It seems appropriate that Texas is the second biggest state in America as it gears up to host the biggest motorsport series in the world.

Legendary racing tracks from Watkins Glen to Indianapolis have hosted the Formula 1 world championship and in total ten different circuits throughout the United States have featured on the F1 calendar. In 2012 Austin’s Circuit of the Americas joined this list as it welcomed the F1 paddock to the lone star state. The inaugural race in Texas was lauded by drivers and fans as highly successful. “It’s a real credit to everyone involved in organising the inaugural event (last year) that it passed so smoothly. And Austin is a great city, so I see no reason why F1 can’t gain a true foothold in the US at this venue,” said Red Bull driver Mark Webber.

The saying in racing is that you can’t win the race in the first corner. However, it can certainly be lost in the first corner and the Austin GP’s first corner is a mammoth climb with twenty-two Formula 1 cars heading for its blind apex. The remainder of the first sector is features a series of several high speed changes of direction similar to Korea’s Yeongam circuit.

The second sector of the lap includes the straight and medium to low speed turns requiring good traction and precision on throttle application. The long continuous curve from turns fifteen to seventeen highlights the final part of the 5.513 km lap.

Drivers are expected to make 59 gear changes every lap and run at an average speed of 200 kph. The circuit’s demand on engines is quite high with 63% of the lap spent at full throttle. Pirelli has made the white side-walled medium compound and orange side-walled hard compound tyre available for this weekend. Coincidentally, neither Pirelli’s green Cinturato Intermediate tyre nor its blue full wet tyre has been used in a race this season. This stat is unlikely to change for the 18th round of the season as the typical weather around these parts predict a warm & sunny weekend.

From a set-up point of view, drivers’ and engineers’ first priority will be to understand how the track surface has evolved in twelve months since F1’s last visit. “Last year we were all sliding quite a lot because the tarmac was still so new, especially on the tight and twisty bit towards the end. It was sometimes almost more rally style than Formula One, because it was so slippery! The section after the steep hill at the beginning is particularly challenging. Last year it took me quite a while to get my bearings and to position the car correctly,” said Sebastian Vettel.

Then McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton won the inaugural race in Texas by delivering a fine drive which included overtaking four time champ Sebastian Vettel on track.  The Brit called it one of the best wins of his career and will unquestionably want to defend his victory this weekend. It is debatable however whether or not Hamilton’s Mercedes will be up to the task. Despite solid performances in Saturday’s qualifying sessions Hamilton has been, for most of the time, unable to translate the pace to race day. Nevertheless, the Brit may not be such a bad bet this weekend.

The fight of second place in the driver’s title will be contested without Kimi Raikkonen as the Finn will miss the final two races of the season to undergo back surgery in Salzburg on Thursday. The Finn’s manager Steve Robertson shared the news on Sunday morning and said the 2007 champion will need four weeks to recover; thereby ruling Raikkonen out of both the Austin and Brazilian GP. Lotus are expected to promote development driver Davide Valsecchi to the race seat for the final two rounds of the 2013 season.

The saying goes that everything is bigger and better in Texas and as Formula 1 finds a foothold in the States here’s hoping the on track racing takes this adage to heart. Giddy Up!

Photo credit: Lewis Hamilton at 2012 Austin GP via mclaren.com