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Andrew Shovlin believes the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team can be in contention for a podium finish this weekend at the Circuit of the Americas after pleasing early results of their updated W13 after Friday’s running at the track.

Both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell showed good performance across the two sessions at COTA on Friday, even if the wind was playing havoc with proceedings.

Shovlin, the Track Engineering Director at Mercedes, says the updates brought to the car this weekend appeared to be working the way they were expected to, and he hopes the reasonable start to the United States Grand Prix weekend can see them fighting towards the front of the field on Sunday.

“We’ve had a pretty solid day all in all,” said Shovlin.  “We ran the update kit on both cars in the morning and the data from that looks in line with expectations.

“The balance has been tricky due to the wind, but I don’t think we’re alone struggling with that. There’s also a fair bit of tyre overheating on the long runs that will be tricky to manage on Sunday, but it seems like everyone is suffering with the same.

Lewis Hamilton continued to show his appreciation for everyone back at the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team factories as another new upgrade was brought to the W13 for this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

Hamilton, who has five victories to his name at the Circuit of the Americas including four in succession between 2014 and 2017, was third fastest in the opening session on Friday before ending eighth fastest in the second session.

The seven-time World Champion hopes Mercedes are not too far away from the front of the pack across the rest of the weekend in Austin as he bids to end his longest winless run of his FIA Formula 1 World Championship career.

“Everything went to plan today,” said Hamilton.  “I’m super grateful to everyone back at the factory for working so hard and bringing us upgrades for this weekend.

“It’s been an incredibly tough year for us, and the team has continuously been pushing. Everyone kept their heads down and it feels like we are progressing with the car’s performance.

Max Verstappen remained positive after free practice for the United States Grand Prix on Friday despite falling short in both sessions behind Scuderia Ferrari.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver, who secured his second consecutive Drivers’ Championship after winning the previous round in Japan, ended second fastest in the first session at the Circuit of the Americas before ending seventh in the second, although times in that second session were virtually meaningless due to Pirelli enforcing a tyre test for all teams and drivers.

Verstappen says the lack of long run knowledge will make the race on Sunday difficult, but he will be doing his homework during final practice on Saturday, including working out the best way to deal with the bumps that are still prevalent around the Circuit of the Americas despite some of the track being resurfaced.

“FP1 I think was quite good, we tried a few things with the car and it was pretty positive,” said Verstappen.  “We did as much as we could in FP1 as we knew we had to test the tyres in FP2.

“I tested the C1 tyre which probably isn’t the best for this track, it was difficult to get a proper grip on it but at least we completed the programme. Looking ahead to tomorrow, I think the long run is still questionable as we didn’t get the chance to do that in FP2.

Antonio Giovinazzi apologised to the Haas F1 Team after crashing early on during the first free practice session at the Circuit of the Americas after feeling he got caught out by the wind.

The Italian, who has sat out the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season after losing his seat at Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN at the end of last season, was participating in his second free practice session of the season in place of regular driver Kevin Magnussen in the United States, but he lost control of the VF-22 at turn six and spun into the barriers.

Giovinazzi then got stuck in the barriers and was unable to re-join the track, meaning his session was cut short and restricted to just four laps, which meant he was slowest of the twenty drivers.

“I wasn’t pushing but there were lots of gusts of wind and unfortunately I lost the rear, which got stuck in the barriers, and the session was over,” said Giovinazzi.

“It was only my second push lap in the session, my first with DRS, so apologies to the team. It’s racing and sometimes these things happen.”

Mick Schumacher says he was encouraged by ending second free practice with the fifth fastest time at the Circuit of the Americas, but he does not think a repeat performance is a possibility come Saturday afternoon.

The Haas F1 Team driver was the slowest of the regular drivers in fifteenth in the morning session as the United States Grand Prix weekend got underway, while he flew into the top five in the second session, even though times were virtually meaningless due to the tyre tests that were being undertaken by Pirelli by all ten teams and twenty drivers.

Haas are running a special livery at COTA this weekend for their home Grand Prix, and Schumacher hopes they can fight for a place inside the top ten in Qualifying, even if a top five is unrealistic.

“It’s great to be back, we have our special livery out this weekend and driving in front of a home crowd is always nice,” said Schumacher.  “The performance was there, but you never know what’s happening around you and what compounds or fuel loads others are using.

“We’ll gladly take it today, but I don’t think that’s possible for us tomorrow. Nonetheless, we still have some work to do and hopefully we’ll qualify in the top 10, and then have a good race.”

Álex Palou enjoyed his first official free practice session in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship on Friday, with the Spaniard running for the McLaren F1 Team at the Circuit of the Americas in place of regular driver Daniel Ricciardo.

The 2021 NTT IndyCar Series champion, who races for Chip Ganassi Racing in the championship, had tested several times in previous years’ machinery with McLaren ahead of his Grand Prix weekend debut, and Palou reckons this programme helped him settle into the session quicker.

Palou said it was a different experience running in someone else’s car during the session, but he got as comfortable behind the wheel of the MCL36 as he felt he could and completed twenty-one laps on his way to seventeenth fastest at the Circuit of the Americas.

“Awesome. I’m super-happy. The session went really well,” said Palou.  “You always think that you’re ready but you never know when you come here.

“Obviously there’s a bit of pressure of having a car that’s not yours, that has to go out on the track again a short time later, along with all the data we had to collect for the team.

Daniel Ricciardo felt it was a productive Friday for the McLaren F1 Team at the Circuit of the Americas, even if he missed out on running in opening practice due to the team giving Álex Palou a chance behind the wheel of the MCL36.

The Australian, who arrived in the paddock on Thursday on a horse, said it was an intense second session on Friday afternoon as he got up to speed, but around a track he enjoys, he felt it was productive, even though most of the session was taken up by running Pirelli’s mandatory tyre test.

Ricciardo says the times during the session mean little as a result of the tyre test, so he cannot look too much into his third-place finish, but he hopes McLaren can be in the fight for Q3 on Saturday.

“An interesting day,” said Ricciardo.  “I didn’t drive this morning but then had a long afternoon session, so it was kind of intense. It was obviously really cool just to be back out here.

“I love this place and this circuit is good fun. It’s pretty different with these cars this year. There are a lot more blind spots and the cars are still pretty stiff, so even though they’ve resurfaced it’s still a bit of a handful in some places.

Théo Pourchaire said his experience during first practice for the United States Grand Prix on Friday was the ‘best hour of his life’ so far, with the Frenchman taking over from Valtteri Bottas for Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN at the Circuit of the Americas.

FIA Formula 2 frontrunner Pourchaire was handed the chance to run in the opening session at COTA as part of Alfa Romeo’s mandatory young driver sessions during the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, and he completed nineteen laps on his way to the eighteenth fastest time.

Pourchaire says he was focusing on getting an understanding on how everything on the C42-Ferrari worked during the session and was not going for outright pace, but he was pleased to be able to help the team learn ahead of the rest of the weekend at COTA.

“It’s been an amazing experience, the best hour of my life and I am so grateful to the team for the trust they’ve put in me,” said Pourchaire.  “Discovering this track was incredible and the car is just something special: I have been through lots of emotions and I’m just so happy right now.

“My main target was to help the team and I was pleased to be able to do so: we had a good session, did quite a few laps and everyone was satisfied, so it’s a good start of the weekend.

Valtteri Bottas hopes there is pace to come from Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN this weekend when they introduce on Saturday the new parts to the car that they did not do on Friday at the Circuit of the Americas.

The Finn, who sat out the first session of the United States Grand Prix weekend to allow Sauber Academy driver and current FIA Formula 2 star Théo Pourchaire to experience a free practice session for the first time, ended second fastest when he did get out on track, but this was far from representative as it was during a session primarily dedicated to a Pirelli tyre test.

With Alfa Romeo holding back on introducing their new components to Saturday, Bottas hopes this was the right move and they can be a contender for Q3 during Saturday’s Qualifying session and for points on Sunday afternoon.

“Today has been a bit of a peculiar day, both because of the Pirelli tyre test and because FP2 has been my first session in the car,” said Bottas.  “I was still able to do a couple of runs to set the car up in the early part of the session, before I switched to the Pirelli programme, so those lap times are not really representative: still, the overall feeling is positive.

“I was able to get up to speed immediately and the car didn’t feel too bad, even though we didn’t have the upgrades we’re saving for tomorrow: hopefully this means there’s still quite some margin for improvement.

Robert Shwartzman thanked Scuderia Ferrari for the opportunity to run in the opening free practice session of the United States Grand Prix on Friday as part of their mandatory young driver sessions.

The young Russian, racing under an Israeli licence due to the ongoing war his homeland is engaged in with Ukraine, ended the quickest of the five reserve and junior drivers trusted to participate in the session at the Circuit of the Americas in sixteenth.

It could have been even better for Shwartzman after finding himself baulked behind Max Verstappen through the final two turns on a late flying that that looked as though it would move him up the order.

Nevertheless, Shwartzman enjoyed his first opportunity behind the wheel of a FIA Formula 1 World Championship car in an official free practice session, and he hopes to do even better during his second chance, which will come ahead of the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“My first free practice in the F1-75 felt amazing today,” said Shwartzman.  “We completed everything we had planned for the session and the team was satisfied with the work we did.

Scuderia Ferrari led the way in both free practice sessions at the Circuit of the Americas on Friday, with Carlos Sainz Jr. heading the field in the first session before Charles Leclerc did likewise in the second.

Sainz felt it was a different Friday compared to what he is used to due to the second session in the United States being given over to Pirelli to conduct a 2023 blind tyre test, meaning a lot of his set-up work had to be done in the first session.

Nevertheless, Sainz was able to complete his programme, and being close to the front in both sessions gives him confidence going into the rest of the weekend.

“It was a different Friday here in Austin,” said Sainz.  “In FP1 we managed to complete our programme, but FP2 was dedicated to the Pirelli test, so it was one and a half hours of trying next year’s tyres without changing the set-up of the car.

This also means tomorrow’s FP3 will be even more important than usual ahead of Qualifying.  However, overall we have been relatively competitive today so we are confident going into tomorrow.”

The Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT team is confused about what is causing the two hybrid power issues for Ott Tänak during the two Friday loops despite changing the unit.

Tänak couldn´t use his hybrid system as he was left with either intermittent hybrid boost or nothing at all during the two opening stages of RallyRACC Catalunya – Costa Daurada on Friday morning, which resulted in the team having to change the General Dynamics unit during the midday service.

Then again the Estonian lost the hybrid system on the afternoon loop during stage eight which also cost him valuable time but he is still managing to hold on to fourth as his teammate Dani Sordo is almost a minute back after the Spaniard caught up with a puncture during stage seven.

Hyundai´s deputy team principal Julien Moncet explained the situation about the hybrid issues to Motorsport.com when he was asked what causing it:  “That is a good question. It is not really clear what has happened with the first one this morning and I think Compact Dynamics is still looking at the data to understand it. The one from this afternoon we don’t know as the car has only just arrived. We will have to check the data, and maybe it is the same thing, but maybe it is another problem, I don’t know.”

Tänak also commented about the problems when he was asked by Dirtfish.com: “It’s not bad luck for sure, it seems to be a similar issue to what we had this morning, so probably there needs to be something which is causing it. The guys need to find out what is the issue. This exact case, I’m not sure if it’s outside from the team’s [control]. I don’t actually know why it’s happening; there must be some reason why it’s coming. We need to learn a bit.”

The current RallyRACC Catalunya – Costa Daurada rally leader Sébastien Ogier has revealed for the American publication Dirtfish.com that his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 suffered from a sensor fault in the transit between the stages during the afternoon loop.

Ogier who is contesting the season remainder for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT took over the rally lead on the third stage in the morning but lost the lead to Hyundai´s Thierry Neuville after stage four and was trailing close behind with 0.5 seconds to spare. After the midday service, it was time for another go through the same stages and the Frenchman retook the lead on stage five.

During a transit between two of the stages, the car stopped as it had a sensor failure and Ogier said it took about 12-15 minutes to repair it, if he hasn´t managed to fix it, it could have ended his rally.

“Actually I had a little bit of a worry this afternoon, the car stopped between two stages and we had to mechanic a little bit and solve an error, a sensor problem I guess, It was a bit of a scary moment when this car would not restart for 12-15 minutes, so I’m happy that the team on the phone could support and help us solve the problem.” Ogier told DirtFish.com.

Friday saw the return of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship to the United States with two exciting practice sessions, with the second being extended from sixty to ninety minutes due to a Pirelli tyre test session.

Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc posted the fastest time in the second practice session, the Monegasque driver was one of the drivers who posted their times on the 2022 spec tyres after sitting out the first session after his team gave Robert Shwartzman a chance behind the wheel of the F1-75.

Leclerc’s fastest time was a 1.36.810 on the medium tyre with Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo also in the top three on soft tyres. The session, however, was primarily used for Pirelli to gather data on their work in progress tyre compounds ahead of the post-season test for the definitive versions in Abu Dhabi.

Free Practice 2 saw the first laps on the weekend for Leclerc, Ricciardo, Bottas, Nicholas Latifi and Kevin Magnussen. The latter lost a large amount of time due to Antonio Giovinazzi’s crash in the first session of the weekend.

Carlos Sainz Jr. led the drivers that were restricted to the unmarked Pirelli tyres, and it was a strong showing for Haas F1 Team‘s Mick Schumacher, who completed the top five. Lando Norris completed a strong session for McLaren coming home in sixth, but it could have ended badly for the Brit after he narrowly missed the wall after sliding at the pit entry.

For the 2023 Dakar Rally, Sodicars Racing intends to bring in some student aid. On Thursday, Sodicars announced a new partnership with Nebrija University in Madrid, Spain, where students will attempt to redesign the Sodicars BV2 for Manolo and Mónica Plaza Perez to race.

The two parties first teamed up for the Baja Aragón in July, where a team of students joined the Plazas and Sodicars at the race. The Plazas would finish fortieth overall and thirteenth in the T1 category.

The students are a mixture of undergraduates and master’s pursuers from the university’s Higher Polytechnic School. Among their responsibilities in the redesign are to improve the aerodynamics and handling as well as reduce the vehicle weight.

“Nebrija to Dakar is a long-term project that extends beyond the 2023 Dakar Rally,” explained Sergio Corbera, who oversees the university’s automotive department. “It is an initiative with a clear roadmap on which evolve and gradually integrate new technological advances developed by university students in this type of vehicle.”

Manolo Plaza has raced in the Dakar Rally fifteen times since 1996. He was a regular from his debut until the race was cancelled in 2008, from which he spent the next decade competing in its replacement Africa Eco Race. Plaza made his return to the Dakar Rally in 2020 with daughter Mónica as co-driver.