Preview Austin from Honda and the drivers.
https://en.hondaracingf1.com/races/2019 ... -prix.html
TOYOHARU TANABE
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, HONDA RACING F1
Having packed up in a very heavy storm in Mexico City on Sunday night, we have now made the short trip from Mexico to Texas, for the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit Of The Americas. The current weather in Austin is cold – around 8 degrees, due to be colder on Thursday – but the forecast is for brighter warmer conditions for the rest of the weekend. COTA is an interesting track that presents very different challenges to the one in Mexico. It features elevation changes, particularly the impressive and very steep climb to the first corner, which therefore allows for very late braking. The layout is meant to replicate famous corners from other tracks and the first sector is similar to the esses at Suzuka, with a fast middle part and a slower final sector. From a PU point of view, it is quite straightforward with none of the special challenges of Mexico, therefore we will optimise PU settings, based on past data from this track as well as the information we have acquired this year. On a personal note, coming to the USA feels as little bit like coming home, as I spent so much time here working on Honda’s Indy project. Several members of Honda Performance Development (HPD) will be in Austin this weekend to discuss a technology exchange between Sakura, Milton Keynes and HPD. And of course, it will also be nice to catch up with them again! It will be a milestone race for Honda as this will be our 100th Grand Prix since we joined the hybrid F1 era in 2015. We hope to have a good race, reflecting the efforts of all our team members over the past few years.
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