USA: Damage wrecks Daniel’s one-stop in Texas
A second stint ruined by debris getting stuck beneath his car pumps the brakes on Daniel’s progress in Austin, as he finishes in 15th place.
Race data
USA (Round 18 of 22), 20-22 October 2023
Circuit of the Americas, 5.513km
Sprint Shootout: 11th (started 11th after Russell/Mercedes penalty)
Sprint race (19 laps): 12th
Qualified: 15th
Grand Prix (56 laps): 17th (promoted to 15th after Hamilton/Mercedes and Leclerc/Ferrari disqualifications)
Laps per position: 6th (1 lap), 7th (3 laps), 8th (1 lap), 10th (8 laps), 12th (13 laps), 13th (8 laps), 14th (4 laps), 15th (7 laps), 16th (2 laps), 17th (6 laps), 18th (2 laps)
Pit stops/tyres: Lap 22 (medium/hard), lap 47 (hard/soft)
Fastest lap: 1min 39.366secs (2nd), lap 49
Points this event: 0
Points this season: 0 (22nd in world championship)
Daniel's download
“Texas wasn’t too kind! I hate saying we were a passenger, but honestly we were a passenger for the second half of that race.
“We had some damage … after we put the hard tyre on, within a few laps, we started dropping off really quickly. I commented that I had pretty much nothing to give, because our times were pretty much the same as the old medium. The team spotted some damage on the front left. Originally they thought it was contact with (Aston Martin’s Lance) Stroll, but I don’t think we touched. We lost a lot of pace, and it was a struggle after that – we weren’t in the race at all and just circulating, not doing much.
“The beginning wasn’t too bad, though. With the medium (tyre) the pace seemed fairly close and fairly relative to at least (Scuderia AlphaTauri teammate) Yuki (Tsunoda) and the cars around us. I think considering we were going longer in that stint, we were tracking pretty good. But then as we go close to our pit window we started getting a lot of blue flags, and that kind of put us back, and then we pitted into traffic. Maybe then in traffic was when we picked up the debris and the damage, so the race quickly unravelled.
“There’s some things which I want to personally work on and I think we can as a team get better, but I think that's also obvious because it's our third race together. Obviously I'm always trying to push but I don't want to be too intense, as we’re all still pretty inexperienced working together. But the feeling I got behind the wheel and stuff … I think it was a more positive weekend than negative and better than it looks on paper.
“Physically, I felt better than I did in the Sprint on Saturday, it was a good warm-up for the Grand Prix! I got more race mileage, shook some rust off, so now it’s full attack for Mexico.”
DR’s race recap
* Started 10th and finished 12th in Saturday's 17-lap Sprint race.
* Qualified 15th for Sunday's Grand Prix and finished lap one in 13th place.
* Pitted for hard tyres on lap 22 and re-joined in 15th place, aiming to use a one-stop strategy to the end of the race.
* Made an unscheduled pit stop for soft tyres and removal of debris on lap 47 and dropped to 18th place.
* Set what was the fastest lap of the race (1:39.366) on lap 49.
* Crossed the line in 17th place, which became 15th after Hamilton and Leclerc disqualifications.
DR’s next destination
Round 19: Mexico (Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez), 29 October
Mexico in 2022: qualified 11th, finished 7th
In F1: 7 races, 1 pole (2018), 1 podium (2016), 1 fastest lap (2016), 35 points, 4 points finishes, 2 DNFs
Best finish: 3rd (2016)
