Formula 1® has had a long history in the United States, having visited 12 circuits across the country to date. However, historically, the sport’s tenure at individual circuits stateside has not been long. Of the 12 tracks, only two have hosted more than eight Grands Prix.

The United States Grand Prix takes place at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas for the 14th time this weekend. Only Watkins Glen has hosted the event on more occasions. The New York track appeared at the back end of the schedule in all 20 seasons from 1961 to 1980.

Having renewed its contract through to 2034 last year, COTA is set to overtake Watkins Glen at the top of the list of most frequent United States Grand Prix hosts in 2033.

Formula 1® actually made its first trip to Texas 28 years prior to Circuit of The Americas’ arrival on the schedule. The one-off Dallas Grand Prix took place in 1984 on a temporary street circuit in Fair Park, east of downtown Dallas.

With high hopes of showing off Dallas’ status as a “world-class city” to the rest of the globe, the event took place in blazing heat at the height of the Texan summer.

The heat was a major problem at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix, which was one of the biggest reasons why the race was never staged again. It wasn’t just a problem for the drivers but for the track too. Under the intense sun and the massive power from the turbocharged cars of the era, the track surface crumbled as the race weekend progressed.

The situation was so dire that emergency repair work was carried out through the night and was completed only 30 minutes before the race began. Even then, in the baking sun, the supposedly quick-drying cement never fully set. Drivers found chunks of asphalt sticking to their tyres as the circuit’s surface continued to break up over the course of the race.

While some drivers found novel ways of dealing with Dallas’ July heat – like Piercarlo Ghinzani, who had a bucket of ice cold water thrown over him at a pit stop, or Keke Rosberg who made use of a water-cooled skullcap – others were less fortunate.

Only seven drivers crossed the finish line. Nigel Mansell missed out by mere metres. The Brit had been in contention for the win, having led the first 35 laps of the race from pole. But a clip of one of the circuit’s close walls dropped him down the order before his car gave up within sight of the finish line.

Mansell was not done yet. He leapt from the car and began pushing it towards the line. After spending two hours in the red-hot cockpit, his energy was spent. Just a few metres later, he collapsed to the ground from exhaustion. He did at least pick up a point for his efforts, as he was classified in sixth place.

There have been few American drivers in F1® in recent years. Alexander Rossi was the first American to race in the United States Grand Prix during its tenure at Circuit of The Americas. His one and only home race appearance came in 2015, on the third of his five F1® starts with the Manor Marussia team.

Racing with the stars and stripes of the United States flag emblazoned on his rear wing, Rossi finished in 12th place. It would prove to be the best result of his F1® career. Rossi moved to the IndyCar series in 2016 and went on to win the Indianapolis 500 on his first appearance at the famous oval.

Since Rossi, Logan Sargeant is the only other American driver to have raced at COTA. He too recorded the best result from his 36 F1® race appearances at the track, scoring the only point of his career with a tenth place finish in the 2023 United States Grand Prix.

Turn 1 at COTA – lovingly nicknamed Big Red in honour of the track’s co-founder Red McCombs – has one of the steepest gradients of any corner on the F1® calendar. With an 11% gradient, the elevation change from the grid to the apex of the first turn is around 30 metres.

Its uphill layout and tight left-hand turn can lead to plenty of crunches at the start of the race. To put it in perspective, the gradient at the famous Eau Rouge and Raidillon complex at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is around 17%, with an elevation change that is around only 10 metres more than that at Turn 1 at COTA.

Before drivers could choose their own car numbers, number 13 was not usually allocated to cars in F1® given its synonymity with bad luck. Up until 2014, the number had adorned a car only once – by Moisés Solana at the 1963 Mexican Grand Prix. He failed to finish the race.

Flash forward to 2014 and the fearless Pastor Maldonado took the number as his own at the first opportunity. The Venezuelan had a rather luckless season – but managed to become the first driver to score points in car number 13 in that year’s United States Grand Prix at COTA. He did so despite picking up two penalties in the race – one for speeding behind the Safety Car and another for speeding in the pit lane.

Since the knockout qualifying system was introduced to Formula 1® at the start of 2006, there has been only one occasion that Q3 has been completely cancelled. It happened at COTA, on the 2015 United States Grand Prix weekend. Heavy rain and flood warnings had already led to limited running in practice, with the Friday afternoon session cancelled due to the treacherous conditions.

Final practice on Saturday morning took place without fans in the grandstands due to safety concerns. Few laps were run as heavy rain continued to fall. After a three-hour rain delay, the decision was taken to delay qualifying until Sunday morning. But even then, the rain continued.

A red flag delayed proceedings in Sunday’s Q1 session and with further downfalls approaching, getting a good lap time in Q2 became imperative. The session would prove to set the grid for the Grand Prix, with Q3 cancelled as the rain worsened. It is the only time that lap times from Q2 have set the grid. The Grand Prix took place later that day on a drying track.