I try to be modest and nice all the time,
but excuse me this time mate. I totally kicked Seb’s ass throughout my stint at
Redbull and it feels great!*grins* Seb
is facing the same car troubles as Kimi is, and even though I love it, I know
it is tough to drive a car you are not comfortable with. The RBR has been kind
to me, and I daresay I am used to jittery cars screaming for more downforce
since my days at Redbull’s sister team Toro Rosso. And to be fair to Seb, he has
spent five years basking in the glory of the era of Downforce Supreme, and
switching to this car from that is tough indeed.
The team has been very good to me, in spite
of me donning the role of a second driver. The rumours about Mark being
side-lined to favour Seb before I came to this team really seem shaky after
this. Mark is my countryman, but Redbull is a very impartial team in my
experience. Formula 1 is a rat-race. It is the closest thing that I can relate
to about the Darwinian theory of survival of the fittest. Today, it’s Seb who
is facing problems, but that can turn around and tomorrow it might be me.
We Hear No Evil
There has been a lot of stuff happening in
F1. First, it was Jules’ dreadful accident, which left all of us drivers
shaken. It makes you stop and think about life, which can be so fleeting as to
change in milliseconds. What are we really doing? That question inevitably
arises in mind and forces you to introspect. But the answer is simple enough
for us. We are following our passions, and doing something we are best at
doing. Racing is all that keeps us sane, because that is what we have
conditioned ourselves to do over all these years. Secondly, Caterham and
Marussia are not racing this weekend at Austin due to intra-team problems, and
it makes the grid look a lot smaller. On the brighter side for drivers, it
means lesser blue flags.
Circuit of the Americas
Circuit of the Americas is a well-loved
track in the Formula 1 community, and drivers love it because of the
enthusiastic fans, the flow of the track, the Esses, and the fact that it has
taken the best out of some tracks and rolled it into one package. It has
sections from Germany’s Hockenheim, Turkey’s Istanbul Park and England’s
Silverstone. But it has one section that is unique; the steep climb into Turn
1, which ushers you blindly further on. In addition to all of this, the track
runs anti-clockwise and this requires a newer set of neck exercises to counter
the g-forces on the left side.
Track map of CotA
Friday and Saturday Practice Sessions
FP1 on Friday is disappointing for me
because I have to end my run early owing to a problem in the Energy Recovery
System(ERS) on the car. We have new youngsters Max Verstappen and Felipe Nasr
replacing Jean-Eric and Valtteri respectively. I get 45 minutes on track before
that happens, but the jittery feeling with the front and lack of traction is
unnerving. We have much to do, but have to wait till FP2 to do it. Lewis tops
FP1 behind Nico.
The team gets my car ready in two hours for
FP2. I post a seventh best time in the first attempt on prime tires. The
option/soft tires improve things later and I manage to split the Mercs and post
a second. Nico has gearbox issues and Fernando pips him to third place, and
goes on to depose me too. Nico manages to come back and floors it to come
second again. Thus, I stand fourth in FP2. FP3 is fun at first without the big
guns showing as I post second place in some laps, and then first behind Felipe.
After that it is just a fall into the back as I get deported to sixth place. As
the chequered flag comes out and I still am on a flying lap, I push and I push
but run horribly wide at the corner before last. I stay sixth.
The steep climb into Turn 1
Qualifying
The team takes its own sweet time to
prepare me to be sent into the battlefield as Q1 begins. 12 minutes out of the
18 minutes have already zoomed by before I am on the outlap for my first
qualifying lap. I give it all and post a fifth best time, purpling the final
sector to wrap it up. Q1 relegates are JEV, Esteban, Seb(!) and Romain. The Q2 clock
starts with its 15-minute countdown, and we waste no time in getting the car on
track this time. I post a seventh position on my first try, with Nico and Lewis
leading the pack. Towards the end, I scrape a fifth best lap on the charts, and
Pastor, Sergio, Hulk and Daniel Kvyat are knocked out. Q3 sees me the first car
out of the pitlane, eager to put on a good show. I am back in eighth after the
first runs, and determined to do better. I do more runs after a pit visit and catapult
from eighth to fourth. Felipe relegates me soon and at the end of Q3, I am in
fifth position ahead of Fernando. Nico, Lewis, Vallteri and Massa are at the
front in that order.
Had to take a selfie!
Race
The new protocol dictates that we drivers
come to the start of the grid and stand in a file for the local national anthem.
It seems like a long walk for backmarkers on the grid, and I have reservations
about this. After the US national anthem, we return to our cars and start the
nervous preparation for the race. I think that Williams has come through really
well this season, and their car could be judged as the best of the rest from
the grid at Austin. Seb will start from the pitlane it seems, with a penalty
for using the sixth engine.
LOL
We go on the warm-up lap to get heat into
the tires, and weave around the track before coming back to the grid to wait
for the five red lights to go out. I focus on getting a clean start and as the
lights go out I floor the throttle. I get a horrible start as Fernando and
Kevin relegate me to seventh place. The first two laps are hardly over and a
skirmish between Adrian and Sergio on the Esses brings out the Safety Car. It
starts the flurry of pitstops from a lot of cars, most noticeably Kevin for me.
The SC goes back in within a few laps and we are racing again. With Kevin out
of the equation for now, and Fernando right in front of me in 4th
place, I lose no time in overtaking him and do it from the inside on Turn 1.
Close shave! Ferrari crossed out! The team instructs me to reign in the
Williamses next. After 10 laps, I am still behind the Williams cars in fifth
place, and Nico-Lewis are fighting out their own duel at the front. On the
brighter side, I have pulled a good 6 seconds ahead of Fernando in 6th.
On lap 13, I see Valtteri lock up in Turn
15, and in a plan to undercut him I dive for the pits in the same lap. Felipe also
does the same from third position. I put on the medium tires(prime) and head
out. The next lap sees Valtteri pit too, and on lap 15, he comes out of the
pitlane side by side with me. I have the momentum from a longer run and I dive
around the outside of Turn 1 to take 4th place. One Williams down.
But not for long! Valtteri is on the faster soft option tires, by virtue of
which he is already all over me. He tries to DRS me on the straight before Turn
12, but I hold off. He attacks me again into Turn 15, but I keep him off. The
next two laps are all about defending my behind from the apparently agitated
Finn and I think I do a good job. After lap 18, I am 1.6 seconds behind Felipe
and 1.3 seconds ahead of Valtteri.
This positions continue to be so for the
next several laps. Valtteri seems to have started caring about his tires more
than me, and steadily drops off behind me. I still keep a respectable distance
to my next target Felipe in front, but somehow I don’t seem to be able to catch
him. Meanwhile, on lap 25, Lewis overtakes Nico to lead the US grand prix, and judging
from the way the stands erupt, you would think Lewis is American. I pit again
on lap 31, and put on another set of medium tires again. I rejoin the track
ahead of Valtteri, who pitted a lap before me. Felipe is still a little more
than a second ahead of me. He pits on lap 32, and rejoins behind me after a
botched stop by Willliams(3.7s). Second Williams down. I am now running third,
with 22 laps to go. Everything has gone as planned, and a podium seems a
possibility. Amidst all the hullabaloo, I also set the fastest lap.
On lap 35, Nico is 3.6 seconds ahead of me
and Felipe is 1.8 seconds behind me. I still have a chance to catch Nico, and I
also am not too comfortable with my gap to Felipe. Almost like an answer, Nico
raises his game on the next lap and clocks fastest lap. It seems I can’t catch
him after all. My immediate problem is Felipe all over my gearbox, and I focus
on fending him off. I manage to get 2 seconds ahead of him in the next few
laps, and the team reminds me that the battle with the Mercs not over yet. They
are involved in a war of their own, with Nico rapidly catching Lewis. They
might fight and things might get messy, which spells good fortune for me. But
that was too good to come true. I spend the remaining laps catching Nico, a gap
which was not working in my favour. Meanwhile, Felipe also manages to stage a
brief resurgence and comes as close as 1.5 seconds to me. That remains so until
the end of 56 laps. I hold on to third and Lewis wins the race.
And with that, my mathematical chances of
winning the Drivers’ Championship are over, with Lewis at 316 points, Nico 24
points behind him at 292. I have 214 points, which 102 down on the leader, and
with 75 points now available at last two races, I am officially out of the race
for WDC. Good luck to Lewis and Nico!
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