Formula 1 is returning to the United States once more this year, and the drivers will be racing at one of the most popular circuits in America.
Austin has a special way of creating a fun and festive atmosphere, and Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is itself an excellent track for racing of all kinds. This year it’s in October, which makes for a nice time to enjoy a city like Austin, as it doesn’t tend to be too hot.
Even if you’re from home and you wish to just watch or maybe bet on Formula 1, it’s still a great time, as well as a race that’s regarded as one of the better ones on the calendar.
This year will see the United States Grand Prix presented in the form of a sprint weekend. No complaining here, more racing at COTA is never a bad thing!
However, that means that there’ll only be one practice session for teams to dial their cars in with the help of the drivers. FP1 could prove critical for the weekend depending on which team dials their cars in the best, given the limited timeframe.
Instead of the other two free practice sessions, there’ll be a sprint qualifying session, followed by the sprint race. After that came the usual qualifying and main race. The sprint qualifying and sprint race take place around the time that FP2 and FP3 would have (16h30 on Friday and Noon on Saturday, respectively).
Qualifying and the grand prix will take place at 16h00 on Saturday and 14h00 on Sunday. Again, these times are all local Austin time (CST). Suppose you’re watching from a different time zone and want to know what time everything will be for you. In that case, F1’s official page for the United States Grand Prix will most likely have that information for you.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a super fan who watches every practice session or a casual enjoyer who just puts the race on as background noise, Formula 1 racing COTA is sure to be entertaining for all.
You might take a chance to try to bet on your favourite driver on Stake.com, in which case you’ll probably be glad to know that this round will be much more predictable than Singapore when it comes to betting.
Taking a look at the season up until now
It’s absolutely no secret that McLaren has been having the season of their lives this time around. Last year had a strong start from Red Bull Racing but they had a problem even early on in that Max Verstappen was really the only Red Bull Racing driver able to consistently score points.
Combined with McLaren’s hot streak of technical development and improvements to their 2024 car, the result ended up being a decisive constructors’ championship in favour of the papaya themed team. However, Max Verstappen still won the 2024 FIA World Drivers’ Championship handily.
There were initially concerns around this time last season that Lando Norris was within distance to perhaps take a shot at the 2024 driver’s title, but the McLaren car just simply didn’t get good enough early enough in the season for this to be a realistic possibility.
Additionally, Norris didn’t do himself any favours and through less than optimal driving, lost any small chance he had at the title that year. This year, things look a bit different. It’s the final year of the current regulations, and McLaren seems to have completely mastered them. The McLaren car has, for the majority of the season, been far ahead of everybody else, including Red Bull Racing.
Red Bull has usually been the team to go to for the new ground effect era of cars, as they won the championship easily in 2022 and 2023, but it’s possible that the departure of important figures such as Adrian Newey, Christian Horner, and Jonathan Wheatley made a large dent in how well the team is being run.
Adrian Newey was the first to go, with the announcement arriving with the 2024 Miami Grand Prix. It was a shock to many, as he’d been an integral part of the team through both thick and thin.
However, Red Bull has in recent years been a very drama filled team for numerous reasons and it’s possible that Newey simply didn’t want to be a part of any of it. He found a new home in Aston Martin, which, barring some slight allegations of nepotism, is quite a stable team with a decent looking future ahead of it as well.
The Red Bull “Drama” is a bit messy and definitely multifaceted, however, it is important to know at least some of it when trying to make something of last season, as well as when trying to predict what might happen by the end of the current one.
Looking at possible outcomes at COTA
Taking a look at Formula 1 Expert Picks and Predictions online will definitely help in understanding how to predict things in this season, but knowing the context and backstory to everything will additionally help in being more confident in your bets.
Red Bull was never the most stable team ever, especially in how they treat their drivers. They’re often incredibly impatient with their drivers and aren’t afraid to sack them if they underperform for even short periods of time.
Some fans will remember the unceremonious removal of Daniil Kvyat in order to make way for the then young talent that was Max Verstappen, and while it’s true that many saw the demotion of Kvyat as completely unfair and unjust, Red Bull mostly just didn’t care.
The Milton Keynes squad continue treating their drivers in the same way, giving them too little time in the hot seat, not giving them the time to get properly adjusted, and then demoting or firing them when the driver in question wasn’t suddenly performing amazingly right off the bat.
Troubling times for Red Bull
This kind of attitude turned Red Bull into a talent shredder, through which some genuinely good drivers, such as Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, and Liam Lawson, passed. All of them got their shot at Formula 1 with Red Bull Racing before getting demoted and thrown off to the side. Liam Lawson famously got only two races in Red Bull before getting demoted back to the sister team Racing Bulls.
Part of the reason why Red Bull behaves like this towards its drivers has been the historic power struggle within the team between Dr. Helmut Marko and former Team Principal Christian Horner.
While Marko doesn’t have a direct leadership title within the team, he serves as both advisor to both Red Bull teams as well as the head of Red Bull’s driver development program. The latter is the key to understanding this entire Red Bull driver mess, as it’s Marko’s job to scout out young drivers and to hopefully train them up to the standards of F1 before putting them in a proper Formula 1 car.
Christian Horner and Helmut Marko have often had disagreements on which drivers to promote to Formula 1 when, as well as when to seek driving talent from outside of both the team and the development program.
The only constant throughout all of this is ironically the product of the first sudden sacking, that being Max Verstappen who replaced Kvyat all those years ago. Verstappen has stably remained Red Bull’s first driver and he’s successfully won four driver’s championship titles with the team since he joined.
He was Red Bull’s “golden boy” of sorts and it really paid off for the team in huge ways, as shown from 2021 all the way up until now. Most would agree with the opinion that he’s currently the fastest and overall best driver on the current grid, and you’ll rarely see him messing up on track or making mistakes, both minor and major.
The power struggle between Horner and Marko completely spiralled out of control after the unfortunate passing of Dietrich Mateschitz in 2022. Before this, both Horner and Marko reported to Mateschitz, and it was important to have a senior figure who could better control the rest.
Since Mateschitz’s passing, there’s been plenty of drama in the team. Last year, Christian Horner faced some allegations of misconduct towards a female employee, and they created enough of a situation for aforementioned aerodynamics master Adrian Newey to depart from the team, as well as Jonathan Wheatley, who served as sporting director of the team.
Additionally, the allegations and resulting situation eventually resulted in the complete ousting from the team, which isn’t common for a team principal. Doubly so in Horner’s case, due to the fact that he was given the boot mid-season with what seemed to the public like no signs or warnings of it ever coming.
As soon as the announcement of his departure hit, he was gone, effective immediately. In September 2025, it was reported that both Red Bull and Horner had reached an agreement in the amount of £80m to settle his outstanding contract.
McLaren to the fore…
Red Bull’s turmoil, meanwhile, gave McLaren an excellent shot at catching up and surpassing them to win in 2024 and to win even harder in 2025. They’ve already secured this year’s constructors’ championship title, and the driver’s title is more of a championship fight between the two McLaren drivers, with Verstappen currently trailing in third.
McLaren seems to have their ducks in a row compared to Red Bull and has successfully crafted a car fast enough to beat everyone else by dozens of seconds on the right track.
The Championship fight this year is between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who both drive for McLaren. McLaren has had its own drama within the team, with rampant accusations that the higher ups in the team give Norris preferential treatment, including but not limited to McLaren CEO Zak Brown.
Piastri himself seems to be siding with these claims and believes that the team isn’t treating him fairly. He was asked to give his position up to Norris a couple of races ago due to Lando getting a slow pit stop, which in hindsight shouldn’t have really been Piastri’s problem to deal with, and especially not one that he should have given up championship points for.
Still, Piastri does hold a considerable 22-point lead going into the U.S. Grand Prix, and Norris will have to work hard if he thinks to become the F2025 IA World Drivers’ Champion.
They both seem to be quite equally matched in raw pace, though Norris definitely seems to be the one more likely to make mistakes on track, sometimes resulting in catastrophic consequences. One of the most memorable of which was his hard collision into the wall after attempting to pass his teammate for P4 during Lap 67 of the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix.
