USA, EL1: Sainz in the lead, Pourchaire debuts in Austin

It is at an incongruous time for Europeans that this United States Grand Prix weekend kicked off in Austin. Under a radiant sun, the Circuit of the Americas welcomed the EL1s and we were able to discover five substitute drivers on the track.

Théo Pourchaire took the wheel of the Alfa Romeo C42 in place of Valtteri Bottas, while Robert Shwartzman drove in place of Charles Leclerc at Ferrari. At McLaren, Alex Palou replaced Daniel Ricciardo and Logan Sargeant replaced Nicholas Latifi at Williams.

At Haas F1, Antonio Giovinazzi drove Kevin Magnussen’s VF-22. But unlike the four drivers mentioned above, the Italian wasn’t there as part of a session reserved for young drivers.

A development considered illegal in Mercedes F1

On the evolution side, Mercedes F1 brought its latest package of the season, with a new front wing, revised floor and vertical fins in front of the floor, and modified vertical rear wing fins.

The problem for the Brackley team was that the front wing was declared illegal as it has small flaps which appear to violate the Technical Regulations.

Alpine F1 brought a new flat with modified edges, as we saw the appearance of a notch at the front of the rear wheels. Finally, Alfa Romeo also brought a modified floor.

During the session we also learned that Sergio Pérez and Guanyu Zhou would receive five penalty places on the grid. Others should follow, notably the Ferrari drivers, over the weekend.

EL1 marked by an early red flag

From the start of the session, the riders quickly took to the track, especially the rookies, except for Théo Pourchaire, who lapped later.

Fernando Alonso set the first benchmark in 1’39.555s on medium tyres, but was immediately overtaken by Esteban Ocon in 1’38.810s on the same tyres.

The session was interrupted by a red flag when Giovinazzi sent his Haas VF-22, or rather Magnussen’s, into the wall. The floor and front wing were damaged, but he was able to get it back to the pits. While trying to get him out of the TecPro, the Italian damaged the clutch and his session ended after four laps.

Max Verstappen then took the lead in 1’38″272 on soft tyres, before improving to 1’37″462. Carlos Sainz took second place, quickly overtaken by Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Pérez, who moved up to second.

Palou made a small mistake and, warned by his engineer of the cause of his failure, responded enthusiastically: “Yeah, I got to the corner too fast. This car is crazy!”

On the soft tyres, the Alpine drivers climbed back into the top 5, as did Vettel, before Lewis Hamilton posted an excellent third sector and closed within a tenth of Verstappen.

The young drivers were obviously cautious and halfway through the session none of them were in the top 10. Lance Stroll took the lead with 1’37.460, two thousandths better than Verstappen.

Sainz was quick to get ahead and set a 1’36″857. At Red Bull we were working on Verstappen’s car, and the mechanics formed a human curtain that did not let us see what was happening in the garage. .

Hamilton regained second place and Verstappen, after leaving, moved up to second position. Lando Norris sat out at the end of the session, having slipped back into the top 10, as McLaren F1 began to change its set-up for FP2.

Sainz concludes this first session of Austin in the lead ahead of Verstappen, Hamilton, Stroll and Pérez. Alonso, Russell, Gasly, Norris and Vettel complete the top 10, while Ocon is 11th.

With the exception of Giovinazzi, last, you have to go from 16th to 19th place to find the four young riders taking part in this session. Shwartzman is 16 ahead of Palou, Pourchaire and Sargeant.

The EL2 will be held later from 0 to 1:30, as the teams will be on track to test the Pirelli tires for 2023 for 1:30. The four teams that have entered a beginner in EL1 will work on it for 45 minutes and have 45 minutes of normal driving.