FALL CLASSIC
Explore Daniel Ricciardo’s favorite elements of the Circuit of the America’s and the Lone Star legacy of F1 as we drive into the 2023 United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
Words by Justin Hynes Illustrations by Chris Rathbone
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The Miami Grand Prix may have sun-soaked bling, while the new race in Las Vegas will have neon-lit glamour, but despite a lack of post-Netflix theatrics, F1’s current longest-standing grand prix is a race of rare beauty. The attractiveness of Austin lies in its authenticity. With over a decade of service under its belt and more focus on the track action at the Circuit of the Americas rather than the sideshows, the race in Texas references the traditions of F1’s classic European circuits. The top drivers agree. “[Austin] has its own kind of atmosphere,” longtime COTA cheerleader and eight-time grand prix winner Daniel Ricciardo told Stephen Colbert last year. “It’s a race I certainly love going to. I’ll probably continue going just as a fan.” For seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, Austin’s circuit sits right alongside the world’s most iconic tracks, which he dreamed about racing on as a child.
“They don’t make tracks like they did in the olden days,” he observed while in Austin back in 2018. “Some of the new tracks aren’t really that good, but this is one of those that is—it’s got great character. And from day one when we arrived here, there was a massive crowd.” Ricciardo concurs. “It’s one of the best circuits we go to on the calendar for racing. You can pass in four different places,” he notes. “There are some tracks you struggle to pass on once, so to have four different opportunities, with the shape of the corners and the apexes—everything just creates a really good atmosphere that encourages you to battle.” Away from the track itself, the popular Australian driver is equally enthusiastic about the atmosphere in the city on race weekend. “The extra energy I get from the atmosphere is immeasurable, and I love everything about it,” says Ricciardo. “From the crowd to the food and music—the U.S. Grand Prix is like nothing else!”
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CIRCUIT GUIDE
Veteran Daniel Ricciardo, who has started more than 230 Formula 1 races, offers his insider perspective on the key turns on the COTA.
Dan Mullan / Getty Images
3.43
the length (in miles) of the Circuit of the Americas track.
1:36.169
race lap record, set by Charles Leclerc, 36s faster than the NASCAR mark!
number of turns on the Circuit of the Americas. Nine of them are right turns and 11 are lefts.
440,000
weekend attendance for 2022 U.S. Grand Prix, a record for a North American F1 Event
5
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at COTA for Lewis Hamilton, the most of any driver
207
the top speed (in mph) at COTA in 2022, reached by Alfa Romeo’s Chinese driver, Zhou Guanyu.
Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool (2), Getty Images
Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images
EIGHT-TIME GRAND PRIX WINNER
Mark Thompson / Getty Images
DANIEL RICCIARDO
Chris Tedesco / Red Bull Content Pool
FLASHBACK
Formula 1’s long, strange history in the U.S. doesn’t get much stranger than the sport’s sole visit to Dallas in 1984, where extreme heat, a disintegrating circuit, soap opera stars and fainting fits contributed to a Texas massacre.
Austin has become a fixture of the F1 calendar, but it wasn’t the sport’s first rodeo in Texas. That honor goes to Dallas, which in 1984 served up an odd spectacle. Larry Hagman, star of prime-time 1980s soap opera Dallas, was the race starter. And French driver Jacques Laffite protested the very un-Gallic pre-race warm-up time of 7 a.m. by arriving at the paddock in pajamas. But what made Dallas truly unforgettable was the weather. Held on a scorching July day, the street layout at Fair Park began to crumble under the force of 25 turbo-boosted F1 cars. The heat was so relentless—Goodyear measured 150°F on the track—that Osella’s Piercarlo Ghinzani fainted during a pit stop and had to be revived with a bucket of cold water. Nigel Mansell passed out trying to push his stricken Lotus across the line at the end of the race. Williams driver Keke Rosberg, though, was unfazed. He’d worn a $2,500 water-cooled skull cap. Used regularly in NASCAR but new to F1, the gizmo gave the wily Finn a competitive advantage. And he took a cool-headed victory ahead of the more exhausted-looking René Arnoux.
After winning the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix in excruciatingly hot weather conditions, Keke Rosberg celebrates with a cold beverage as he waves to the crowd.
Mike Murphy / AP / picturedesk.com
DANIEL RICCIARDO
Chris Tedesco / Red Bull Content Pool
The inaugural season of Ready for the Big Time: F1 explored what it would take for Formula One to make the big time in the United States. Now, with an American driver on the grid, an American team and three US GPs, F1 fever has arrived in the US, and in the process, the sport has embraced some distinctly American traits. Season 2 unpacks the Americanization of F1. Host Scott Speed, along with co-hosts F1 Toni and Andrew Lawrence, will explore the splashy plans for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, how American carmakers are betting on F1 and why reaching female content creators may be the secret ingredient to propel the sport into the stratosphere. In the first episode, the honey badger himself, Daniel Ricciardo, talks about his plans to return to the grid for the USGP and his love for BBQ.
hosted by scott speed
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