Formula 1 has truly arrived in America
As if 2021 season wasn't doing enough favors to the sports
This is not me trying to review the race or assessing the performance of the drivers and the team.It's not news that since its inception formula 1 always had a crush on America, but so far it was a one-sided affair, despite having produced some half-decent races, but Americans didn't pay much heed, they were happy with their burgers and Nascar. That is up until now, last weekend' united states of America's Grand prize was already successful with the event reaching 400,000 attendees.And boy, did f1 deliver when it had to make an impression as if this season wasn't any better because of the intense championship battle between Max Verstappen of Red Bull Honda and 7x WC Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes-AMG, Circuit of the Americas might just have become the season-defining race for the championship. It had hard-fought track battles between two legends and F1 world champions Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen and between two current championship protagonists, Lewis and Max.
Battle of the old Guards
Remember, 2005 f1 season? Because I don't I was barely 4 back then. Going back to f2 archives and watching these two young guns(then) blasting the field and being a genuine threat to the great Michael Schumacher, it was just brilliant to see them go wheel to wheel again. Then there was midfield battle that was spread across the field, quite literally everyone was defending or fighting for a position except for Perez who was a bit of a loner in P3, but a very solid P3 that also gave Red Bull some strategic option to fight with Lewis and the Mercedes.
Strategic part of the race
For year's I have been defending a boring f1 race by calling out the strategic intrigue they had but I must confess it was more of me defending f1 than actually believing it.
But this time around both Drivers and the teams brought their A-game, from multiple lead changes to unpredictable strategy outcomes, last laps chase from Lewis and incredible consistency from max on those old Hard tyres when he had to preserve them to defend against Lewis without losing time to him, who was gaining at the speed of -0.700 of a second at worst. Meant the outcome of the race was unpredictable until the chequered flag. This was a race that gave us pure on track action without any safety car or rain interference, pure class from almost all the drivers who kept their cool in the hot sun of Texas and gave those 400,000 attendees something to remember.
2021 Grand Prix of Americas at COTA became an instant classic and a race that will be remembered for years to come, not just as a race defining the Championship battle between lewis and max but also as a race that made a breakthrough on American soil. Maybe liberty does know what they are doing with the Drive to Survive. But was this all possible because of Netflix power? I mean the crowd and the atmosphere this grand price generated is perhaps only beaten by Zandvoort. Either way only exciting stuff ahead with Andretti rumours and what not for f1 in America.
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