Mixed results for American team
The first American-owned team in 30 years in Formula One produced a mixed bag of results for thousands of fans cheering it Sunday in the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas.
“Half a happy ending to a tough weekend,” team principal Guenther Steiner said.
Romain Grosjean finished 10th, while Esteban Gutierrez did not finish at all.
“It was a bit of a messy first lap, but we went with an aggressive strategy, and it worked out pretty well,” Grosjean said. “It’s great to score a point in front of our home crowd.”
Gutierrez said, “Quite a disappointing home race. A brake problem ended our day. We wanted so badly to do better in Austin. Now we hope for better in Mexico.”
Support races: Austinbased Moorespeed’s two cars were competitive in the second Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup race, with Alec Udell taking seventh and Austin resident Will Hardeman 11th. Mathieu Jaminet of France won the race. “Nobody gave us a chance of getting inside the top 15, but we just missed two top 10s,” owner David Moore said. ... Dallas resident Charles Nearburg in a Williams FW07 B and Japan’s Katsuaki Kubota with Lotus 78 won the Masters Historic races.
Celebrities: Academy Award-winning actor Christoph Waltz (“Inglourious Basterds” and “Django Unchained”), a Quentin Tarantino favorite, was among the stars who were here for the weekend. Waltz was a guest of Mercedes, along with actress Rosa Salazar and Venus Williams.
Other celebs included skier Lindsey Vonn, actors Gerard Butler and Taylor Kinney, actress Gina Gershon, “CBS This Morning” co-anchor Gayle King, British chef Gordon Ramsay, four-time NASCAR champ Jeff Gordon and a host of San Antonio Spurs, including Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol and Patty Mills.
Bernie sighting: Although he hasn’t been seen much publicly at the circuit this weekend, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has been around and Sunday was seen chatting with COTA Chairman Bobby Epstein before the race. Ecclestone even posed for some pictures with celebs.
Texas flavor: Two popular staples of the pre-race entertainment, the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and the Texas Longhorn band, performed in front of the main grandstand and the paddock club.`
18-wheeler package: For the traditional parade, the drivers circled the track not chauffeured i n fancy cars, but on the flatbed of an 18-wheeler while being interviewed for TV.
Fit for a King: Driver Jordan King, a 22-year-old rising star from England, was here with Manor Racing amid speculation that he might be signed for 2017. Manor had King behind the wheel i n practice, and he’s tested for Manor this year. Manor’s current drivers, Pascal Wehrlein and Esteban Ocon, reportedly will jump to Force India and Renault, respectively.