2021 Formula One United States Grand Prix

Haas F1 Formula 1 USA.jpg

Who will win the Formula One US Grand Prix?

  • Verstappen

    Votes: 1,075 60.2%
  • Hamilton

    Votes: 409 22.9%
  • Bottas

    Votes: 67 3.8%
  • Norris

    Votes: 74 4.1%
  • Pérez

    Votes: 59 3.3%
  • Sainz

    Votes: 11 0.6%
  • Leclerc

    Votes: 42 2.4%
  • Ricciardo

    Votes: 24 1.3%
  • Somebody else

    Votes: 24 1.3%

  • Total voters
    1,785
Formula 1 is in Austin, Texas this weekend for the United States Grand Prix, with the driver’s championship still very much up for grabs.

Only six races remain in the 2021 Formula 1 season, and the title fight between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton is still tightly contested. The two are separated by just six points entering this weekend, with Verstappen currently holding the lead.

This has been one of the closest battles for the driver’s championship in F1 history, with Hamilton and Verstappen and their respective Mercedes and Red Bull teams both assuming points leads in the championships at various times throughout the season.

The constructor’s championship is far from decided, but Mercedes’ current 30+ point lead seems to be the first sign of one team being the favourite to win so far this season. A late surge in the points from Valtteri Bottas has been the cause of the recent swing in Mercedes’s favour. His rival at Red Bull, Sergio Perez, has struggled lately but did join his teammate on the podium in Turkey.

Mid-pack, the exceptional season for McLaren has given the team in orange a 7.5 point advantage over their Ferrari rivals entering the last six races this year. The MCL35M looks to even have the speed to compete with the dominant Red Bull and Mercedes at various points in recent races. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will try and answer back in their Ferrari this weekend, coming off a race in Turkey where both finished in the top 10.

Track temperatures should be hot on Sunday for the race, with sunny conditions forecast and highs of over 30 degrees Celsius. Mercedes has won five of the last six F1 races held at Circuit of the Americas and will hope to put Hamilton on the top podium step to once again take the championship lead.

What’s your prediction for the 2021 US Grand Prix? Let us know in the comments below.
About author
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

Comments

Yes that is exactly what you said: Max and Lewis are NOT great drivers because managing the tires is not racing.
Well, Senna and Prost had to manage fuel, and Fangio and Clark had to manage every part of the car.
You really have no clue about F1 do you?

DRS etc are needed because AERODYNAMICS have become too important but mainly because the competition is MUCH CLOSER than it ever was.
In the 70s and 80s mostly 70% of the cars would break down. Did this make racing more exciting?
In the 50s and 60s Fangio or Clark would often win with a lap in advance. Races were hardly ever close.
(Yes I know about the few exceptions)
Why not talk about stuff you care about or know something about?
Just a point on DRS, do you not feel DRS takes away some excitement from a race sometimes? If Hammy had caught Max earlier and just blows by him cause of DRS and slightly newer tyres, does that not take the fight out of the race sometimes.
 
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Holy moly, there goes another one to the ignore list. I sometimes wonder what idiots live on this planet.
You know that feeling, when you open discussion page and all posts are "you are not viewing posts from this user". :roflmao: Although I don't use that option, as sometimes good laugh helps.
But a Hamilton did
Fun fact, if Hamilton joined F1 after one season of F3 he would have same numbers of F3 titles as Verstappen. ;)
 
Just a point on DRS, do you not feel DRS takes away some excitement from a race sometimes? If Hammy had caught Max earlier and just blows by him cause of DRS and slightly newer tyres, does that not take the fight out of the race sometimes.
DRS is terrible, it completely takes the racing out of the racing. Drivers are now trying to stay into each other's DRS zones and are not focussing on winning the race fair and square. It's like a boxing match with one with boxing gloves and the other with mittens.
 
Just a point on DRS, do you not feel DRS takes away some excitement from a race sometimes? If Hammy had caught Max earlier and just blows by him cause of DRS and slightly newer tyres, does that not take the fight out of the race sometimes.
Yes, I agree it would be better without 'artificial' components. But one can even consider many add-ons on the car 'artificial'.
I think DRS works both ways: just imagine Max staying in traffic all the time, unable to pass and get to the front. Lewis would have an easy win then, or the other way around. Without DRS passing is sometimes impossible, and sometimes too easy...
I think sometimes it makes it all less exciting, and sometimes it makes excitement possible.
 
Yes, I agree it would be better without 'artificial' components. But one can even consider many add-ons on the car 'artificial'.
I think DRS works both ways: just imagine Max staying in traffic all the time, unable to pass and get to the front. Lewis would have an easy win then, or the other way around. Without DRS passing is sometimes impossible, and sometimes too easy...
I think sometimes it makes it all less exciting, and sometimes it makes excitement possible.
Max staying traffic? A bit strange remark, all front drivers face traffic, so if if if……………?
 
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Max staying traffic? A bit strange remark, all front drivers face traffic, so if if if……………?
I mean this in general, as an example. I think Max ( and Lewis) are the best to pass even without DRS :)
But I just want to say: sometimes DRS makes the races more exciting.
That's the reason they added DRS in 2011, because at one point passing was virtually impossible, and races too boring and frustrating. People seem to forget.
 
I do agree that DRS is awfull, a gimmick, a solution for a problem that could be solved in many different ways, like indycar and countless other formulas prove.

Aero in F1 is ridiculous, and only exists today to justify the huge investment teams made on wind tunnels.

But then again, in F1 all of them are using the same tools, so its not like we can make the champions of today smaller to the ones in the past based on that alone.
 
I do agree that DRS is awfull, a gimmick, a solution for a problem that could be solved in many different ways, like indycar and countless other formulas prove.

Aero in F1 is ridiculous, and only exists today to justify the huge investment teams made on wind tunnels.

But then again, in F1 all of them are using the same tools, so its not like we can make the champions of today smaller to the ones in the past based on that alone.
Then again....
Next year new rules, and I am afraid once again 1 team will have the best solution and will dominate even more. This has happened many times.
 
Aero in F1 is ridiculous, and only exists today to justify the huge investment teams made on wind tunnels.
Every car racing series uses Aero, so I don't get why it is ridiculous? Or did I misunderstand you and you only mean the specific Aero of F1 cars? But even the thnere are already tons of rules they have to obide to not make the downforce to strong
 
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The US Grand Prix is always a shite one. Always feels like a wasted weekend, despite the enthusiasm the drivers always bring. A second South American race would be so much more rewarding for all concerned.
COTA consistently provides good racing, and the race yesterday just proves my point. Are you sure you aren't confusing a hatred of the US for a hatred of the track which has given numerous good races?
 
Every car racing series uses Aero, so I don't get why it is ridiculous? Or did I misunderstand you and you only mean the specific Aero of F1 cars? But even the thnere are already tons of rules they have to obide to not make the downforce to strong
Its ridiculous because it has rules that hurt the cars following themselves on one side, and its way too free on another side. So its a double wammy.
 
What the hell happened here?

Ok listen. Yes DRS sucks, but it's a necessary evil for the current era as cars cannot follow each other through corners, so you cannot just remove DRS.

BUT! If DRS is so artificial and makes overtaking so easy, why can't the car that got overtaken just, well, get his place back by using DRS in the next DRS zone? So here it's, if car 1 is faster than car 2, he will only be able to overtake car 2 with the help of DRS so he can close the gap that he massively lost on corners, that's the idea of DRS, otherwise car 1 would never be able to get into striking range at the end of a straight after losing massively through corners. If DRS was just a tool to create artificial overtakes, then car 2 could just use DRS back and overtake car 1 again, but that almost never happens...

A lot of people don't understand how bad the dirty air in F1 is. Just look at how strong slipstream is in F1, it's massive, now imagine that lack of air resistance through corners...
 
The thing is, and to expand on my earlier post, DRS is there only because the FIA painted themselves into a corner. They forbade all the technologies that could have helped the problem, such as active aero, suction ground effects (fan car), normal ground effects and active suspension, while allowing the cars to grow in length and sprout huuuge front wings that if not in clean air, the aero platform of the whole car is affected.

Now they are trying to go back on that finally with the new cars, but reckon this revamp is way too little. The cars will be even heavier and remain big. F1 in the past was too radical changing regulations, now they seem too afraid to upset the status quo.
 
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No i dont see that because they are helped... in compair to champions without drs or kers/ers..

Its just fake deal with it

Its a helping tool otherwise they cant do it.. thats a fact.. without drs
There is no to little overtakes.
Unless you're somehow claiming previous generations of F1 drivers would be able to overtake without DRS - in modern F1 cars, all you can claim is that DRS renders intergenerational comparisons moot.

Considering such comparisons - at least in any meaningful manner - are already impossible, that's not much of a claim.

And if you do actually think past champions would be able to overtake in modern F1 without DRS, we'll just have to agree to disagree.
 
As probably already said, the Aero is the issue and the DRS is just a bandaid to overcome it to a degree. I hate it personally and it is a sad state of affairs if without DRS you cannot be passed. I want to see these guys battling for position not passing because they have an huge Vmax advantage.
Hopefully the new cars will fix this.

The answer is 4 wheel drive lol. then one can maybe get enough exit grip on the dirty part of track
 
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