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It’s official, y’all — Formula One is back in the Lone Star State.
Austin, Texas, is the home of the United States Grand Prix and Circuit of The Americas, the country’s only purpose-built F1 track. Construction began on Dec. 21, 2010, and it wasn’t until two years later that COTA joined the calendar (the paving process began three months before the inaugural race). MotoGP joined the circuit a year after F1, and the NASCAR Cup Series entered the scene in 2021.
COTA’s design draws inspiration from the greats, like Silverstone’s Maggots and Becketts, but it is unique in its own right. A massive American flag sits atop Turn 1 (because, as the saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas), and the country’s iconic stars and stripes are sprinkled throughout the track design. The complex sprawls across 1,500 acres roughly 15 miles outside downtown Austin, which you can see in the distance from the track. Appropriate for Texas’s Hill Country, the landscape here is full of undulations, and the track’s elevation change is 130 feet.
“It’s a great race track, not only for qualifying but also they produce some great racing, and it’s one of those new tracks that feels more like an old school track, which is what I miss from all these new, modern tracks that they are designing,” Carlos Sainz told The Athletic in September. “I miss the effect of an old school track like Monza, like Suzuka, Silverstone, and Austin has that. It’s a new track, but it feels like an old-school track.”
“It certainly feels very American out here,” Daniel Ricciardo said in 2023. “And it’s something that we’ve all enjoyed and got behind.”
As F1 gears up for the grand prix weekend — which includes a sprint race — here’s what you need to know about COTA, a once bumpy track with low-speed corners.
Key Specs
An ode to the greats
Hermann Tilke designed COTA in collaboration with HKS, an American architectural company.
A former racing driver and engineer, Tilke established Tilke Engineering in 1984 and has since become one of the most well-known circuit designers (and one of the few recognized by the FIA). His first big F1 job came in the 1990s when he transformed Austria’s Österreichring into the A1-Ring. Then he helped with tweaking the likes of Spain’s Circuit de Catalunya, Germany’s Nürburgring and Japan’s Fuji Speedway.
COTA’s layout tips a hat to some iconic segments at well-known circuits. Turns 3-6 take cues from Silverstone’s Maggots-Becketts-Chapel sequence and Suzuka’s S Curves. Turns 12-15 are a nod to Hockenheim’s stadium section.
Building COTA, though, was not smooth sailing. The track missed initial payments to Formula One Management after the circuit’s management company faced funding hiccups and other behind-the-scenes disagreements. Bernie Ecclestone issued a warning to the owners and promoters in Nov. 2011: Fix it by December or be dropped from the 2012 schedule.
COTA was provisionally included when the 2012 calendar was announced, and construction was completed in time for the November race, officially opening to the public in mid-October with Mario Andretti driving the first laps.
It marked the end of a seven-year stretch where F1 didn’t compete in the United States.
COTA’s notoriously uneven nature
The track is built upon the clay-like soils of Central Texas’s Blackland Prairie, which tend to expand or contract depending on the weather. That made the track increasingly bumpy over the years. Heavy rains in 2015 began washing away the soil, damaging drainage pipes, and sinking the track surface in spots.
Yet changes weren’t made until right before the pandemic, despite drivers and motorcyclists raising criticism over the track surface. COTA closed down for part of December 2019 and January 2020 to relocate the pipes from under the track and resurface at certain points. The FIA World Endurance Championship was the first series to compete on the new surface. Its drivers had mixed reactions and new concerns, like grip level.
The COVID-19 global pandemic put a pause on the surface revival, and MotoGP didn’t tackle it until 2021. Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo said, even with the resurfacing, “It’s even worse.” He later added, “But it’s a joke. It’s not a MotoGP track for me.”
COTA resurfaced the entire track the following winter, but when F1 returned to Texas in 2022, the cars visibly bounced during Friday’s practice. A year later, the bumpiness remained, though it’s not discussed publicly as much as it used to be.
This year, COTA tackled a massive repaving project, completing the second and final phases in September. The resurfacing project began before April’s MotoGP and finished before WEC competed in early September. According to COTA, the project required more than 18,076 tons of asphalt when resurfacing the 20-turn, 3.41-mile permanent track.
Given the smoother surface, lap times are expected to be quicker, not just for F1 but for all series competing at the track.
“The drivers and riders will feel like it’s a totally different track,” said Bobby Epstein, COTA Chairman, in the announcement. We know the repave was overdue and while it will lose some “character,” the new surface will make for some incredible speeds and provide a much more comfortable experience.”
The resurfacing project, though, is not the only change to COTA. Some curbs were placed and draining was added, per Andy Soucek, Vice President of Motorsports at COTA. As far as track limits, cameras have also been added at frequent infraction spots. According to Soucek, the only curbing change that will affect track limits is at the Turn 11 exit, where concrete curbs have been replaced by a gravel-filled insert. He added that it’s a trial run for next year.
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Finally, the verges have been shortened in multiple locations, such as by 1.5 meters on the insides of Turn 6 and 13 on the drivers’ right side and the inside of Turns 14 and 15 on the drivers’ left side. Previously these were tarmac but now are turf. This should help encourage drivers to stay within track limits as they will lose traction in the turf.
A drive down motorsports memory lane
Turn 1
Drivers start each lap with a 133-foot rise to the top of Turn 1, a serious climb.
Turns 11 and 12
The circuit’s first major straight lies between Turns 11 and 12, and it’s been the site of incidents in both F1 and NASCAR.
In 2021, rainy conditions hampered the drivers’ visibility. Martin Truex Jr. didn’t see Michael McDowell slow down, and Truex hit the back of McDowell’s car. But the incident worsened when Cole Custer hit Truex at full speed, sending him in the air, while Custer’s car caught fire.
On the F1 side, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso — soon-to-be teammates at the time — collided during last year’s race. Alonso was attempting to pass Stroll, and they made contact, which sent Alonso into a wheely.
The final corner of COTA is dedicated to Mario Andretti, the track’s original ambassador. He drove the first-ever lap at the circuit when it opened in 2012.
Andretti won the 1978 world championship and 12 grands prix victories — but his motorsport success wasn’t only in F1. He won the 1969 Indianapolis 500, the 1967 Daytona 500 and four IndyCar titles.
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Top photo design & graphics: Drew Jordan/The Athletic
