Nikita Mazepin will start the U.S Grand Prix from 17^th place at his team´s home Grand Prix in Austin. MotorLat had access to an online meeting with the driver where he shared his feelings and opinions towards his first experience in America.

When MotorLat asked him about how much he´s enjoying the race week in America and his expectations for the race he said, “being here is cool, I´ve never been to US and I think discovering new continents is a nice feeling especially racing. I think the faster cars won´t have a very difficult time getting past us. It should be a difficult race with tyre management.”

The track limits were an issue during the weekend for many drivers. All of Mazepin's fast laps in FP3 were deleted because he exceeded track limits. Eventually he managed to get a time in at the end of Q1, 0.3s behind teammate Mick Schumacher. 

On this matter Nikita said, “It was fine I had it under control. My goal was to understand the balance at high-speed corners and the way you evaluate this is by pushing it and seeing what downsides you get from the car, to add more front wing or less.

''I explored the track and the car as much as I needed to but when the time came I was able to wind it back which I think was decent. Unfortunately, I run into an Aston Martin which was in turn 15 and I lost two and a bit tenths there. Could have been an okayish lap, but it wasn't. I think we weren't quick enough today to compete with [the] others.”

On getting the tyres in the right window during Quali he added “it hasn´t been [a problem] for me. I think the track is very aggressive here and how much it overheats the tyres …if you start the lap with slightly cooler tyres it often doesn´t hurt you as much. It didn't bother me that much."