Lando Norris, Max Verstappen Brace for F1 Showdown at COTA

• Max Verstappen remains in the driving seat but he has not won a Grand Prix since June—a run of eight events.

• Lando Norris has trimmed Verstappen's points advantage from 84 at its peak to 52.

• The sudden end to Verstappen’s winning streak, and the possibility of a title battle, has aided ticket sales at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Formula 1 returns to action this weekend with the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas, beginning a run of six events in eight weeks to close out the 2024 season.

By the time Formula 1 landed in Austin in 2023. Verstappen had already sewn up a third world title, and he duly dominated the weekend’s activities, scoring victory in both Sprint and the Grand Prix despite starting only sixth.

This year. Verstappen remains in the driving seat but he has not won a Grand Prix since June—a run of eight events—and Lando Norris has trimmed his points advantage from 84 at its peak to 52.

That is still a healthy margin, as Norris needs a higher ‘run rate’ to overhaul Verstappen, but recent momentum is with the Briton, while McLaren has overhauled Red Bull in the Constructors’ standings.

The sudden end to Verstappen’s winning streak, and the possibility of a title battle, has aided ticket sales at COTA, as Austin prepares for one of the busiest sporting weekends in its history.

The atypical four-week gap means everyone is relaxed and refreshed ahead of the upcoming triple header, and crucially—unlike during the summer recess with its mandatory shutdown period—teams have been able to work flat out. Red Bull is among the teams bringing a raft of updates as it strives to remedy the weaknesses of its RB20, with the tranche of new components marking the final batch of the campaign for some outfits.

Ride Height Skullduggery

There is also a little bit of technical skullduggery, amid an FIA clampdown, following a report on Autosport that one team was pushing the boundaries with its front ride height, namely the ‘bib’ at the front of the car’s floor.

This would allow the team to run the car low in qualifying, on low fuel, before adjusting it accordingly for the race. The component itself is not illegal, but using it between qualifying and the race would be outside of parc ferme regulations, with suspicions emerging that one team did – though the FIA has maintained that there is no evidence of a system being employed outside of the regulations. The clarification now revolves around a seal on the device to ensure it is not tampered with between qualifying and the race.

“Any adjustment to the front bib clearance during parc fermé conditions is strictly prohibited by the regulations,” read an FIA statement. “While we have not received any indication of any team employing such a system, the FIA remains vigilant in our ongoing efforts to enhance the policing of the sport. As part of this, we have implemented procedural adjustments to ensure that front bib clearance cannot be easily modified. In some cases, this may involve the application of a seal to provide further assurance of compliance.”

Red Bull was pinpointed as the team in question and in a statement outlined that “it [the device] exists although it is inaccessible once the car is fully assembled and ready to run.”

Verstappen emphasized that Red Bull had not used the device against the regulations, explaining: “It’s open source, right, everyone can see it? For us, it was just an easy tool when the parts were off, it was easy to adjust. But once the whole car is built together, you can’t touch it. So for us, it doesn’t change… when I read it, I was like thinking about other teams doing it, and then I found out it was related to our team. We never even mentioned it or anything.”

His team-mate, Sergio Perez, adopted the same stance, insisting there is “zero” performance gain.

“There’s nothing we were doing with it,” Perez said. “It was quite… it was impossible. If anything, I remember for example here, that last year it was a sprint event so we ended up with the ride height in the moon!”

Norris also commented on the situation, suggesting it would bring a performance advantage, though did not imply Red Bull had transgressed.

“It's one thing having it on your car,” he said. “It's another thing on how much you exploited and use it, which we have no idea on so if it has been helping them, if they've been utilizing it in a way people think they have, then maybe it [momentum] will shift in our direction. But I mean, when you talk about things like that, it's not going to gain them, you know, they're not going to have got several pole positions or wins just because of such a device, you know? So I don't think it really will change anything in the scheme of things.

“You know, there's a difference between black and white stuff like this, and there's a difference between Formula 1 and pushing the boundaries and creating new things and innovating within the space that you're allowed to innovate. And I think that's what we have, as McLaren, have done a very good job in but we've shown not to go any further than that.”

Sprint Weekend

It is also the fourth Sprint event of six in 2024—and the first since Austria—meaning there are eight more points up for grabs versus usual this weekend.

That gives drivers just Friday’s one-hour practice session to get up to speed at COTA, which has been partially repaved following long-standing complaints over excessive bumps.

Further down the grid there will be focus on Liam Lawson at RB, with the Kiwi brought in to replace Daniel Ricciardo for the remainder of the season.

Expectations on Lawson must be tempered—given his quasi-rookie status and his impending engine-related grid penalty—but Red Bull is assessing him not just for an RB seat in 2025, but also at Red Bull, given Sergio Perez’s unflattering form. RB is also just three points ahead of Haas in the battle for sixth in the standings, with Haas bringing an update package—as well as a custom U.S. GP livery—as it strives to win that scrap.

“I’ve just been preparing as much as possible, it’s a difficult time to come into the season, sprint race, new track [for me], I’ll just try and be as ready as possible.”

On his ambitions for the remainder of the year, Lawson said: “I think it’s not as simple as a position or where I want to be, it’s scoring points mainly, for myself, and what the team will judge me on, and also for the team, fighting for P6 in the championship as well—try to get to the points as soon as possible for me is the goal.”

Elsewhere the FIA confirmed on Thursday that the point for the driver who sets the race’s fastest lap—and finishes in the top 10—will be scrapped from 2025.

The initiative was introduced in Formula 1 in 2019.