USA 2018 - GP Preview - Williams Mercedes

We’re headed Stateside as Round 18 takes us to Texas for the final back-to-back of the season. Austin’s popular Circuit of the Americas is a favourite amongst drivers and fans, not least due to its lively off-track atmosphere. Be it sunshine or storms, our Stetsons are packed, and we’re braced for whatever the weather brings!

For the United States, Pirelli has made available the soft, supersoft and ultrasoft tyres.

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer

The Circuit of the Americas has become another firm favourite on the calendar since the inaugural race in 2012. Austin comes alive during the race week with fans flooding in from across the USA and other neighbouring areas. The circuit itself also has a great layout and looks impressive. The 5.5-kilometre anticlockwise track is modern but really tests both driver and car with some radical elevation changes, not least the impressive run up to turn one. It can be quite challenging and tests the aerodynamics, power unit and suspension, but the drivers and teams all enjoy this race and we look forward to seeing what we can achieve this season.

Lance Stroll

Texas is Texas and it is awesome. I love everything about the place and especially the barbeques. I will be wearing my cowboy hat and boots again. It is a great track and I can’t say anything bad about it. There is always a great turn out for the race and the fans are really enthusiastic. The track itself has a great flow to it. There is the first sector with the esses and the elevation going up into Turn One is quite impressive. Driving a lap there is a lot of fun. Last year there were a lot of tyre problems and I had to stop twice as I had a lot of degradation, which was a lot more than expected and not ideal.

Sergey Sirotkin

I think Austin is one of the greatest modern tracks currently in Formula One. For a modern circuit, sector one is exciting with its high-speed change of direction. In general, Austin is quite like other newly built tracks. Sector two provides a good opportunity for overtaking, due to a slow corner, big DRS zone followed by another slow corner and heavy breaking, before long corners throughout sector three.