F1 was back after an autumn break to kickstart six races in seven weeks, starting with a trip to the Lone Star State. The paddock also bid a rather emotional farewell to Daniel Ricciardo, who was replaced by reserve driver Liam Lawson for the remainder of the season.
With the Championship battles tightening up at the front, teams brought some well-needed developments, but neither of the top two stood on the top step of the podium after Sunday’s race. Find out who starred and who were the strugglers from round 19 of the 2024 season.
Top of the class:
Ferrari:
Charles Leclerc — Shootout: 3rd | Sprint: 4th | Qualifying: 4th | Race: 1st
Carlos Sainz — Shootout: 5th | Sprint: 2nd | Qualifying: 3rd | Race: 2nd
55 points scored by the Scuderia in Austin, their first 1-2 in the US since 2006 and closing the gap to just 48 points in the Constructor’s Championship, the Scuderia looked to be the class of the field at the weekend.
Both Charles and Carlos were evenly matched across the entire weekend, they had excellent pace in the Sprint and finished less than seven seconds from P1. Less than a tenth split the pair in Saturday’s qualifying, which went the way of Sainz.
Sunday’s race result was secured at turn 1 as the squabbling Max Verstappen and Lando Norris allowed Charles to dive through from P4 whilst Sainz improved ahead of his former teammate, Lando. From there, Charles was able to gap the field and survived a crucial safety car restart to take his third victory of the season, equalling his best tally from 2022.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Sainz, a lunge on lap 1 at turn 12 on Max proved unsuccessful, and he had to bide his time to get past. Overcoming losing pace and the car smelling of fuel, an aggressive under-cut got Carlos ahead of the Red Bull, securing the 1-2 finish for Ferrari.
There’s still plenty of action to come, but even an optimist has got to say a 79-point deficit is too much for Charles to overturn against Max. Taking out 27 points in the lead of McLaren in the standings in one race means this is very much up for grabs for Ferrari.
Liam Lawson — Shootout: 15th | Sprint: 16th | Qualifying: 19th (demoted from 15th | Race: 9th
All eyes were on the Kiwi making his return to F1 after more than a year out, especially with the way the team handled Ricciardo’s departure. Liam was facing an uphill task as he already went into the weekend with an engine penalty, so to come away with some points is an excellent result.
Sunday’s race saw Liam make up five places on lap one despite starting on the hard tyres, and completed some lovely overtakes to be running P9 before taking his pit stop. Dropping to 12th, he would take a further three places before taking the chequered flag in ninth, scoring his first points since Singapore 2023 and the team’s first points since the summer break.
It’s difficult to gauge his performance with Yuki as his teammate was running in the points in the first stint, but the team got their strategy wrong on his side. He was faster in both SQ1 and SQ2, but lost his lap time for track limits. There are still some areas to tidy up on, but with Sergio Pérez’s well-documented struggles of late, this will be an exciting battle to watch over the next five races.
Franco Colapinto — Shootout: 10th | Sprint: 12th | Qualifying: 15th (promoted from 17th) | Race: 10th
I’m happy to hold my hands up and say I was wrong to be pessimistic about the Argentine’s hasty promotion to F1, Franco has hit the ground running since taking the car back in Monza.
Outqualifying Albon in the Sprint was a great step forward, but making it into SQ3 was a great result. P12 considering he started in front of a McLaren and Red Bull is arguably the best he could have secured.
Sunday was a bit trickier as a poorer qualifying left him further down the grid, but an excellent first stint on the hard tyres gave him fresh rubber at the end of the race. Withholding the two-stopping Haas of Kevin Magnussen was imperative for the result, and he executed that well and came oh so close to securing the fastest lap point as well.
Honourable mention goes to Haas, securing seven points across both the Sprint and Grand Prix, including their first-ever double-point finish in the Sprint Race and Nico Hülkenberg securing the team’s best-ever home result with P8 in Sunday’s race.
Whilst it was Nico securing the majority of the points, it was actually Magnussen who showed the pace over the weekend. Had it not been for a poorly executed two-stop, very much could have added more than the two points secured on Saturday.
The struggle bus:
Lewis Hamilton — Shootout: 7th | Sprint: 6th | Qualifying: 17th (promoted from 19th) | Race: DNF
To the disappointment of an expectant crowd, Lewis delivered perhaps one of his worst performances of his successful F1 career. Qualifying half a second down on teammate George Russell in the Shootout, Lewis was able to pass the Haas of Hülkenberg to take P6 in the Sprint race. Saturday’s qualifying was a disaster as his best lap was only good enough for P16 before others improved.
Qualifying on the back row was painful to witness, but he did have a strong start to the race. He was running up in P12 before spinning into the gravel at turn 19 on lap two, bringing out the first Safety Car in 10 races.
Five more races to go before Lewis bids farewell to Mercedes, and seeing the Ferrari domination on Sunday he should be looking forward to a fresh start at the Scuderia in 2025.
Oscar Piastri — Shootout: 16th | Sprint: 10th | Qualifying: 5th | Race: 5th
An unusually quiet outing for Oscar in Austin, as a disastrous Saturday and anonymous Sunday meant he was little help to Lando in his teammate’s Championship hopes. His only contribution was to ease off on the last lap, so Lando didn’t lose any further places due to a time penalty.
The Aussie was the big casualty in Sprint Qualifying as he was knocked out in SQ1. He made decent progress in the Sprint Race but could only get to P10, even with a penalty for forcing Alpine’s Pierre Gasly off the track.
Saturday’s Qualifying was an improvement in terms of starting position, but he was still over six-tenths off his teammate who started pole. Piastri made no forward progress in the race and was a clear team sacrifice to secure damage limitation for Lando. Still, some time to bounce back and play a key role in the Driver’s Championship.
Alexander Albon — Shootout: 18th (demoted to Pit Lane) | Sprint: 17th | Qualifying: 14th (promoted from 16th) | Race: 16th
I get the feeling Logan made Albon look like a strong driver because a four-race rookie in Colapinto is currently showing up the Thai driver, as once more highlighted in Austin.
Whilst Franco recovered from a Q1 exit to score a point in Sunday’s race, Albon caused a first-lap incident with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon into turn 1. He never really recovered from the back of the field and came home a lowly P17.
That coupled with being both out-qualified and raced in the Sprint shows that the pressure is being turned up as Alex prepares for 2025 with Carlos Sainz as a teammate.
Dishonourable mention goes to Sergio Pérez, with Lawson and Tsunoda now in direct comparisons at the sister team, this would be an ideal opportunity to quash any rumours of losing his seat to either of VCARB’s young stars. Austin was a pretty mediocre outing for the Mexican.
Just six points secured with a P7 finish in Sunday’s race, struggling to overtake Tsunoda in the first stint and Colapinto in the second was not ideal, neither is finishing behind a Mercedes that started from the pits.
With no time to lose, the paddock hops over the Gulf of Mexico for round 20, which takes place at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. It is a track that Max has made his own over the last few seasons, but with Red Bull floundering, McLaren having some struggles at Austin, and Ferrari roaring back to the front. We could be set for another thrilling fight at the front of the field.
With British Summer Time coming to an end throughout the Grand Prix, an energy drink might be required for qualifying viewing which starts at 10 pm on Saturday 26th October whilst the race starts at 8 pm UK time on Sunday 27th.
