Only nine of the 11 teams have made it to Austin this weekend for round 17 of the 2014 Formula 1 world championship, the US Grand Prix. With debts mounting over, backmarkers Caterham and Marussia have been handed over to administrators who won’t let the two F1 teams go racing, until a suitable buyer is found.
The bilateral agreements signed by all 11 teams allow them to miss up to three events in a season, if the situations absolutely compels them to do so. The stewards of the US GP, however, feel that Caterham and Marussia have breached the sporting regulations and have referred the matter to FIA president Jean Todt.
The absence of these F1 two teams leave only 18 cars on the grid. As a result, the sport’s governing body has tweaked the format of qualifying with four slowest cars eliminated in Q1 and Q2. The 12 minute Q3 showdown remains unchanged with 10 fastest cars battling for pole position.
HAMILTON LEADS SILVER ARROWS SWEEP
Coming back to the on-track action on the Hermann Tilke designed Circuit of the Americas, Lewis Hamilton topped both sessions on Friday from Mercedes AMG F1 teammate Nico Rosberg. In FP2, the gap between the two stood at just 0.003 session, summing up the tooth and neck battle we’ve seen all season between the pairing.
Fernando Alonso was the best of the rest in P3 for Ferrari with Kimi Raikkonen in sixth place behind Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull-Renault and Felipe Massa's Williams-Mercedes.
McLaren looked strong for the second race running; the Woking squad brought a significant upgrade in Singapore with the improvements now visible on track. Both Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button were in the top five in FP1 before slipping slightly behind to eighth and ninth places respectively in the afternoon. Button will drop five places on the grid for a gearbox change.
Ricciardo was fourth quickest in FP2 after being reduced to the garage for majority of the morning session. In the afternoon, it was Sebastian Vettel’s turn to watch the session from the sidelines as his mechanics tirelessly fitted a new gearbox on his RB10. A subsequent change of the complete power unit will mean that the German will have to start the race from the pitlane. Expect an overtaking friendly setup on his car for Sunday.
Further back, Williams were very much in the mix with Massa fifth fastest and Valtteri Bottas ninth quickest, having handed over his car to tester Felipe Nasr in FP1.
Lotus tested their 2015 Mercedes/Ferrari style nose cone in FP1 on Grosjean’s car as they plan to return to the front of F1 with Mercedes power units. Next year’s regulations outlaw the anteater noses seen on most cars and the unique twin tusk nose featured on the E22.
Force India have got some upgrades to the North American race that saw their drivers finish 10th and 14th fastest in FP2 with Hulkenberg having the edge over his Mexican teammate.
Perez, along with Sauber F1's Esteban Gutierrez will receive home like support this weekend with many fans travelling across the border to cheer their heroes.
ALONSO SPECULATION CONTINUES
The future of Fernando Alonso is anything but a certainty at this point as rumors continue to fly thick and fast about the Spaniard's future in F1 with news of Vettel's departure at Red Bull leading many to believe that the German will take the former double world champion's place at the Italian team alongside Kimi Raikkonen.
Alonso himself has done little to clarify what chapter comes next in his F1 story although Spanish daily newspaper Marca has claimed that McLaren has a contract prepared for Alonso to rejoin the team next year and is willing to wait for him to fully weigh his options before he signs.
The Spaniard has also stated that due to the critical condition of his friend Jules Bianchi, he feels the time is not right to reveal what comes next for his career. There has even been speculation that German manufacturer Audi - who recently hired former Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali - is planning an assault on F1 in 2016 and that Alonso will pair with his old boss to lead their attempt to win an F1 title.
BIANCHI CRITICAL BUT STABLE
In other news, Jules Bianchi’s condition remains critical but stable, four weeks after his horrible crash at the Japanese GP. He will stay in Yokkaichi’s Mie Medical Center for the foreseeable future.
HULKENBERG TO REMAIN AT FORCE INDIA
During the three week break between the Russian and the US Grand Prix, Force India announced that Nico Hulkenberg will stay with the team for a second year running. A decision regarding their second driver is expected soon with Perez likely to be retained by the team.
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