657
2   MERCEDES   326
3   FERRARI   298
4   ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES   230
5   MCLAREN MERCEDES   219
6   ALPINE RENAULT   90
7   WILLIAMS MERCEDES   23
8   ALFA ROMEO FERRARI   16
9   HAAS FERRARI   12
10   ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT   5

Timetables
all times are local (GMT-5)

FRIDAY 20th OCTOBER      Local time
F1 Academy   First Practice Session   08:15 - 08:55
Porsche Carrera Cup North America   Practice Session   09:20 - 09:50
Masters Historic   Practice Session   10:15 - 10:45
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Track Tour   11:00 - 11:30
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Pit Lane Walk   11:00 - 12:00
FIA   F1 Car Presentation   11:00 - 12:00
Formula 1   Formula 1 Pirelli Hot Laps   11:30 - 12:00
FORMULA 1   FIRST PRACTICE SESSION   12:30 - 13:30
F1 Academy   Second Practice Session   13:55 - 14:35
Formula 1   Teams' Press Conference   14:00 - 15:00
Masters Historic   Qualifying Session   15:00 - 15:30
FORMULA 1   QUALIFYING   16:00 - 17:00
Formula 1   Press Conference   17:00 - 17:30
F1 Academy   First Qualifying Session   17:30 - 17:45
F1 Academy   Second Qualifying Session   17:55 - 18:10
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Track Tour   18:20 - 19:20
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Pit Lane Walk   18:20 - 19:20
F1 Experiences   F1 Experiences Champions Club Trophy Photo & Grid Walk   19:20 - 20:20

SATURDAY 21st OCTOBER      

Porsche Carrera Cup North America   Qualifying Session   08:35 - 09:05
F1 Academy   First Race (12 Laps, Max 30 Mins +1 Lap)   09:45 - 10:20
Masters Historic   First Race (20 Mins +1 Lap)   10:55 - 11:20
Formula 1   Team Pit Stop Practice   11:30 - 12:00
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Pit Lane Walk   11:30 - 12:00
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Track Tour   11:30 - 12:00
FORMULA 1   SPRINT SHOOTOUT   12:30 - 13:14
Formula 1   Formula 1 Pirelli Hot Laps   13:25 - 13:45
Porsche Carrera Cup North America   First Race (35 Mins +1 Lap)   14:10 - 14:50
F1 Academy   Second Race (8 Laps, Max 20 Mins +1 Lap)   15:30 - 15:55
FORMULA 1   SPRINT (19 Laps or 60 Mins)   17:00 - 17:30
Formula 1   Press Conference   17:30 - 18:30
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Track Tour   18:00 - 19:00
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Pit Lane Walk   18:00 - 19:00
F1 Experiences   F1 Experiences Champions Club Trophy Photo & Grid Walk   19:00 - 20:00

SUNDAY 22nd OCTOBER      

Masters Historic   Second Race (20 Mins +1 Lap)   08:35 - 09:00
F1 Academy   Third Race (12 Laps, Max 30 Mins +1 Lap)   09:40 - 10:15
Porsche Carrera Cup North America   Second Race (35 Mins +1 Lap)   10:50 - 11:30
Paddock Club   Paddock Club Pit Lane Walk   11:45 - 12:45
Formula 1   Drivers' Parade   11:50 - 12:20
Formula 1   Formula 1 Pirelli Hot Laps   12:25 - 12:45
Formula 1   National Anthem   13:46 - 13:48
Air Display   Fly Past   13:48 - 13:49
FORMULA 1   GRAND PRIX (56 LAPS OR 120 MINS)   14:00 - 16:00

Stats from last race

.49th win for Max Verstappen
-25th win from pole position start
-14th consecutive win from pole (new record)

.769 laps on the lead for Max Verstappen during 2023 season (new record)

.4th Grand Chelem for Max Verstappen
-equals Stewart, Senna, Mansell and Vettel

.500th podium finish for McLaren

.3rd world championship win for Max Verstappen

is once again sprint action at the american track limits bonanza

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

Oh splendid, track limits bonanza.

I will never grow to like Austin because of its stupid run-off areas. There are so many wonderful old-school circuits in the USA, where grass starts right beyond the white line. And that's how it should be: you drop your wheel 20cm over the white line and you're gonna lose it big time. So drivers learn to avoid going wide.
But in Austin you can go 10 meters off and only lose half a second. Where's the challenge? It's like playing video games with no-clip mode on. And fans really love when times are deleted and there are constant track limits investigations popping on the screen. Jeez. Just go to race at Barber Motorsports Park or Mid-Ohio. If Zandvoort is adequate for F1, then those are.

Anyway, there's finally coverage for F1 Academy, but I will not bother to watch 15 F4 cars. One pileup and it's down to 10 cars. I like F4, but then I expect a grid of 30+ cars (like Italian F4 does).

Sadly, no rain expected.

Shit race ahead.

Ugh, why is this a sprint.

perhaps if they placed some gimmicks on the sprint such as the nascar rule for shortcuts, to stop entirely if you go over track limits then things could be more interesting

but the race is going to happen in a saturday night, worst possible time

_________________
Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

If F1 decided to pay you lot in gold each time you watched a race, you'd complain it was too heavy

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"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

I don't like the concept of the sprint, it brings very little value to the weekend, cars can get damaged and not take part in the race, the drivers don't like it either.

That and I don't like COTA, neither to watch or drive in it in sims. It tries too hard to be technical and challenging but the 3rd sector is horrible, the esses are just a track limits magnet and the only passing opportunities are pretty much the two hairpins.

The sprint race starts at midnight for most of Europe. Those who stay home will already be in bed, those who go out will not be back at that time.
It´s like they don´t want the European market to watch it.

Midday on Sunday here, absolutely brilliant! Never had an F1 race on at that time so am really looking forward to sitting down and having lunch and watching the race, I've never had that perk before! Oh ya, I also have zero sympathy for euros complaining about start times after F1 changed the start time for ALL the European races from 12am to 1am for me a few years back.

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"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

They might want to not collide with the Rugby World Cup Semifinal just before. England is in that game (which they couldn't have known but maybe guessed).

Growing up in Victoria, Australia, I got used to the 11- Midnight starts. Now living in Japan I actually quite like the usual 10pm start time here (9pm Moto GP times are great). Can do stuff all day Sunday and it isn't too late that wake up bleary eyed on Monday. It feels weird to me having a race on in the middle of the day.

But having said all that, all I can say Omega is.....suck it up Britany.

See you in Brazil

racing during lunch is the best thing ever. If it's boring you don't even see time running as you're enjoying a fine roast or a lasagna

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

As Liberty seems so keen to add sprints, they obviously wanted one in USA.

Judging by the posts in these threads about the sprints, The European market doesn't want to watch them and won't be tuning in anyway, so why mention it?

I'm actually warming to the sprint format (albiet I much preferred last year's format of Qualifying---->Sprint race for Pole---->Race as it flowed through the weekend better than now, where Saturday is its own island of sprint qualy and race)
Having something actually important to watch on all 3 days (qualy being on the Friday after work is a nice bonus imo) is better than just some practice sessions that are hardly worth tunining in to for even the most dedicated fans...

And more racing is always better than no racing so, I guess I'm the only one that likes it?

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

So you wouldn't be against 2 sprint races? Or maybe 3 sprint races?

I don't mind more racing but it should be done by extending Sunday's Grand Prix by 100km. Sunday should be the first and only time when red lights will go out and when the drivers accelerate into T1. It's a holy moment, part of the magic that made me an F1 fan. But due to the sprints it's hardly special anymore. It's the devaluing effect of Sunday's GP which I'm strongly against.

But knowing Netflix/American audience and their ADHD-reduced attention span, it's more likely that Sunday GP are shortened than sprint races are axed. And standing restarts will happen always after SC session. Must provide material for those highlights! And more racing and action means more $$$$!

The Sprint races are here to stay, so what I'd rather them be is longer. Maybe 60% of the real race. Just long enough to introduce a tyre variable. Bolt on the hards and go till the end, or pit and try to charge through. Teams can choose whatever tyres they like. No mandatory tyre.

I don't think that's likely, I think the idea was spreading the crucial sessions through the weekend rather than have 3 practice sessions no-one watched for 1 hour of qualy and 2 hours max of racing

They keep talking about reducing the events to 2 day weekends so I doubt they'll be adding heat races any time soon


I think you could do that just by adding 5 more laps to them atm. They do feel terribly short, but even then they feel borderline for the soft tyres....

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

Fuck that would have made the Qatar Grand Prix even more exciting. Fuck it lets make the 1000km of Spa an F1 race. See if Max can still win on a twelve stop strategy.

My solution is a stupid one. Keep the sprint races as is, 4-5 random races a year (I wouldn't have them as street circuits) - but make the starting grid reverse championship order

It's contrived as fuck and the geriatrics will complain that it's not real racin, but its the easiest way to bring us racing. Sponsors on cars at the back of the grid will get more air time. We will get 10x more overtakes. Those who are horny for a good bit of wreckin' will be satisfied.

As I said to my crazy GF who would not want to leave me alone even after several days together, too much dessert also makes you sick. There's just too many F1 races and qualifying sessions on the calendar now. Watching has become an ordeal instead of an entertainment.