Ferrari FP1 report: Carlos Sainz P1, Robert Shwartzman P16 | 2022 F1 United States GP. Ferrari FP1 report.

At the start of the first free practice session for the 2022 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, there were five changes to the usual line-up due to the sport’s young driver programme, which affords practice opportunities to up and comers.

Robert Schwartzman drove in Charles Leclerc’s place at Scuderia Ferrari, Alex Palou was in Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren, Theo Pourchaire was driving for Alfa Romeo in place of Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant stepped in for Nicholas Latifi at Williams, and Antonio Giovinazzi drove for Haas in Kevin Magnussen’s car, as the US Grand Prix weekend wa officially under way!

With a tyre test to follow in Practice Two, this was a particularly crucial session and unsurprisingly, there were immediately 15 cars out on track.

Unfortunately for Antonio Giovinazzi, the Ferrari reserve driver may have thrown away his hopes of a drive with Haas next season: the Italian spun and went into the wall at Turn 6, triggering a red flag. He was stuck in the wall for a while, but got moving again and got the car back to the garage.

Max Verstappen, as he so often has this season, came out on track and almost immediately flew to the top of the timesheet. It was a 1:38.272 for Max Verstappen, which put him half a second clear of Esteban Ocon in second, with the other Alpine of Fernando Alonso third at this stage.

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Ted Kravitz was down in the pitlane and reported that Charles Leclerc’s replacement for P1, Robert Schwartzman, was suffering issues with his seat: “This is why Robert is out of the car because there is some padding going in around his seat as it is not quite right. I am a bit surprised as he is a Ferrari young driver so they will have had the time to make seats and make sure he is comfortable but that s what they are fixing in the cockpit.”

Midway through the first free practice session at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), we hadn’t seen too much of the Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton in 14th and George Russell in 16th and more than 4 seconds off the pace. However, they were on the medium tyre with the front runners on the soft. Max Verstappen was looking very strong early on, having improved the leading time to a 1:37.462. That was the best part of a second clear of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez in second and third.

Lance Stroll momentarily took Aston Martin to the lofty heights of the top of the timesheet, but he has swiftly been displaced by Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz: the Spanish driver’s 1:36.857 put him 0.6s clear. Lewis Hamilton retook second by jumping above Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll, but the Brit remained almost half a second off that Carlos Sainz effort.

Max Verstappen was on an out-lap, so we could be about to see the Red Bull response to that Ferrari speed: with a very good lap with just over five minutes left of this session, the Red Bull man moved himself to 2nd ahead of Hamilton and +0.224s behind Carlos Sainz at the top of the timesheet.

With a track full of young drivers getting to grips with their Formula One cars, familiar names were at the top of the timesheet, Carlos Sainz going quickest with a 1:36.857s. Max Verstappen finished in second just +0.224s behind with Lewis Hamilton in third and Lance Stroll in fourth. Despite finishing the session in P2, the Dutchman felt that his car was dealing with some issues that are causing him some lap time: “There must be something wrong with the car because I have no front end in low speed,” Verstappen reported back to the Red Bull garage.

Ferrari test driver Robert Shwartzman finished the session in P16, about two seconds from Carlos’ best lap time.

Results from the first practice session at the F1 United States Grand Prix, Round 19 of the 2022 F1 world championship.