The team embraces the Texan spirit before Pierre battles to P10 and a point at COTA

Getting a taste for Texas

On arrival in Austin, Franco fully embodied the local cowboy culture, swapping his cockpit for the saddle to enjoy an authentic Western experience. Having ridden horses since he was young, the Argentinian gaucho took the reins of a horse appropriately named ‘Smoke’ for a ride around the ring at Austin’s Lone Star Ranch.

Meanwhile, Pierre discovered another of the region’s great traditions as he headed to the legendary Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood. He was given a tour of the barbecue restaurant’s traditional smokers before getting hands-on with the craft of a Texas pit master.

He learned how to turn and flip pork ribs over an open fire before basting and coating the meat with Salt Lick’s signature BBQ sauce, blended from 18 different spices.

Swapping four wheels for two

The following morning, Franco arrived in the paddock on a MotoGP bike borrowed from our friends at the Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP Team. He rode into the pit lane, where both drivers and Flavio enjoyed the noise and power of the 1,000cc machine.

There was plenty more happening over the weekend, including an early morning Alpine x Beforeyouspeakcoffee run club. Pierre also took part in the ‘Formula One’s Premium Playbook’ business event, alongside Marissa Dacay, Global VP of Enterprise Marketing of Adobe. They discussed the company’s new partnership with the team as Official AI Fan Experience Partner, announced on the eve of the Austin race.

Split programmes across practice

Knowing he would take a 10-place grid penalty on Sunday for using a new control electronics unit, Franco followed a different run plan when the cars took to the track on Friday morning for Free Practice 1.

Rather than focusing on qualifying simulations he completed plenty of high-fuel running to prepare the car for the race. It was a similar approach to the one he took in Malaysia, where tyre degradation was also more of a factor. Franco completed 55 laps in total, covering 303km, and finished P17 in the morning session before improving to P15 in the afternoon.

Pierre, meanwhile, followed a more conventional practice programme, trying different setups to optimise the car, particularly over the bumps that characterise COTA. However, the early running suggested the car was performing better on high fuel than over a single lap — the opposite trend to recent races. Pierre finished both sessions outside the top 10, in P15 and P12, completing 50 laps over 276km.

There was also a special moment for fans watching Sky Sports F1’s coverage, as Pierre spoke directly to viewers through an innovative live link-up with the commentary box.

He even talked through a practice start at the end of the session, and the two-way conversation continued into Sunday when he spoke to Martin Brundle during his grid walk, at the end of Pierre’s reconnaissance lap to his starting position.

Top spot in F1 Academy

Alpine Academy racer Nina Gademan enjoyed a superb outing in Austin at the latest round of F1 Academy, securing her second win of the season with an assured drive on Sunday morning. It followed an excellent result on Friday, when she finished second in the first of the weekend’s three races.

Nina made a brilliant start in the final race. Having qualified third, she was on the outside as the field made its way towards Turn 1 for the first time. Braking late, she swept around three cars to take the lead. Despite pressure from behind and a late Safety Car, she held on to secure her second win this year, following her success in Shanghai, and her third victory overall in F1 Academy.

Speaking about her move at the start, Nina revealed it had been planned in advance: “We analysed race one and, of course, I go wherever the gap is and this time it was on the outside. I didn’t even know I was going to make it to P1, but it worked! I knew my pace was really strong, so I knew if I was leading the race, it was just about looking forward not back.”

A fifth place in Saturday’s Reverse Grid Race, along with her double podium, has lifted Nina to second in the overall F1 Academy standings, with just Las Vegas remaining.

Picking up a point

Following practice, the team worked hard overnight to improve the A526’s single-lap pace for Qualifying. Pierre delivered a strong lap in Q2, but unfortunately missed out on progressing to the top-10 shootout by just 0.022 seconds. He nevertheless started Sunday’s race from 10th following a grid penalty for Arvid Lindblad.

After progressing through Q1, Franco set the 14th quickest time in Qualifying. However, following his own penalty, he started the United States GP from 20th on the grid. Starting on a fresh set of hards, Franco made a steady getaway, but his race was effectively over when he was sandwiched between two cars on the run up to Turn 1 in the early going.

Lindblad made contact with the side of Franco’s car, damaging the floor and sidepod. The resulting accident damage forced Franco to retire after 35 laps.

Pierre also had to contend with a damaged car after contact with Ollie Bearman’s Haas at Turn 15 on the second lap. Bearman was given a penalty for the incident, while Pierre continued with damage to the right-hand side of the floor.

Despite the resulting loss of performance, Pierre pitted on lap 24 to switch from soft to hard tyres. While pitting, he also lost some time due to a hardware issue, but battled on to bring the car home in P10 and secure the team’s first points since Madrid.

After a busy weekend in Austin, the team is heading straight to the high altitude of Mexico City for the second race of the Americas triple header.