The Official 2017 US Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**

[Dr Z]

Date(s): Friday 20 October - Sunday 22 October 2017

UK Broadcast Timings (and local time)

All sessions are live on Sky F1 & Channel 4.

Session	Day	Sky F1	Channel 4	Session Start	Local Time
Practice 1	Fri	1545	1555*	1600	1000
Practice 2	Fri	1945	1955*	2000	1400
Practice 3	Sat	1645	1655	1700	1100
Qualifying	Sat	2100	2100	2200	1600
Race	Sun	1830	1900	2000	1400

*Broadcast in More 4 channel.

Circuit of the Americas



Live timing for all sessions available here:

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/f1-...

Weather forecast:

http://www.myweather2.com/Motor-Racing/United-Stat...

Event timings, steward decisions, technical reports and laptimes for the weekend will appear here:

https://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-one-world-c...

The tyre choices:


Circuit/tyre info from Pirelli:

• Turn 1 forms a unique challenge: an uphill then downhill hairpin, where braking is hard to judge.
• There are several overtaking opportunities, which means that race strategy options to gain track position are quite open. (yeah right!)
• There are three long straights, which have the effect of cooling the tyres on each lap.
• Weather is quite variable in Texas, ranging from bright sunshine to heavy rain.

2016 Grand Prix

Hamilton took pole position from Rosberg.




Won the start, and won the race

---

Sainz will be driving for the works Renault team in place of Palmer, while Kvyat returns to take his place at Toro Rosso. Gasly off to finish his Super Formula campaign at Japan, with the debut of Le Mans winner Brendon Hartley subbing for him.

Edited by Dr Z on Wednesday 18th October 14:17

[Dr Z]

thegreenhell said:

Who is actually subbing for whom? Is Kvyat deemed to be back in his original car, so Hartley is actually taking over Sainz's car, or is Harltey subbing for Gasley, who in turn replaced Kvyat, and Kvyat is coming back in Sainz's car? How this is determined will surely have an effect on tyre allocations and PU component usage?

Classic! I don't have a clue, but I'm guessing Kvyat will take over Sainz's PU allocation, with Hartley taking over Gasly's PU allocation, which was originally Kvyat's!

The current PU allocation is about the same for both TR cars, but Kvyat went though engines quite quickly on to his 5th components, with Sainz taking penalties to take his fifth last race. So, Kvyat should now have a fresher engine to play with?!

No split in the tyre allocations between the drivers, so that should be easy.

HustleRussell said:

Thanks Dr Z

Np

cuprabob said:

Practice 1 and 2 on Friday are being broadcast on More 4 instead of the usual Channel 4

Updated, thanks.

[Dr Z]

kambites said:

Dr Z said:

Classic! I don't have a clue, but I'm guessing Kvyat will take over Sainz's PU allocation, with Hartley taking over Gasly's PU allocation, which was originally Kvyat's!

Surely that can't be legal? It would mean that a team which wanted to focus solely on the driver's championship with one driver could essentially double that driver's allocation of components over the course of the season.

The PU elements for the weekend have been published (link in the OP) and it matches up with what I guessed above. I still don't have clue how it's all worked out by the FIA. It's a loophole and will be quickly closed I'm sure, before Honda gets wind of it.

It's also why Hartley is starting at the back as the stated reason is running out of mileage on his 'current' engine. Also Renault are introducing updates to their PU this weekend.

[Dr Z]

Some Gump said:

How is Hartley doing on long run pace? Need a Dr gn stats package

Had a brief look, didn't have the time to plot everything and analyse it, however I think he's doing very well for simply jumping in the car on short notice.

Was doing low 1m42s on the super softs, which compares well with Kvyat, but was missing a few tenths per lap on the ultra softs. His soft tyre run in this session looked good. Given the long run pace on the ultra softs, I think he would have done amazingly well if he's within half a second of Kvyat in quali, IMO.

Pretty standard for new drivers to take time to work the softer compounds (for the track) as well as an experienced driver. Reckon he'll be on the pace with more seat time.

ETA:

FP3:

Edited by Dr Z on Saturday 21st October 18:26

[Dr Z]

Track temp 32 C. Air temp 23 C.

This track doesn't seem to heat up as well as some others. Helps or hurts Merc? Find out in the 1st stint.

Going to follow Hartley's race. Start on the super soft, see how the things go in the 1st stint then go on to the Softs would be my plan. Points will be very tough as the Force Indias/Williams/McLaren/Renault are going to be fighting to fill out the P5-P10 slots but would be fantastic if he can get close.

[Dr Z]

Damn Hartley stuck behind a bloody slow Stroll.

Stroll is so slow that Vandoorne who started ahead of Hartley has had a pit stop and now behind them! Drive a bit quicker man!

Can someone put this year's Championship out of it's misery? DNF for Vettel?

Edited by Dr Z on Sunday 22 October 20:52

[Dr Z]

Sainz!

[Dr Z]

Vettel struggling!

[Dr Z]

I'm not happy about the way young Brendon's race was run. It ran like some kind of stupid test session. Every decision they made kind of went against my own instincts watching the race in real time. It was a bit weird they started him on the ultra softs, you can see the logic in that, he was following Vandoorne through in the early stages of the race, but then got stuck behind somebody while Vandoorne continued to pass people in the 1st stint. Got pitted so early (presumably he felt the grip was going) and put on bloody super softs and promptly got stuck behind Stroll. His race pretty much unravelled at that point. Running plumb last, didn't seem to make much of an impression on Stroll all race, who was running on the Softs and was slow.

My annoyance is, why not give him a set of tyres he can lean on a bit from the start? That would have ensured he could do his own race and pick more people off during the pit window. The early pit really wrecked his race. Should have given him a set of tyres he can go flat out on from the get go, as he is used to in the racing discipline he's familiar with. Sorry, that's a big error from the TR strategy team. If they run it like this they're going to look a bunch of blundering idiots next year if Honda don't get their reliability sorted.

Really did want Hartley to make an impression. There were rumours that when Gasly returns, Kvyat was going to get the boot permanently, with Hartley seeing through to the end of this year and perhaps signed for the next year, dependent on how he performs this race. Yes, he didn't wreck the car during the weekend, didn't make mistakes and kept it on the black stuff in the race, but I fear RBR is looking for more theatrics and somebody who can make a bit of a splash...

[Dr Z]

BoRED S2upid said:

4154QLD said:

Great video on the Max v Kimi overtake saga

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP6zj5_igiE

Max was centimeters away from getting that legal.. great effort though

I see why that was deemed illegal now. From the view we had on the TV I just thought how the hell did he get past there, how was there room, what a move that was. From the final angle it answers those questions there really wasn’t room he had to go off track to complete it which would make for a lot more overtakes if it was legal.

Yep, I too went, wow how did he do that?! when watching it live. I think they call it dive bombing.

As in, you stick your nose in and hope the other guy sees you and/or disappears. Seems to be an RBR driver speciality.

[Dr Z]

InductionRoar said:

We are so lucky to have posters on PH, whose individual contributions hold far more weight than the entire C4 commentary team and even the great Niki Lauda, whose combined experience in the sport clearly counts for nothing against such armchair luminaries.

Spoilsport! PH loves a good dissection of an overtake or a steward decision. Look on the bright side, be grateful that there's actually some racing to talk about. This is F1, with all it's tyre destroying, dirty air emitting, understeer inducing goodness, producing some racing spectacle. Gotta be worth celebrating and dissecting.

Vaud said:

Given technology, would a better punishment be a remote deployed power loss to the car for X seconds? Losing 100hp for a lap? Just an idea.

Could actually work. They used some small loops embedded in the track to police track limits at Silverstone last year. IIRC, Hamilton got one of his quali laps deleted for going off track. If a car exceeds track limits, the next time it cuts the timing beam at the end of the lap, have a signal transmitted to it that disables ERS assist for a lap. You go off track? You lose 160 bhp, and become a sitting duck. No need to argue about giving the place back then.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/headlines/2016/...

[Dr Z]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

HustleRussell said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Where's the Mexico thread anyways?

Sounds like you just volunteered

I would, I was certain there was an F1 template thread in order for someone to copy and paste it each week but can't find it. If it's out there it really should be a sticky..

Go on, copy the OP of this thread and update the times/track map and the relevant links, and we're good to go!

Hamilton could well seal his 4th this weekend, so one of his fans can start it off?

[Dr Z]

Derek Smith said:

I'm not sure if I'm classed as a Hamilton fan, but I do enjoy watching him race. He's one of my favourite drivers, and that's since 1966. But I'm disappointed that he will probably be at least 5th this weekend. I don't place particular emphasis on the WDC. The only thing it proves is who won the most points, but two races to go with it already decided is not going to increase excitement.

I'm pleased for Hamilton, don't get me wrong, but I wish it would go down to the wire.

The one thing I've been hoping for all season is for the RB drivers to go head to head, battling it out in front of the cameras. With only three races to go, time is running out. They differ in their style of driving and I think it would be fascinating. Also, this far into the season, surely team orders would not rule.

You sound like a fan! A 5th place this weekend would be enough to seal the title.

---

stiII_I_undomyseatbelts said:

rdjohn said:

Charlie has taken the view that running wide on exit adds extra metres to the track length and therfore does not justify a penalty. Whereas cutting a corner reduces track length and normally is rightly penalised.

I'm surprised Charlie never heard of this thing called momentum which is what one gains when running wide unless there is something causing cars to slow down when they do it.

Most often the extra momentum is cancelled out by the extra distance travelled by going off track, hence the lack of penalties on some corners; and this applies to a car going off by itself. However, in a racing situation keeping the momentum even after going off track will allow a driver to fight back in the subsequent corners and actually gain a lasting advantage as it happened with Ricciardo v Bottas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI6unBzCF8c

Ric v Bot starts around 0:40 mark...

I think the first move from Ricciardo was fine, but he pushed Bottas off track who then proceeds to keep his foot in and get the place back. The second time around was an outrageously late lunge from Ricciardo, locking up and everything, the full works... only the awareness of Bottas there averted a collision, but again Bottas gets it back.

I think I would be in favour of a warning first time around and have some form of time penalty 2nd time. Also, I'd be in favour of going back to the original track limit defintion and not messing about trying to work out which corners are ok to go off and which are not. It's not easy to explain to a casual viewer why one guy gets penalised for going off track and another not.

Sylvaforever said:

Well?

No lasting advantage gained because Sainz did not end up overtaking Ocon.