F1 2026 - United States GP

F1 traveled to the awesome Circuit of the Americas in the Lone Star State for the latest round of the 2026 world championship, but was a new star world champion crowned this weekend?

Performances

Mercedes - the contrast here between teammates is insane! Antonelli with a world champion drive to take pole and then a dominant win, made the one stop work very well. He still has to wait until Mexico to take the crown but drives like this remind us all it's not just luck (as many people like to say), he is a truly amazing driver and his season has been fantastic. Meanwhile for Russell... a very painful P8. Never on the pace on Antonelli at all, and got a penalty that condemned him to finish at the back of the top 4 teams. It's been a really shocking season from him, and looking back at what most of us said after Australia is hilarious! He really needs a reset over the season break to fix the issues mentally and with this regulation set, but it can be done (Hill and Rosberg).

Ferrari - really great drive from Leclerc to take P2, he was basically faultless all weekend on the two-stop. Once again the straights are the issue with this year's car, but he made it work and the pace was very good. Lewis was just off him all weekend long in P4, but grew in the race and probably would have got a podium at the end if not for the late VSC. Solid weekend overall for the team, just a shame the car is slightly off it in terms of power.

Red Bull - pretty disappointing weekend especially considering the recent pace of the car. Verstappen with a P3, a podium is a good result but his pace in the middle of his stints especially really hampered his progress. The strategy also turned out to be incorrect, as the soft tyres saved were not the best tyre, but hindsight is also the advantage I have compared to the strategy teams! Hadjar had a solid quali close to Verstappen and a good result in P6, his pace at the start was quite good but he had an issue where his mapping got stuck to the pit lane mapping and that lost him time in the second stint. Also this year's Red Bull is clearly one of the worst cars at race starts, that has to be fixed.

McLaren - solid drive from Norris in P5, he made the strategy work as best as he could and probably could have finished higher if he didn't mess up qualifying. Piastri came home in P7, never really on the pace of his teammate all weekend long (again). Their upgrades clearly did not work and they are the 4th fastest car.

Racing Bulls - lonely race for Lawson in P9 but once again he maximises the result, impressive stuff. Lindblad had a 5 place penalty and despite reaching Q3 came home in 12th.

Alpine - Gasly came home in the last points position in P10 despite damage from a collision with Bearman, while Colapinto hit Lindblad at turn 1 and ultimately damaged his car and retired later on in the race from that damage.

Audi - Hulkenberg in... (you guessed it)... P11 and Bortoleto in P13 after starting from the back of the grid with penalties. Once again just missing out on points.

Haas - Ocon finished in P14 while Bearman failed to make the most of his promising pace and then got involved with Gasly early on, got a penalty and eventually retired.

Aston Martin - Alonso had pretty good pace despite being hit by Albon early on and losing his bargeboard, and came home P16. Stroll was off it all weekend but came home P15 due to some dodgy strategy for Alonso.

Williams - P17 for Albon and P18 for Sainz. Absymal season and a waste of two good drivers.

Cadillac - Perez in P19 pretty much got the max that he could, Bottas retired late on with a car issue.

Race rating - 3/10 - not much happened, we got to see some midfield battles early on which was nice but as so often is the case in seasons dominated by one driver they peter out pretty disappointingly at the end.

Driver of the race - Leclerc and Lawson drove well, but of course the only real option is the nearly champion Kimi Antonelli for a dominant pole and victory!

Next weekend - the Mexican Grand Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, an historic track named after two Mexican F1 drivers that first held a world championship race in 1963. The high altitude and long straight mean that this track sees some of the fastest speeds recorded in F1, reaching over 350 kph (218 mph)! The section that passes by the baseball stadium is also fantastic to watch an F1 car go through there. Some of the best Mexican Grand Prix races from the past have been: 1964 (Surtees takes the title by a single point), 1987 (Mansell wins one of the weirdest races ever with the cumulative time rule meaning we basically got a second race), 1990 (Prost wins from 17th after Senna's late puncture and Mansell makes a brilliant move on Berger, great racing throughout the field and imo one of the most underrated races in F1 history) and 2021 (very tense win from Verstappen with Hamilton defending furiously from Perez at the end).