Which teams, drivers, and strategies made the biggest impressions in Austin?

Winner: Ferrari

Ferrari weekend started off well with a respectable third and fifth in sprint qualifying, and things only got better in the sprint race itself. On lap five, Sainz overtook his teammate, who had slid back into fourth. Four laps later Sainz passed a struggling George Russel in the Mercedes, and one lap later Leclerc also overtook Russel. On the final lap of the sprint, McLaren’s Lando Norris, locked up, creating the opportunity for Sainz to go past and finish the race in second place.

Their weekend would only get better in the feature race.

In qualifying, Ferrari locked out the second row, with Leclerc in third and Sainz in fourth. However, as Norris and Redbull’s Max Verstappen went deep into turn 1 to try and cover each other off, Leclerc went around the outside to pass both and take the lead of the race. Sainz also took advantage of Norris and Verstappen’s fight, overtaking Norris for third.

From there Leclerc maintained the lead with no contention, ending nearly 30 seconds ahead of Verstappen and Norris. Meanwhile Sainz was engaged in a fight for second. On lap 21, Sainz became the first of the front runners to pit. Coming out more than ten seconds behind Oscar Piastri in fourth meant that Sainz had clean air and fresh tyres to decrease the gap between him and Verstappen to undercut him. And when Verstappen pitted on lap 25, he exited the pits behind Sainz, leading to a Ferarri 1-2 victory basically secured.

Despite not bringing any upgrades to Texas, Ferrari was the most successful team in both the sprint and the main race, taking home a total of 55 points, bringing the gap to Redbull in the Constructors’ Championship down to just eight points, and Leclerc’s gap to Norris in the Driver’s Championship down to 22 points.

Loser: Alpine

It seems like the french outfit is a perennial appearance on these lists, and this weekend is no exception.

Behind the scenes, it was announced over the autumn break that Alpine would be shuttering it’s engine division and become a customer team (most likely of Mercedes). While this news has long been expected, it is still a blow to the team that at one point had aspirations of being the French Ferrari.

On track, Alpine’s weekend actually started off strong. Although their sprint results were nothing to write home about, Pierre Gasly secured seventh place in qualifying in a newly upgraded car. Come race day, Gasly started sixth on the grid, due to George Russel having to start from the pit lane. However, Alpine failed to capitalize on this position during the race itself.

When Haas’ Kevin Magnussen pitted early on lap 17 from seventh place, Alpine reacted by pitting Gasly on the next lap to prevent an undercut. Gasly entered the pit lane in sixth place and exited in sixteenth into heavy traffic. On older tyres, Gasly was unable to recover and ended his race in 14th.

While Alpine was able to steal the fastest lap point from back marker rival Williams with a late pit stop, overall Alpine squandered a genuine points scoring opportunity and their best starting position since Las Vegas last year.

Winner: Max Verstappen

Verstappen kicked off a stellar weekend with a pole position in sprint qualification— his first since Belgium-where he had a ten place grid penalty.

This momentum continued into Saturday when Verstappen won the sprint leading from start to finish. Later during Grand Prix qualifying, Verstappen came in first in Q1, first in Q2, and on a purple lap in Q3 when George Russel went off track prematurely ending the session and Verstappen had to abort the fastest lap attempt. Despite not getting a last lap in, Verstappen still started from P2 for the Grand Prix.

By the second stint of the Grand Prix, both Ferrari’s had passed Verstappen who now occupied third place. To make matters worse, Verstappen was struggling on the hard tyres; not only could he not attack the Ferrari’s ahead, but he needed to defend from Championship rival Lando Norris behind. This is when Verstappen truly demonstrated his skills as a driver this weekend.

For eight laps, when Norris had both DRS and fresher tyres, Verstappen delivered perfect lap after perfect lap. Verstappen didn’t make a single mistake nor did he allow any gaps for overtaking to even appear. When Norris did eventually pass Verstappen, it was off track, for which he received a five second penalty, which meant that Verstappen finished the race in third ahead of Norris.

This weekend Verstappen extended his lead in the World Championship for the first time since the British Grand Prix. After this weekend, Norris needs to finish an average of 9.5 points ahead of Verstappen at each remaining Grand Prix and sprint race in order to win the Driver’s Championship, a feat he has only accomplished once this season—when Verstappen DNF’d in Australia due to a mechanical issue. More important than the points gap, Verstappen exits this weekend with momentum having returned to the podium.

Loser: Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton’s weekend started off bad and only got worse as it continued. In Friday’s sprint qualifying, Hamilton went slower in SQ3 than he did in SQ2 to start the sprint race from seventh. While this on its own is not awful, his teammate George Russel qualified in second, more than half a second faster, demonstrating that the car had the pace to finish much higher than seventh.

After a dull sprint race for Mercedes, Hamilton again struggled in qualifying. After a poor first push lap in Q1 from both Mercedes, Hamilton and Russel needed big improvements if they wanted to secure their place in Q2. With a little over three minutes left in the session both drivers went out on fresh soft tyres. While Russel was able to improve to third, Hamilton was only able to improve to 16th. To make matters worse, there was not enough time remaining in the session for Hamilton to try again, but there were still other cars who hadn’t finished their laps. At the end of the session Hamilton was 19th behind former teammate Valterri Bottas in a points-less Sauber.

Hamilton would be promoted to 17th on the grid, and started the race on the hard tyre to try and make a recovery drive. Initially, Hamilton was successful, gaining five positions in one and a half laps. However, Hamilton’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weekend continued as he locked up on turn 19 of lap two and spun out of the track, into the gravel. Thankfully no one was injured, but Hamilton’s race was over none the less.

Not only did Hamilton have his first DNF since Australia this weekend, but he also had his worst qualifying result where he set a time since the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Winner: Starting on the Hard Tyre

Three drivers made impressive recovery drives this weekend where they started from the back of the grid and made their way up into points finishing positions. What they all had in common: starting on the hard tyre.

After a spin in Q3 left George Russel’s car needing repairs, Russel started the race on Sunday from the pit lane. Similarly, newly promoted Visa Cash App RB (VCARB) driver Liam Lawson, who qualified 15th, started from the back of the grid after receiving a 60 place grid penalty for changing engine components. William’s driver Franco Colapinto started the race in 15th, one place behind his veteran teammate Alex Albon. All three started on the hard tyres.

While all of the other mid-field drivers pitted, these three stayed out. In doing so they were able to climb up to occupy positions sixth-eighth.

After a marathon stint Lawson was the first on the hard tyre to pit, coming in on lap 36 of 56 from seventh and exiting in eleventh. Later, Colapinto pitted from eighth and exited in twelfth. Russel was the last car to pit on lap 40. He entered the pit lane in sixth and exited in eighth. Despite the lost positions, because they had pitted so late, their tyres were more than 10 laps fresher then those of the surrounding cars. While their competitors had used the medium tyres earlier in the race, when their cars were full of fuel, Colapinto, Lawson, and Russel were switching to the medium tyres now when their cars were super light. The advantage was so great that by the time Colapinto pitted, three laps after Lawson, Lawson had already passed Pierre Gasly.

Lawson finished the race in ninth, Colapinto tenth, and Russel recovered 14 places to finish the race in sixth despite serving a five second penalty.

Loser: Overtaking at Turn 12

Turn 12 of the Circuit of the Americas is a perfect opportunity to overtake. Coming out of a long straight into a sharp breaking zone means that overtaking on either the inside or outside of the corner is possible. However, attempting to overtake may have cost Lando Norris the Championship.

Both George Russel and Norris passed other cars at turn 12, however, both drivers received a five second penalty for doing so.

On lap 13, Russel dove to the inside to overtake Valterri Bottas. But in doing so, he forced Bottas off track. Because Russel was overtaking, he was given a five second penalty, which he served during his pit stop.

However, the penalty was substantially more consequential for Norris. On lap 54 of 56 after several laps of trying to overtake Verstappen, Norris finally passed Verstappen at turn 12, sweeping around the outside, and going off track. The resulting five second penalty dropped Norris into fourth place while elevating Verstappen into third, extending Verstappen’s lead in the World Championship.

Where Russel got a penalty for forcing Bottas wide, Norris received a penalty for overtaking off track. This seeming discrepancy caused controversy in the paddock, however, because Norris was behind at the apex of turn 12, Verstappen had a right to defend and not leave any space. Thus Norris received the penalty, even if Verstappen also went off track.

The most bizarre part is that the penalty could have been avoided if Norris gave the position back to Verstappen. But, the McLaren pit wall held firm that Norris was ahead at the apex, and thus did nothing wrong. If Norris had given the place back, then he could have attempted to overtake Verstappen later in the race, McLaren could have appealed for Verstappen to receive a five second penalty for forcing Norris wide, and Oscar Pisatri would have inherited fourth place, meaning that Norris would have gained five points on Verstappen in the World Championship and prevented momentum from building as we go into next weekend’s race in Mexico City.