The rough surface tends to have a greater effect on chasing drivers, running in the hot, turbulent air of the car ahead. Already down on grip, the struggle for traction at Turn 11 thwarts their attempts to close up on the kilometre-long (0.63mile) straight before lunging for the pass at Turn 12, despite the ability to use DRS to reduce drag when close enough to the car in front.

“Potentially, the new track surface could allow drivers to be closer to the car in front on another section of the circuit,” added Berra. “But we know that it’s difficult to follow the car in front as the tyres overheat and begin to slide.

“So we could end up in a similar situation to last year just because Turn 11 has not been resurfaced.”

Elsewhere, Pirelli’s findings suggest that racers’ vocal complaints about the track surface have been addressed. Max Verstappen suggested COTA was more suited to rally cars during F1’s visit last year. Yamaha MotoGP rider Fabio Quartararo had a similar view when competing at Austin in 2022. “It’s more or less a track I use to train with a motocross bike,” he said. “It’s a joke.”

Pirelli conducted its initial tests of the new surface two days before Friday’s free practice session: scanning the circuit with a laser to produce a detailed picture of the surface texture, while also assessing grip levels on the racing line with a three-wheeled trolley that measures surface resistance.

“The data collected showed a decrease in macro and micro grip levels,” said Berra. “Basically we have a very smooth surface [in places] compared to the past and obviously this will have a lot of affect on tyre performance.

“The bumps on the circuit have also changed, which can cause sliding and affect tyre performance on longer stints. In the past this was always an issue as drivers had higher degradation levels compared to what they had at other circuits with the same compounds.”

COTA’s changes could mean that drivers are more comfortable on the hard-compound tyre which, for the US Grand Prix, is the C2 — the second-hardest compound in Pirelli’s full tyre range.

Last year, most teams opted for a two-stop strategy with medium and hard tyres, but had to manage their rubber carefully. George Russell, Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda were among the drivers to struggle on the hards, along with Lando Norris, who found them fading, along with his hopes of winning the race,

“We think that the new surface will work slightly better [with the C2] than in the past, so it opens up the strategy a little bit,” said Berra. “I don’t think a one-stop will be a real possibility, but we could expect a lower degradation — meaning drivers can manage their tyres less.”

That will be music to the ears of Norris, who was one of only two drivers to run two sets of C2 tyres back to back in 2023. He was passed for the lead by Verstappen, as tyre wear took its toll and finished second. This year, his car has been kinder on its hard compound tyres than the Red Bull or Ferrari.

But while the smoother racing surface could allow drivers to run harder on their tyres for longer, Pirelli stated that the new tarmac could generate heightened levels of graining — caused when a F1 car has high levels of initial grip. As they cling on to the asphalt under high cornering loads, this can create small tears, leaving a rough surface on the rubber and reducing grip, which affects both acceleration and braking.

Although graining will decrease across the weekend as the track begins to wear in and evolve, it may cause problems for teams during Friday’s sprint qualifying session.

“We only have one practice session to gain as much information as possible from the teams,” said Berra. “And it’s not enough for us to have a clear view.
This is obviously an important factor, even for the teams to set up the car, but also for us even to understand the level of the degradation.

“But we can exploit the sprint race to gather data before the Grand Prix. We usually consider data collected from the sprint more reliable and consistent anyway because it’s real racing. They’re pushing and managing less compared to a normal race — which will give us a better overview of what to expect on Sunday.”