What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 United States GP

It was almost impossible to keep count of the sheer surfeit of track limits pings that emerged across Formula 1's Friday practice sessions at the United States Grand Prix - luckily, the FIA provides this as a document to save us the hassle. There were 79 deleted laps in FP1, and 128 in FP2 - that's a mind-boggling quantity of extremity-bothering tours around the circuit.

Luckily, with the geofencing systems used by the FIA, those track limits offences are responded to almost instantly, but they'll play a significant factor in qualifying if the drivers can't keep their cars between the white lines. Most of these offences hinged around Turns 12, 19, and 20 - and given this happens on an annual basis, it's baffling why the race organisers haven't added some kind deterrent. Where's the gravel? Where are the stingers? 

Ah, it appears we've gone off-piste, and earned ourselves a track limits penalty - so let's end the digression here. The headline statement was this: Charles Leclerc led both sessions, as his Ferrari looked pretty well-behaved over the bumps pervading the Circuit of the Americas like a series of molehills.

Now, his effort in FP1 was polished slightly by Max Verstappen's fastest lap transcending the dreaded track limits at Turn 19, demonstrating that those who stay on course during qualifying will prosper. But Leclerc pulled out the fastest lap in FP2 without the effect of any deletions, hovering just half a tenth clear of champion-elect Kimi Antonelli - who could theoretically win the title this weekend. If the Italian wins the race, George Russell endures another horror show, and Lewis Hamilton finishes no higher than fifth, the title is his - Verstappen cannot mount an unlikely title bid if Antonelli does indeed win the race. 

For Ferrari, Leclerc's performance will be of some encouragement, especially when you consider the small updates that the team introduced for this round. Both drivers did their best to keep expectations muted, as Hamilton suggested they were worth less than a tenth of a second, but there will be more to them beyond simply peak lap time. Mercedes, meanwhile, is continuing to understand the impact of its own updates brought to Sepang; it hadn't fully understood them across the outlier weekend in Malaysia, and splitting the cars in Singapore offered a better picture of what makes the new parts tick. With two practice sessions in Austin to go on, the team should have even more understanding of the updated W17.

But Red Bull is very much in the fight here - well, Verstappen certainly is. The Dutchman's early struggles with an inconsistent steering profile seemed to be alleviated, but his team-mate Isack Hadjar labelled his (later-deleted) fastest lap in FP2 as "disgusting" as he struggled to keep the car's front end in check through the high-speed corners. His engineer Richard Wood also noted the Frenchman was losing time in the lower-speed range of corners too, prompting the irascible Hadjar to sound off further over the airwaves. 

Verstappen has a real shot at a third consecutive F1 win

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Of the other "Big Four" teams, McLaren is an unknown at this stage. What we *do* know is that Oscar Piastri was having a bit of a job on his hands trying to squeeze a competitive time out of his MCL40; although the Australian's form has been stronger of late, the attempts to marry his natural driving style to a car that likes to be bullied around haven't proved to be particularly miscible so far this weekend. Lando Norris was also finding it tough to jockey his car around the course without going over the lines, and a couple of off-track moments proved to be his undoing. During his race simulation, the Briton managed to log five straight laps that were all chalked off by race control for going beyond the white lines. Whether he simulated the five-second penalty at the end of it remains unknown at this stage.

The teams will be closer to formulating their set-up plans for the rest of the weekend, and Friday was largely about trying to find the best ride heights to suit the trade-off between performance and circuit topography. Go too low, and you'll wear the plank out in about 20 laps; go too high, and you've got no downforce. It's perhaps not as punishing as it was under the previous ruleset, but it's still an important area to explore.

Average FP2 long runs

For this, we've taken the softest tyre that any of the teams had run on, given almost every team used the soft (C4) compound in their longer runs, save for Mercedes, Racing Bulls, and Aston Martin. 

Pirelli suggests that the hard compound might only provide a "limited" role in the race; perhaps it's only an option if a team really struggles to keep the soft tyre in for a decent stint

Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes seem to be very evenly matched, although Antonelli's race run was produced on the medium and thus doesn't give a direct one-to-one. That said, Antonelli's medium tyre was the same set used at the beginning of the session, so it had been through a few heat cycles before being stretched into his longer run after the soft-tyre qualifying simulations. 

Piastri's 'long' run was about 0.3s per lap on average behind, although his stint was not particularly expansive - and nor was it quicker than Norris' equivalent run on the hard tyre. Actually, Norris' average would shake out at the top here at 1m41.127s, but in this instance we've tried to avoid the harder compounds where possible.

Aston Martin provided no option in this as both drivers used the hard compound for their longer stints; although the stints looked reasonable on the C2 (although with a sample size of three drivers, it's a bit difficult to declare that as a certainty), Pirelli suggests that the hard compound might only provide a "limited" role in the race; perhaps it's only an option if a team really struggles to keep the soft tyre in for a decent stint.

Mercedes seems to be finding its way with its latest F1 update package

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As for the C3 and C4, despite the difficulties that some of the drivers found in keeping the car nailed to the track, the drop-off was not particularly high and Pirelli once again predicts that a one-stopper will prove to be the main strategy for the race at Austin. But there is likely to be a yield in flexing a tyre off-set; if a driver can stretch the softs at the start, they'll be able to see some immediate benefit in the fresher medium tyre against those who'd stopped earlier. But this is all contingent on drivers finding the balance with their cars; a lock-up at the end of the key acceleration zones at Turn 1 and Turn 12 will harm those stint lengths considerably.

In the midfield, Racing Bulls looks to be in a good place; Alpine's long runs were good, but one-lap pace appeared to be somewhat elusive over the course of the two sessions - that being said, one suspects the Enstone team hasn't entirely shown its hand here. Haas appears to be just behind, and likely to do battle with Aston Martin and Audi.

Aston Martin appears to be in a decent position; although the car is unsurprisingly lacking in outright power and this costs it on the straights, the improved AMR26 has found some degree of aerodynamic stability and it looks to be manageable across the high-speed corners around the COTA course.

Williams, however, looks to be in a spot of bother; Alex Albon could barely string a lap together without the FW48 seeking to explore beyond the legally defined environs of the track, and the long-run pace seems to reflect the team's difficulties with high-speed corners once more. However, I don't think it's unfair to suggest that this year's Williams suits any kind of corner, and only Cadillac saves it from being the last-placed team here.

Lawson looks primed for a best-of-the-rest weekend, as Lindblad has an engine penalty to work around

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