Controversy has Formula One teams buzzing, but Austin show appears set
Mercedes teammates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton will resume their battle for Formula One’s driving championship at Circuit of The Americas on Sunday against the backdrop of the globetrotting series’ DNA — money, controversy and threats of a boycott.
Stirred by the withdrawal earlier this week of the financially strapped Marussia and Caterham teams, the Lotus, Force India and Sauber organizations were rumored to be considering a boycott of the third annual event in Travis County. Those teams are locked in a dispute with the governing FIA over escalating costs and the overall monetary disparity between the front- and back-row constructors.
Lotus team principal Gerard Lopez might have triggered the rumor mill Friday during an hour-long news conference with four peers during which the current system was alternately bashed and defended.
“And now is the time to not be talking about it, but the time to be acting about it,” Lopez said, “So we’ll see what’s going to happen in the next couple of weeks.”
Lotus driver Romain Grosjean said he was preparing to race the 56-lap, 191.947-mile event, which starts at 2 p.m.
“Yes, far as I know [he will race],” said Grosjean, who finished third here last year. “That’s why we’ve worked all the weekend. That’s what I’m here for. I didn’t even know about these rumors. There has been a bad experience already at Indianapolis a few years ago, so we are here to race, and I think we’re going to race. I’m sure we’re going to race.”
The Frenchman was referring to the 2005 USGP at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where only six of 20 qualified cars competed due to safety concerns with tires supplied by Michelin. That debacle hastened F1’s most recent exit from the USA, which has seen 10 venues host the series.
“Well, you’ve got to love controversy, don’t you?” said Gene Haas, the NASCAR team co-owner whose Haas F1 Team is scheduled to field a team in 2016 from a base under construction in Kannapolis, N.C. “I mean, Formula One is about 50 years of controversies and exotic cars and six-wheel cars and 1,000-horsepower cars and rules. Year after year there’s always a pressing event, so I think this is just another of those pressing events.”
For the record, a field of 18 cars — the smallest for an F1 race since the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix — participated in Saturday morning’s final practice and knockout qualifying. Rosberg earned his ninth pole of the season via a hot lap of 1 minute, 36.067 seconds around the 20-turn, 3.427-mile layout. The German’s time was 0.376 seconds quicker than Hamilton, who has a 17-point championship lead over Rosberg with three races remaining.
Rosberg and Hamilton not only presented Mercedes with its sixth 1-2 front row of the season but also set the stage for a standing start that will send the teammates blasting up COTA’s signature front straight hill and into the Turn 1 left-hander. It’s a moment that could decide not only the race, but Rosberg’s pursuit of his first F1 championship.
“First place today is awesome, but you know the race is what counts,” said Rosberg, a second generation F1 star and winner of four races this season. “I finally got there on setup, together with my team. Nailed the lap, got the lap really well, so it all worked out.”
Hamilton, the 2008 series champion, acknowledged that an issue with brake temperatures cost him time during the second and third sessions.
“But even if that wasn’t the case I think Nico was too quick today,” said the Brit, who has won nine races this season, including four in a row. “Obviously, Nico did a great job today.”
John Sturbin is a Senior Writer at RacinToday.com. He can be contacted at jsturbin@racintoday.com.
This story was originally published November 1, 2014 at 9:09 PM.