The Texas Track Built From Other Tracks’ Best Ideas
Circuit of the Americas almost never got built. This month it could help crown a world champion.
In late 2011, Bernie Ecclestone threatened to cancel the first Grand Prix at a track that barely existed. Funding had stalled. The land south of Austin was still ranchland. Formula 1 had no American home, and it looked like Texas might not provide one.
Today, Circuit of the Americas hosts one of the best-attended races on the calendar. So how did it get from there to here?
A track that almost didn’t happen
Promoter Tavo Hellmund and motorcycle champion Kevin Schwantz dreamed this up around 2010. Indianapolis had dropped off the calendar after 2007, and F1 needed a permanent American venue. Investor Red McCombs backed the project. Bobby Epstein later became chairman.
Builders broke ground on New Year’s Eve 2010. Funding delays followed, and then came the threat from Ecclestone. Crews still laid the final asphalt in September 2012. Mario Andretti drove the first official laps in his Lotus 79 on 21 October. Barely a month later, the race ran.
The greatest hits album
Hermann Tilke designed the layout with input from Hellmund and Schwantz. He did something bold. He borrowed from other tracks.
Turns 3 to 6 copy the idea behind Silverstone’s Maggotts and Becketts. Drivers flick the car left, right, left, right at around 290 km/h. The triple-apex right-hander at Turns 16 to 18 echoes Turn 8 at Istanbul Park. The tight stadium section nods to Hockenheim.
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Copies usually disappoint. A great corner works because of where it sits, not just its shape. Still, COTA pulls it off, and the reason is the ground underneath.
The hill does the work
Turn 1 sits at the top of a climb of roughly 40 metres. Drivers charge uphill, can’t see the apex, and then drop the car into a tight left-hander. The corner now carries the name Big Red, after McCombs. There’s a nice irony in that. The most dramatic corner on the circuit honors a man called Red.
Starts here produce chaos almost every year. Twenty cars arrive at a blind hairpin together, and the hill makes the braking zone hard to judge. So the first lap often decides how the race plays out.
The pass that announced the place
The first race delivered immediately. On 18 November 2012, Lewis Hamilton started second and chased Sebastian Vettel for most of the afternoon. Late on, he passed Vettel on the back straight and took the lead into Turn 12. Around 117,000 fans watched the first United States Grand Prix since 2007.
Hamilton liked the place. He went on to win here five times, still the most of any driver.
Why it matters this month
The 2026 cars have no DRS flap. They use active aero and an Overtake Mode instead. The long straight into Turn 12 should still produce passes, but nobody knows exactly how they’ll look.
The bigger story sits in the standings. Kimi Antonelli arrives 102 points clear with six races left. So Texas could hand the 20 year old his first world title. A track that nearly died in 2011 might witness a champion crowned in 2026.
That’s quite a journey for a patch of ranchland.
I wrote up the full circuit, every key corner, the history and how to reach it from Austin, over on Sportsfortify: [Circuit of the Americas guide]
