Circuit of the Americas
United States Grand Prix
Is the United States Grand Prix in Austin Good for Racing?
F1 counted 91 overtakes here in 2024, so yes. The lap gives drivers two good chances. Turn 1 sits at the top of a steep climb and is wide enough for several lines, and the long back straight out of Turn 11 finishes in a heavy stop at Turn 12.
The pole lap on the right is 58% full throttle, with nine braking zones and a top speed of 324km/h. The front of the 2025 race was static all the same, as the top three finished in the order they started, led by Max Verstappen.
Circuit of the Americas
Strategy Factors
2025 United States Grand Prix
What to Look Out for at Circuit of the Americas
The start is a drag race uphill. Pole sits 250m from the braking point for Turn 1, which gives the cars behind a long tow before the first corner.
From there, strategy leans on the pit lane. A stop costs about 20.6s, and the Safety Car and Virtual Safety Car have each appeared in 29% of recent races, so a cheap stop behind a neutralized field is far from guaranteed. Lando Norris finished 7.959s behind the winner in 2025, less than half the time a pit stop costs.
F1's 2025 preview supplies the 20.6s pit loss, Safety Car and VSC rates, the 250m run to Turn 1 and 91 overtakes.
F1's 2026 event page supplies the circuit length, race distance, lap count and race lap record.
Tire Strategy at Circuit of the Americas
The 2025 race settled into one clear pattern, even though Pirelli skipped a step and brought C1, C3 and C4. All of the top 10 stopped once, none of them used the C1 hard, and nine went from mediums to softs between laps 29 and 33. The winner ran 33 laps on mediums before his stop.
Charles Leclerc was the one exception on the chart, starting on softs, switching to mediums after 22 laps and holding third. Wear here is mostly about heat, because the many fast corners load the tires sideways more than the braking zones do.
Pirelli's 2025 preview explains the C1, C3 and C4 choice, thermal wear and the 2024 partial resurfacing.
Stint lengths and compounds for the top 10 finishers of the 2025 United States Grand Prix shown in the chart.
Circuit of the Americas Sector by Sector and Corner by Corner
Speeds, gears and braking points below come from Max Verstappen‘s 1:32.510 pole lap in 2025 qualifying. He spent 58% of the lap at full throttle and 16.3 seconds on the brakes across nine braking zones, and peaked at 324 km/h on the back straight. The slowest point was 80 km/h at the Turn 11 hairpin.
FastF1 timing data for Max Verstappen's 1:32.510 pole lap, used for the speeds, gears, braking points and sector figures
Turn 12 deceleration and pedal load, and Brembo's count of nine braking zones a lap
Lateral loads through the esses outweigh the braking and traction loads
The 11% climb to Turn 1 and the Hockenheim comparison for Turns 12-15
History of Circuit of the Americas
Circuit of the Americas survived a funding crisis before it opened, and the soft ground beneath the track has kept its engineers busy ever since.
Covers construction, the 2011 funding ultimatum, the Andretti opening laps, Hamilton's first win and the surface repairs.
Supports the counterclockwise direction, the 11% climb to Turn 1, the 41m height change and corner inspirations.
How Much Does Circuit of the Americas Cost?
Circuit of the Americas cost about $400m to build, all of it private money through a company controlled by Bobby Epstein and Red McCombs. The race costs a reported $30m a year in hosting fees, and Texas helps cover it through its Major Events Reimbursement Program, which paid $30.63m toward the 2021 Grand Prix.
How Much Did Circuit of the Americas Cost to Build?
About $400m, according to the FIA, and the money was private. Forbes reported that the track's parent company was controlled by chairman Bobby Epstein and Red McCombs. The circuit was built on a 375-acre site east of Austin, and the project included the 250-foot observation tower, the main grandstand and a 27-acre plaza. An early estimate in 2010 had put the build at $250m. A partial resurfacing followed in 2024 after years of complaints about bumps, and its cost hasn't been published.
How Much Is the United States Grand Prix Hosting Fee?
F1 has never published it. The Associated Press put the fee at about $30m a year in 2019, and RacingNews365 and Speedcafe used the same figure in 2023 and 2024. Reports in 2010 and 2015 said $25m. COTA pays it as a private promoter, but Texas reimburses part of the cost from the extra tax the race brings in, and AP counted more than $150m of public money from 2012 to 2019. The current deal, announced in October 2025, runs to 2034.
About $400m of private investment and the 375-acre site
The private financing by Epstein and McCombs, and the $25m fee reported in 2015
The tower, main grandstand and 27-acre plaza built as part of the project
The 2010 build estimate of $250m and the $25m fee reported at the time
AP's estimate of a $30m fee and more than $150m of public money from 2012 to 2019
The $30m fee estimate for Austin in 2023
The state's $30,633,797 contribution to the 2021 race fund
The deal to 2034, announced in October 2025
How Much Are United States Grand Prix Tickets in Austin?
General admission for all three days costs $355 before fees, and grandstand seats start at $604.50 in the lower Turn 9 stand. The top reserved seats are in the Main Grandstand club and mezzanine at $2,030.50, and hospitality starts at a reported $5,905. That makes Austin the 15th cheapest of the 23 races in our ticket price table, below both Miami and Las Vegas.
Questions About Circuit of the Americas
Pirelli skipped the C2 at Austin in 2025 to test whether a bigger gap between the hard and the medium would create more varied strategies, calling it an interesting experiment. The theory was a split between durable hard and medium runs and quicker medium and soft ones. In the race, the top 10 all stopped once and ignored the hard.
Charles Leclerc holds the Circuit of the Americas race lap record, 1:36.169 from 2019. Nobody has beaten it since, and the fastest lap of the 2025 race, Kimi Antonelli‘s 1:37.577 on lap 33, was 1.408s slower. Qualifying laps run far quicker, as Max Verstappen’s 1:32.510 pole showed.
No, the 2026 United States Grand Prix in Austin is a standard weekend, a year after it hosted a Sprint. That gives teams three practice sessions instead of the single hour Pirelli pointed to in 2025. Austin isn’t on the announced 2027 Sprint list either, so the standard format carries on next year.
No, the United States Grand Prix has been held in Austin only since 2012. Earlier editions ran at circuits including Sebring, Watkins Glen, and Indianapolis, and their results belong to the event’s history rather than to Circuit of the Americas, so COTA’s own records start in 2012.
Circuit of the Americas is built on clay-like soil that settles and sinks, which is why bumps keep coming back. MotoGP riders were openly critical of the surface in 2021. Pirelli says a partial resurfacing in 2024 left the track smoother and less bumpy than it had been before.
Circuit of the Americas pays a reported $30m a year to host the United States Grand Prix, although F1 has never confirmed the figure. Texas covers part of the cost through its Major Events Reimbursement Program, which put $30.63m toward the 2021 race, and the current deal runs until 2034.
Circuit of the Americas cost about $400m to build, according to the FIA, and private investors led by Bobby Epstein and Red McCombs paid for it. It was built on a 375-acre site east of Austin, and the track held its first United States Grand Prix in 2012.
