F1 Driver Form: United States Grand Prix at COTA

Max Verstappen has won the last two United States Grands Prix and has finished on the podium on all of his last four appearances at Circuit of The Americas. He could have finished on the podium in 2017 too, if not for a time penalty for an overtake beyond track limits. Instead, fourth place had to do. He also finished an impressive fourth with Toro Rosso in 2015. Verstappen’s only retirement at the track came in 2016.

2018 is the only year that Verstappen has failed to reach Q3. He started 18th that year after an engine penalty, leading to a great comeback drive in the race. He similarly gained 12 positions in the previous year.

Verstappen recorded his first pole at the venue in 2021 and won from third on the grid in 2022. He is yet to lose a position from where he started on any of his four finishes at the track.

Sergio Perez recorded his first United States Grand Prix podium result in 2021 with third place. Perez has scored on all but two visits to COTA. In 2019, Perez finished tenth, ending a three year streak of eighth place results. 2012, when he finished 12th, and 2014, when he retired, are the only seasons that Perez has not scored at the track. He finished fourth last year.

Perez has reached Q3 on six of his ten visits to the United States Grand Prix, with a best qualifying position of third place in 2021. Perez has not out-qualified a team-mate at the track since 2015.

Aside from his 2014 retirement, Perez has never lost a position from where he started in the United States Grand Prix. He made up five positions in the 2022 race having taken a grid penalty.

From four appearances at the United States Grand Prix, Leclerc has failed to finish once. After finishing fourth on consecutive visits in 2019 and 2021, Leclerc recorded his first podium finish at the track in 2022, finishing in third place.

Leclerc has reached the final part of qualifying on all four appearances at the circuit, recording his first front row start at the track last year.

Carlos Sainz took pole position at the United States Grand Prix in 2022 but was taken out of the race on the first lap by George Russell. It was the first time in seven appearances that Sainz failed to finish in the top eight at COTA.

Sainz’s best result here is sixth, recorded with Toro Rosso in 2016. He has finished seventh four times and came home eighth in 2019. Sainz has failed to reach Q3 at the track only twice, exiting in Q1 on his first appearance in 2016 and exiting in Q2 in 2018.

2019 marked the first time that Sainz has lost a position from where he started at the United States Grand Prix – something which happened again in 2021.

He may not have won here since 2017, but Lewis Hamilton is the undisputed King of COTA. He has won five races at the track, and has finished on the podium in all but one of the ten race weekends held at the circuit. The only season where Hamilton has not finished in the top three at the Circuit of the Americas was in 2013, when he finished fourth.

In 2019, Hamilton ended a three-year streak of pole positions at the track. Before that, he qualified on the front row three times. He returned to the front row in 2021, qualifying second. Hamilton has never qualified outside of the top five at COTA. He qualified fifth here in 2013, 2019 and 2022.

2018 is the only season that Hamilton has finished in a position lower than where he has started at the United States Grand Prix, while 2013 is the only season that he hasn’t led a lap of the race here. Hamilton remains the only driver to have completed every racing lap which has been held at Circuit of The Americas.

George Russell finished 17th on his first United States Grand Prix outing in 2019 and bettered that with 14th place in 2021. He scored his first points at the track in 2022, finishing in fifth place.

From his three appearances, Russell has recorded one Q1 elimination, one Q2 exit and a Q3 appearance. He qualified sixth last year and was out-qualified by a team-mate for the first time at the track.

From his five appearances so far at the United States Grand Prix, Esteban Ocon has scored only once. He finished sixth in 2017, bagging eight points. He also finished eighth in 2018, but was disqualified from the event as his car exceeded fuel flow limits on the opening lap of the race. Ocon failed to finish the race in 2021 and came home 11^th in 2022.

Ocon has reached the final part of qualifying twice at the Circuit of The Americas, with a best qualifying result of sixth in 2018. 2016 and 2022 are the only seasons in which Ocon has been out-qualified by a team-mate at the track, with last year also marking his first Q1 exit at the venue since his first appearance in 2016.

Pierre Gasly has failed to score on all four of his United States Grand Prix appearances so far. His best result here is 12th, recorded in 2018. He finished 16th in 2019 and retired from the race in 2021. He finished 14^th last year.

Gasly reached Q3 at the United States Grand Prix for the first time in 2019 and went on to record his best qualifying result here in 2021 with ninth place. 2022 was the first time he was out in Q1 at the track since his first appearance in 2018. He has out-qualified his team-mate on all four visits to the track.

He gained seven places from where he started in 2018, which remains the only COTA race in which he has finished in a better position than where he started.

Lando Norris has scored points on all three visits to COTA. He finished seventh on his United States Grand Prix debut in 2019, came home eighth in 2021 and recorded his best result at the track to date with sixth place in the 2022 United States Grand Prix.

Norris has qualified in eighth place for all three of his races at the circuit, though he moved up to seventh on the grid in 2021 and sixth in 2022. 2022 was the first time he out-qualified a team-mate at the track.

Prior to the start of his F1 career, Norris previously drove at COTA with McLaren in Free Practice 1 for the 2018 United States Grand Prix.

Valtteri Bottas took his first United States Grand Prix win, and his first podium finish at the event, in 2019.

Circuit of The Americas is the track at which Bottas first scored at in Formula 1, finishing eighth in 2013. He has finished fifth here three times, with 2015 and 2022 – when he retired – and 2016 being the only seasons that the Finn has failed to score.

Bottas has reached Q3 at the track on every occasion except 2015, when he set the 12^th fastest lap time. Bottas took pole for the first time at the circuit in 2019.

2013 and 2021 are the only years that Bottas has finished the United States Grand Prix in a better position than where he started from.

Fernando Alonso finished on the podium at Circuit of the Americas in the inaugural race here in 2012. That’s his only podium finish here – though he went on to record three more top six finishes, with fifth in 2013 and 2016, and sixth in 2014.

Alonso retired from each of his three appearances at the circuit between 2017 and 2021. He returned to the points in 2022, finishing seventh despite a collision with Lance Stroll.

From his last six appearances here, Alonso has reached Q3 only twice. His best qualifying result is sixth, recorded in 2013 and 2014, while 2012 and 2021 are the only seasons in which he has been out-qualified by a team-mate at the venue.

Lance Stroll has not yet scored a point at the United States Grand Prix. His best finish so far at the track came in 2017, when he finished 11th. He held a 100% finishing rate at the track until 2022, when he collided with the rear of Fernando Alonso’s Alpine and retired from the race.

2019 marked the first time Stroll has progressed past Q1 at COTA, qualifying in 14th place. He reached Q3 at the track in 2022, qualifying in seventh place.

In 2022, Kevin Magnussen scored at the United States Grand Prix for the first time since his first appearance at COTA in 2014. He finished ninth last year, one place behind his best result at the track of eighth in 2014. 2019 is the only year that Magnussen has failed to reach the chequered flag in Texas, though he was disqualified from the race in 2018.

2014 is the only year Magnussen has qualified in the top ten at the track. In 2022, he recorded his third Q1 exit at the track. He has out-qualified his team-mate in each of his last two visits to the track, though he was out-qualified on all four appearances prior to 2019.

Nico Hulkenberg raced in all of the first eight races at Circuit of The Americas, recording a best result of sixth place in 2013 and 2018. He has scored on four of his eight appearances but his other four outings all resulted in retirements.

Hulkenberg has reached Q3 at the United States Grand Prix on five occasions and was eliminated in Q2 in 2014, 2017 and 2019. He has never qualified outside of the top 15 at COTA and recorded a best qualifying result of fourth place with Sauber in 2013.

His last two appearances here – in 2018 and 2019 – are the only times that Hulkenberg has finished the United States Grand Prix in a better position than where he started.

Yuki Tsunoda scored points on his first appearance at Circuit of The Americas in 2021, finishing in ninth place. He reached Q3 for the event, qualifying in tenth. Tsunoda missed out on Q3 in 2022, qualifying two positions behind his team-mate in 15^th place. He made up five places in the race to score a single point, finishing in tenth.

Daniel Ricciardo has finished on the podium twice at the United States Grand Prix, with third place finishes at COTA in 2014 and 2016. His 2014 podium was the first of five occasions that the Australian has scored here, the most recent time being a fifth place finish with McLaren in 2021.

There have been two occasions on which Ricciardo has retired from the United States Grand Prix, both with Red Bull in 2017 and 2018.

Ricciardo has never qualified on the front row at COTA, but has qualified third on the grid twice – in 2015 and 2016. He reached Q3 here on seven successive appearances between 2014 and 2021. In 2022, he recorded his first Q1 exit at the track since 2012. Those two races are the only times that he’s been out-qualified by a team-mate at the track.

Alex Albon finished fifth on his first appearance at the United States Grand Prix in 2019. He started the race from sixth place after being out-qualified by his team-mate. In 2022, Albon out-qualified his team-mate and qualified in 11^th place. He moved up to eighth place on the final grid, but lost positions in the Grand Prix and finished 13^th.