2017 Formula One Season ***Possible Spoilers***

WHAT TO WATCH FOR WITH CARLOS SAINZ AND BRENDON HARTLEY IN F1 US GRAND PRIX
NEWS
JAMES ALLEN | 17 OCT 2017 | 1:03 PM GMT | 6 COMMENTS
With the heat having gone out of the world championship tussle between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel – even a win for Vettel with Hamilton retiring leaves Hamilton well in control – there are some great cameos to pay attention to this weekend in Austin.

Top of my list is the switch around at Renault and Toro Rosso. Carlos Sainz will begin his Renault career, replacing Jolyon Palmer while Brendon Hartley gets his long awaited F1 debut at Toro Rosso.

Coming in mid season, or even late season as in this case, is never easy. I remember Jaime Alguersuari being parachuted into Toro Rosso in 2009 in Hungary, also further back Justin Wilson getting a chance mid season at Jaguar Racing. There are plenty of examples.

On the positive side there is also the example of Max Verstappen jumping into a Red Bull in Spain 2016 and winning on debut !



Hartley’s case most closely replicates what Andre Lotterer did with Caterham in 2014 at Spa, shortly before they ceased racing. A sports car champion and Le Mans winner, who had a great junior single seater career but ended up diverting away from F1 through lack of openings, but finally getting a chance to race in a Grand Prix. It will be his first start in a single seater since 2012 in GP2.



Finding the limit will be the challenge for him, but he has found consistency and discipline as a Porsche sports car driver, which wasn’t there in his early career and he will have had heaps of advice from former Porsche team mate Mark Webber.

Sainz is going to be worth watching, as he has a great opportunity to get up to speed with Renault ahead of the 2018 season with the team. These last four races will give him a chance to learn the team culture and its operations, to get a feel for the baseline of the 2017 car so he can make more valuable contributions in feedback to the 2018 car during pre season testing and to get the measure of his new team mate Nico Hulkenberg. One big positive is that he already knows the Renault engine well enough.

“It’s key to have this immediate taste with Renault and get to know the people and the car,” said Sainz. “It’s a big challenge, but it motivates me. We have this last push for the season and I have to find where the limit of the car is, get used to the steering wheel, things like that. That’s the procedure and I will embrace the challenge.”



Sainz comes to this with three years of F1 experience in the bag and he was well and truly ready for a change of scene. He was on a real high after Singapore and his career best 4th place, which may also have prompted Renault to move in the weeks that followed to get him into the car before the end of the season, to help boost their championship position.

The Renault is now the fourth fastest car in qualifying consistenty – top 10 on the grid in five of the last seven rounds and since the summer break, Hulkenberg has been seventh on the grid twice and eighth once.

So one would expect Sainz to be there with the Force India drivers on Saturday around the top ten.



Hulkenberg is the benchmark for the car and Sainz will have a personal target in mind for how far he expects to be off the German in qualifying – around two tenths maybe- due to unfamiliarity with the car and its limits. He has not tested it, but he has driven it on the simulator and his practice running will be crucial on Friday and Saturday morning to get his eye in and find the limit on the Ultrasoft Pirellis.

“I think (Nico) is a great driver and one of the most talented on the grid,” said Sainz. “He has lots of experience in Formula 1 so I will learn from him as soon as I can. Hopefully we can both help the team move further up in the championship before the end of the season.”

Of the two Sainz has the slightly better record at Austin with a seventh and an eighth in his two races to date, Hulkenberg hasn’t finished there for three years.

Renault dropped to eighth in the Constructors’ championship after Haas’ result in Japan and the first objective will be to beat them and to try to catch Toro Rosso in sixth, who have ten points more on the board.



With the car Renault have this should be an attainable goal especially with Toro Rosso shuffling around between Kvyat, Gasly and Hartley.

This would give a real bounce of confidence to Renault going into the winter. Their plan suggests that they should be fighting for podiums next season and to end the season on a positive note will help with preparations for that and morale back at the team’s base in Enstone.

 

This weekend.

1st Free practice Sat 21 Oct 02:00 - 03:30
2nd Free practice Sat 21 Oct 06:00 - 07:30
3rd Free practice Sun 22 Oct 03:00 - 04:00
1st Qualifying Sun 22 Oct 08:00 - 08:18
2nd Qualifying Sun 22 Oct 08:25 - 08:40
3rd Qualifying Sun 22 Oct 08:48 - 09:00
Race Mon 23 Oct 06:00 - 08:00

 

Not just this weekend

 

FP1

POS DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m36.335s - 18
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m36.928s 0.593s 20
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m36.979s 0.644s 10
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 1m37.339s 1.004s 21
5 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Honda 1m37.352s 1.017s 26
6 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1m37.570s 1.235s 23
7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m37.598s 1.263s 20
8 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 1m37.808s 1.473s 25
9 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m37.861s 1.526s 20
10 Carlos Sainz Renault 1m38.093s 1.758s 24
11 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1m38.408s 2.073s 16
12 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 1m38.534s 2.199s 25
13 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m38.904s 2.569s 19
14 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Renault 1m39.267s 2.932s 28
15 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m39.336s 3.001s 17
16 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1m39.366s 3.031s 14
17 Sean Gelael Toro Rosso/Renault 1m40.406s 4.071s 25
18 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m40.448s 4.113s 19
19 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 1m40.828s 4.493s 25
20 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda - - 4

 

FP2

POS DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m34.668s - 26
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 1m35.065s 0.397s 30
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m35.192s 0.524s 11
4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m35.279s 0.611s 39
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1m35.463s 0.795s 24
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m35.514s 0.846s 29
7 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda 1m36.304s 1.636s 28
8 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1m36.460s 1.792s 30
9 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m36.481s 1.813s 28
10 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 1m36.490s 1.822s 34
11 Carlos Sainz Renault 1m36.529s 1.861s 30
12 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m36.534s 1.866s 18
13 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Renault 1m36.761s 2.093s 40
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1m37.285s 2.617s 17
15 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Honda 1m37.463s 2.795s 31
16 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 1m37.788s 3.120s 27
17 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Renault 1m37.987s 3.319s 41
18 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber/Ferrari 1m38.165s 3.497s 35
19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m38.262s 3.594s 22
20 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m38.387s 3.719s 26

 

FP3

POS DRIVER CAR GAP LAPS
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m34.478s 15
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 0.092s 19
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 0.214s 17
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 0.277s 17
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 0.625s 14
6 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 0.868s 11
7 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1.130s 21
8 Carlos Sainz Renault 1.172s 16
9 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1.245s 17
10 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1.324s 16
11 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 1.487s 17
12 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 1.640s 12
13 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda 1.761s 15
14 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Honda 2.121s 14
15 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Renault 2.340s 26
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 2.793s 16
17 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 2.841s 17
18 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber/Ferrari 3.329s 15
19 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 3.413s 9
20 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Renault 4.022s 6

 

Krafty needs to go... Seriously... He's clearly trolling

 

And ATBNM3

 

Incredible last lap by Vettel, as usual.

Lewis just has no competition this second part of the year, though.

 

Qualifying

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He was all very quiet when Lewis wasn't winning, but he's becoming more and more obnoxious as the lead increases and is clearly trolling