Pirelli confirms C2–C4 tyre range for United States Grand Prix as Antonelli eyes title in Austin

Pirelli's Austin allocation: a consecutive C2–C4 range

Pirelli has confirmed the tyre compounds for the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas, selecting the C2 as the hard, the C3 as the medium and the C4 as the soft, Formula1.com reports. That is a change from last season's Austin event, when the supplier brought three non-consecutive compounds — the C1, C3 and C4 — for what was then a Sprint weekend. Under the conventional allocation, drivers will have two sets of the hard (white-walled), three of the medium and eight of the soft, plus intermediate and full wet tyres, with an extra set of softs reserved for those who reach Q3. ¹

Pirelli's weekend preview, quoted by Formula1.com, describes a 5.513km circuit where the fast first sector stresses the front tyres while the acceleration zones out of slow corners in the third sector generate thermal degradation primarily on the rears. The supplier notes the asphalt is not particularly abrasive, although a section between Turns 9 and 11 was resurfaced earlier this year, and says the ageing effect on the remainder of the track contributes to high wear levels. During last year's event, several tyres reached very high wear values, and Pirelli suggests tyre wear rather than graining could be a key factor this weekend. ¹

On strategy, Pirelli's preview suggests the presence of the C2 as the hard compound could favour long stints and a likely one-stop race, while cautioning that the typically high Texan temperatures could increase degradation and open the door to alternative strategies. All drivers must use at least two different slick compounds during the race, providing the track is dry. ¹

A conventional weekend with three practice sessions

The event runs from October 23–25 as round 18 of the 2026 season, with no Sprint and therefore three practice sessions before qualifying and the race, F1 Live Pulse reports. The Friday programme comprises FP1 at 12:30–13:30 and FP2 at 16:00–17:00 local time, with FP3 and qualifying on Saturday and a 56-lap, 308.405km Grand Prix scheduled for 15:00 local time on Sunday. A pre-event forecast published on October 19 pointed to a warm weekend with temperatures peaking around 28°C and a very low likelihood of rain, though that outlook remains subject to change. ³

Tech Torque Media notes the conventional format gives teams more time to address problems that proved difficult to solve during Singapore's Sprint format, and makes Friday running unusually important for Mercedes in particular. The longer practice programme also allows teams to assess the tyre compounds before committing to race plans. ⁴³

Antonelli's title maths and Verstappen's momentum

Kimi Antonelli arrives at COTA with a substantial championship lead and could, in theory, clinch the drivers' crown in Austin, F1 Live Pulse reports. After Singapore, Antonelli leads on 340 points from George Russell on 238, Lewis Hamilton on 229 and Max Verstappen on 221. The 102-point advantage makes Austin a possible title-deciding venue, but Tech Torque Media reports that to settle the championship this weekend Antonelli must win and still needs the results of his closest rivals to fall his way, with the exact requirements depending on their finishing positions. ³⁴

Verstappen has won the last two Grands Prix, Tech Torque Media reports: victory at Sepang was followed by a commanding Singapore weekend in which he won the Sprint, took pole and controlled Sunday's Grand Prix ahead of Charles Leclerc and Antonelli. In Singapore, Antonelli finished third while Russell recovered from the back of the grid to ninth after power-unit penalties. Tech Torque Media's analysis is that COTA, with its demands for quick direction changes, heavy braking and traction, is a better place to judge Red Bull's overall progress than Marina Bay, and that a Red Bull win could both deny Antonelli an immediate title settlement and confirm a late-season change in the race-winning order. ⁴

Mercedes wrestles with its W17 upgrades

Mercedes introduced significant bodywork and floor updates to the W17 at the relocated Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang, but the package did not deliver the lap-time improvement the team had expected, Tech Torque Media reports. In Singapore the team split the specifications: Russell returned to the earlier Azerbaijan configuration while Antonelli kept much of the revised aerodynamic package. Antonelli also trialled a new front wing but switched back to the older version after Friday practice; he was seventh, more than half a second off Russell, in Sprint qualifying before set-up changes helped him qualify fourth for the Grand Prix and take Sunday's podium. ⁴

Team principal Toto Wolff acknowledged that the newer W17 was harder to drive while stressing it was not necessarily slower, according to Tech Torque Media, which argues Mercedes must separate the potential of the parts from the difficulty of finding a usable set-up. Austin's three practice sessions give the team a more useful comparison than Singapore's Sprint format allowed. Separately, the FIA has announced a wet-weather power-unit software update for Austin after cars lost power at low engine speeds during wet formation laps in Malaysia — an operational and reliability measure, not an aerodynamic performance update, per the same outlet. ⁴

Ferrari and McLaren could influence the shape of the race. Tech Torque Media notes Ferrari has reason for encouragement after Leclerc's runner-up finish in Singapore, though Hamilton's sixth place showed how quickly a promising position can unravel through strategy, while McLaren will want more than the fourth and fifth places Norris and Piastri managed at Marina Bay. ⁴

McLaren targets a reset with modest upgrades

McLaren says it is bringing a modest selection of upgrades to Austin aimed at improving some braking reliability and performance issues, along with small floor changes to test, in the team's official race preview, which quotes chief technical officer Rob Marshall. Marshall says the team is getting stronger again after a difficult stretch and that Austin is probably a better circuit for its car, adding that practice will be important for correlating what the team has seen in its development tools with the track. ²

The Azerbaijan, Bahrain and Singapore triple-header yielded just 33 points between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, McLaren's preview states, with team principal Andrea Stella saying the team will put lessons learned into action. The team is third in the Constructors' Championship on 339 points, 105 off second; Norris is sixth in the Drivers' Championship on 201 points and Piastri seventh on 138. McLaren is hopeful COTA will better suit the MCL40's characteristics and intends to use the weekend as a springboard for the final six rounds. ²

The circuit itself remains a distinctive test. McLaren's preview highlights the 41-metre climb into the Turn 1 hairpin, a blind apex that is windy and bumpy, and the two main overtaking zones at Turn 1 and Turn 12 following a 1.2km straight, where Hamilton made the decisive move on Vettel for his 2012 win. F1 Live Pulse adds that the 2026 circuit map identifies two Straight Mode zones — on the back straight between Turns 11 and 12 and on the start-finish straight — part of the new rules that must be considered alongside electrical energy deployment rather than treated as a DRS equivalent. ²³