As F1 racing gets underway at COTA, Finn nips favorites Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen in practice round

While the duel between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen at the top of the Formula One driver standings has captivated fans, Valtteri Bottas briefly stole the spotlight in the opening practice round of the U.S. Grand Prix.

Bottas nipped both second-place Hamilton and third-place Verstappen on a scorching track Friday at Circuit of the Americas. In the process, the veteran Finnish driver flashed the potential to spoil the anticipated showdown between the two most popular drivers in the world and the co-protagonists in the latest F1 rivalry.

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The showing by the 32-year-old Mercedes driver won’t shock the dedicated F1 fans. Bottas has won 10 races since 2017 and captured the crown at F1’s most recent race in Turkey in early October.

Bottas, who will race for Alpha Romeo beginning next season, remains a distant third in the 2021 driver standings with 177 points entering Sunday’s U.S. Grand Prix. Verstappen has accumulated 262.5 points, just six points ahead of Hamilton.

Only a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race sullied the day for Bottas, who took a sixth internal combustion engine this season — three more than allowed. Sebastian Vettel of Aston Martin and George Russell of Williams have also incurred penalties for too many Mercedes engines. The issue befuddles Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who expressed concern that Hamilton — Mercedes’ prized driver — might also suffer a penalty before the end of the season.

Wolff told reporters that his team hasn’t “understood fully” the issues with the engines and said “the risk is there” that Hamilton will take a new engine in one of the remaining five races of the season.

Perhaps the biggest drama of the practice session came in the notorious turn 12. Mexico's Sergio Perez and German rookie Mick Schumacher – the son of racing legend Michael Schumacher – collided in the waning moments of the session. Neither driver took damage, but Perez didn't care about Schumacher's lineage while taking a shot.

"What an idiot," Perez said. "He isn't looking in his mirrors."

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Driving up interest — except for Max Verstappen

Netflix executives call their series “Formula 1: Drive to Succeed” a gold mine. COTA CEO Bobby Epstein says it’s “a huge part of the growth” of F1 in the U.S. the past few years. But Verstappen, the Dutch racer who hopes to tighten his grip on first place in the F1 driver standings by winning Sunday’s U.S. Grand Prix, hopes it just goes away – at least when it comes to his participation.

“I understand that it needs to be done to boost the popularity in America,” Verstappen told The Associated Press this week. “But from my side as a driver, I don’t like being part of it.”

Verstappen said the series “faked” rivalries between the drivers and accentuated a certain amount of drama to boost ratings. As a result, the Dutchman stopped giving interviews for the series and won’t cooperate for any upcoming seasons.

“I am not really a dramatic show kind of person; I just want facts and real things to happen,” he said.

The absence of Verstappen isn’t likely to blunt the growing popularity of the series in the U.S., even if one Dutch journalist at COTA called Verstappen the biggest sports figure in the Netherlands. The show has given American audiences a closer look at F1, which Epstein said proved particularly appealing during the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused last year’s U.S. Grand Prix to be canceled.

“F1 didn’t make it to the U.S. in 2020, so when you see more fans coming about, you have to ask, ‘Why is this happening?’” Epstein said. “It’s because people can tune in at home, and people get to see the drivers outside the helmet. They can relate to that human factor, and that’s been a tremendous help.”

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W Series hopes for impact in U.S. debut

The gender gap in F1 might appear as wide as ever, but a new generation of female drivers hopes to build a bridge.

The W Series, the international single-seater motor racing championship for female drivers, will make its U.S. debut this weekend at COTA while concluding its 2021 season. Launched in October 2018, the W Series is a free-to-enter motor racing championship that organizers say “provides equal opportunities for women and eliminates the financial barriers that have historically prevented them from progressing to the upper tiers of motorsport.”

It’s been 45 years since a woman raced in a championship F1 Grand Prix, and officials hope the continued development of the W Series can soon produce the next female F1 racer.

Alice Powell and Jamie Chadwick, both of England, share the top spot in the standings, and fellow English racer Jessica Hawkins has drawn plenty of attention after recently making her big-screen debut as a stunt driver in the new James Bond film, “No Time to Die.”

But 27-year-old Colorado native Sabré Cook, the lone American in this weekend’s race, says the impact of the W Series goes far beyond points, finishes and film fanfare.

“Having the W Series here is massive for the series and women’s motorsport in the U.S.,” she said. “So many young American girls have started following W Series, and lots of them have been in touch with me to say they are planning to go to COTA, and I know families who are taking their daughters to see W Series that weekend too. For those girls to see us on the track is going to be really special, and I hope we’ll inspire them to stick with it and continue to climb the motorsport ladder.”

Williams wants a young American

Promising American racer Logan Sargeant has joined Williams’ F1 driver academy on a long-term agreement, the team announced Friday at COTA.

Sargeant, a 20-year-old Florida native, finished third in the 2020 Formula 3 drivers' championship and placed seventh in 2021 while racing for a Charouz team that took fifth in the F3 team standings. He hopes to become the first American to get behind the wheel in an F1 race since Alexander Rossi in 2015.

“I am delighted to be joining the Williams Racing Driver Academy,” Sargeant told reporters. “It’s a team with not only a fantastic history, but a great track record of bringing young talent into Formula One. I am really excited to begin working with the team and can’t wait to hit the ground running.”