2015 United States Grand Prix - Austin, October 23 - 25

[dans79]

Vettel 10 place grid penalty, new engine.

what, why?

Nevermind,

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/34610947

Baring some unforeseen issues, this will make the race a cake walk for Merc.

[f1316]

I think it's good to see them using the new engine and more interesting than just being in the same spec as last time (it would still have been a cake walk).

I guess the question mark is the weather; if it rains all the way through to race day then it might be the perfect time to take a penalty.

[godlameroso]

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/224471/1/v ... nalty.html

[Vasconia]

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/224471/1/v ... nalty.html

I think this is great, I wasnt expecting to see Vettel fighting for the victory so this makes the race more interesting. Rain+Vettel+new Ferrari engine its a great combination in my opinion.

I only hope that Nico can achieve the pole again and put some sugar on the race, at least for the first laps.

Full wet races were great back in time when Whiting was not a so fearful person and the tyres are ok. Now isolated showers are the best to enjoy some chaos.

[f1316]

Well now both AMUS and James Allen saying it's not a development engine, just a new one so they can push it for the remaining races. I can't see how that jives with Vettel's comments about 'big steps' and a 'massive job' from the engine guys, but I guess we'll see.

[ripper]

I think that Vettel is speaking about the development they did during the season and not about this specific step. I wonder how they will spend the remaining token

[Phil]

Vettel 10 place grid penalty, new engine.

I think this is Ferrari going all in. They know it's going to be difficult to win the race or end 2nd (to keep any WDC hope alive), so they are going all in. New engine. On a track you can overtake. And maybe, rain will shuffle up the order a bit...

[godlameroso]

The strongest hurricane ever recorded in the western hemisphere is making landfall today in south western Mexico, at this rate it's supposed to affect Austin around Saturday, they will likely have to have qualifying on Sunday if at all.

[Juzh]

Great. Just what we needed.

[iotar__]

The strongest hurricane ever recorded in the western hemisphere is making landfall today in south western Mexico, at this rate it's supposed to affect Austin around Saturday, they will likely have to have qualifying on Sunday if at all.

Best V6 hybrids advertisement you can imagine, like in pseudo scientific Al Gore films. With V8s we'd have hurricanes like than every week or something .

[notsofast]

Forecast from the National Weather Service:

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.ph ... mx=1&zmy=1

[wickedz50]

Forecast from the National Weather Service:

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.ph ... mx=1&zmy=1

The practice sessions looks to be a washout with the chance of qualifying on Sunday morning before the race is the weather report comes true.

[Jonnycraig]

Would kill off any last vestige of interest I retain in F1 if they postponed qualifying here. There's enough runoff at every turn at COTA to land an a380. Usually I'm fully behind the stewards when they go super cautious in wet weather conditions but here it should be a case of sucking it up and tiptoeing around if needs be. Would also force teams to actually do some running today which they otherwise won't bother with.

[ME4ME]

I agree. Problem is, even if they were to let them qualifying in heavy rain, as soon as the first car goes off, they'll need to get a crane on track and the session will be red flagged anyway. Again and again .. until time has run out.

[ChrisF1]

It's not just run off though - rain causes visibility problems for the drivers, and Qualifying is usually a mixture of hot laps and warmup/cool down laps so you naturally see variation of speed. Lapping people in a race is hazardous - Schumacher-Coulthard at Spa for example, so it would be even worse in Quali.

(Yes, I realise that's less likely as teams would fill up the tanks and just send the drivers to lap continually, but there will still be variations)

Add in that the weather conditions may prevent the medical services from carrying out their duties and it just wouldn't happen. Can you imagine the backlash if somebody were to be injured a year after Bianchi's crash in wet weather?