Racing lines: F1 championship duel heads for Texas

Austin maestros gear up for intense round that's too close to call

Six races to go, six points between them. The battle for the 2021 world championship is delicately poised as Formula 1 heads this week to the Lone Star State for the United States Grand Prix in Austin.

Max Verstappen has the edge over Lewis Hamilton, at least in terms of points on the board. But in the previous three races (at Monza, Sochi and Istanbul Park), Mercedes-AMG appears to have clawed back a slight performance advantage over Red Bull-Honda, against the grain of form from the first half of the season. It’s fantastically close.

In Russia, Verstappen started from the back as Red Bull sacrificed the race to intentionally break the Dutchman’s season limits on powertrain components, giving it greater odds on reliability for the autumn run-in. Verstappen still finished second to Hamilton, in a perfect example of damage limitation. In Turkey, it was Hamilton’s turn to take a penalty, on this occasion 10 grid places because Mercedes chose only to take an extra engine rather than all the ancillaries. The damage limitation wasn’t quite so effective in persistently damp conditions.

So was Mercedes right in pitting Hamilton for that fresh set of Pirelli intermediates, or should it have allowed him to stick it out on the tyres he started on, as he wished? Had Hamilton over-ruled the pitwall and stayed out, would he have held on to third, slipped lower than the fifth he eventually took – or suffered a catastrophic tyre failure that might effectively have cost him an eighth world title?

Those are the stakes and fine margins both teams are playing to right now, moment to moment. It’s so easy to be wise after the event.

*Texas ranger rides again*

Hamilton has a phenomenal record in the US. He won at Indianapolis in his first season back in 2007, soundly defeating McLaren team- mate Fernando Alonso in what was only his seventh GP. He has subsequently won five more times in the US since the race switched to the Circuit of the Americas in 2012, four times in successive years. Of those five, the first one was particularly memorable and not just because it was Hamilton’s last victory in a McLaren. In a tense chase of Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull, Hamilton pounced for the lead when the German lost momentum behind Narain Karthikeyan’s makeweight HRT.

He will be living on his instincts once again on Sunday, against a rival who has yet to win in Texas. One slip at this stage and all could be lost. If it’s a driver error that makes the difference, that’s one thing, but a car failure would be hard to bear – and not only for the unlucky chap in the cockpit.

Here, then, is the delicious dichotomy of motor racing: in its purest moments, it’s a sport centred on brilliant, driven, selfish individuals – but who count for nothing without the dedication and expertise of every person on their team who stands behind them. The pressure right now within Red Bull and Honda’s Milton Keynes bases and at Mercedes in Brackley and Brixworth will be off the gauge – but it’s also what these people live for.

For so long F1 has been dominated by Mercedes, and now finally we have a proper duel between rival camps. The last time that was the case? The 2012 season, when Red Bull and Vettel faced down Ferrari and Alonso and Hamilton was reduced to the unwanted role of title disruptor. It feels like a hundred years ago. No wonder we're excited.

*Next stop, Mongolia*

The resilience of race promoters and event organisers continues to be tested to extremes in these still worrying and difficult times. F1 has turned to the Middle East for rapid-fire solutions to its schedule headaches, determined as it is to run 22 races this year come hell or high water (or both). The latest swerve is replacing Melbourne’s much-loved Australian GP with a new race at Losail in Qatar next month. Liberty Media is so grateful that it has awarded the circuit best known as an underwhelming MotoGP venue a 10-year contract to make the grand prix a permanent F1 fixture from 2023. Hold my coat while I dance in the streets.

Other promoters are dreaming up more imaginative and inspiring solutions. Take Hero-Era for example, the leading organiser of epic rallies and adventures for classic and historic car enthusiasts. Crossing multiple international borders for the indulgence and frivolity of having fun in old motor cars is a tough one to justify right now, not to mention impossible in some regions of the world, so it’s no great surprise to hear the next Peking to Paris Motor Challenge – which first ran in 1907 – has been postponed a year to 2023. But rather than settle for an inevitable delay, Hero-Era has filled the void in 2022 with a fascinating new event that takes place in a single country that also happens to be massive and remote, and is far less politically charged to deal with than China.

The Trans Mongolian Motor Challenge next year covers 6000km across the Gobi desert, will take 18 days to complete and for 15 of which entrants will be forced to camp, in a wilderness that features golden eagles, camels, gazelles, wild horses and a breed of antelope that can apparently outpace a recce car doing 45mph...

Route planner Chris Elkins has previous experience of the Gobi and recalls one special occasion: “I sat there alone in the vast open space. You couldn’t hear a thing: no wind, not an animal, no living thing, no other sound anywhere, just total otherworldly silence. You have to pinch yourself at times as a reminder of just how lucky you are to be there.” Those hardy souls in F1’s travelling circus, whonext year will face 23 races around the world in just 36 weeks, are unlikely to feel the same about Qatar.