COTA: Ferrari history on the Austin track

A track inaugurated in 2010 which in the space of a few seasons became one of the most well-known venues in international motor racing. Circuit of The Americas – COTA, in Texas (USA), hosts the sixth round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship. The American track, characterised by frequent changes in gradient, an overall extension of 5.513 km and 20 turns, returns to host the world championship after its last appearance in February 2020. Ferrari’s COTA history is bound up both with GT racing, in the FIA WEC (six editions, with two wins and 13 podiums) and with Formula 1 GPs, in which Scuderia Ferrari has picked up 11 starts and one win in Austin.

COTA’s appearance on the international racing scene dates to 2010 when the American venue was inaugurated and began to stand out as a favourite international circuit, particularly because of the track’s characteristics, mixing turns of different radii and widths with fast sections, like the main straight of more than 1 km in length.

The 6 hours of Austin, known as the Lone Star Le Mans, has been a leg of the FIA WEC on six occasions, between 2013 and 2017 and in the 2019-20 season; in this period, Ferrari has picked up two wins, one in the LMGTE Pro class and one in AM, and 13 podiums.

The Maranello-based manufacturer achieved LMGTE Pro success with Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado (2017) in a race that also ended with a third place for Davide Rigon and Sam Bird in the same class; both crews were at the steering wheel of the AF Corse team’s 488 GTEs. In the same year, Keita Sawa, Weng Sun Mok and Matt Griffin took second place in LMGTE Am ahead of the other Ferrari shared by Miguel Molina, Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci.

The first win, on the other hand, dates back to 2015 when Andrea Bertolini, together with Aleksey Basov and Victor Shaytar, drove the Ferrari 458 Italia to triumph in the LMGTE Am class.

Since the 2012 season, COTA has hosted the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix (except for 2020 when the American race was not held): Ferrari’s best place in Texas dates to 2018 when Kimi Räikkönen drove the SF71H to victory. That season, driven by the Finn and Sebastian Vettel, it took a total of six wins and the same number of pole positions, in addition to 18 podiums. In total, Scuderia Ferrari has picked up eight podiums at COTA, including the third places of Charles Leclerc in the Sprint Race and Carlos Sainz racing, both in 2023.