Tyre pressures at Circuit of the Americas

The lap, to scale. Track outline © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

How hard a circuit works each corner of the car shows up as tread temperature, and temperature is what sets pressure. GripCalc carries corner heating figures for Circuit of the Americas as a starting point: how much hotter each tyre runs over the session's base temperature, from the layout's mix of corners and load. They pre-fill the calculator when you pick the circuit, and your own pyrometer readings refine them from the first session.

ESTIMATED — class-based starting values over an 85°C session base, derived from this layout's type (direction, speed profile, load), and shared with circuits of similar character rather than measured here. Not gospel: enter your own pyrometer figures after a session and they take precedence.

Circuit of the Americas, on paper

OSM — the sections mappers have named on this venue's tarmac: Turn 19 · Turn 15 · Turn 6 · Turn 9 · Turn 17 · Turn 12 · Turn 13 · Turn 10 · Turn 1 · Turn 11 · Turn 18 · Turn 2 · Turn 7 · Turn 20 · Turn 14 · Turn 8 · Turn 3 · Turn 5 · Turn 4 · Short Course 1 · Turn 16 · Short Course 2 · Runoff Corner · NASCAR Short Course · COTA Short Track

Lengths are measured from the OpenStreetMap geometry drawn above; the longest straight is derived from the same line and is approximate. Section names are the venue's, and can belong to any of its layouts.

What Circuit of the Americas asks of a tyre

Circuit of the Americas measures 5.50 km on the map, with 18 corners counted along that line. A corner every 306 m gives the tyre a steady rhythm of work, enough to build temperature without running away with it. Its longest straight runs about 826 m, far enough to cool the tread before the stop at the end of it, so a hot pressure taken in the pit lane understates what the tyre saw mid-lap.

DERIVED — length, corner count, hands and straight measured from the mapped lap drawn above. Corner counting is a judgement (a double apex can be read as one corner or two), so treat these as this line's reading of the circuit, not a series' official figures.

The Circuit of the Americas runs anticlockwise with a first sector of fast esses modelled on the great direction-change sequences, cycling the car left-right at speed, and Texas heat that can push track temperature far beyond ambient. It is known as a demanding circuit for tyre energy: the esses load both sides in quick succession and the long back straight then cools everything.

A 992 GT3 on Cup 2 R at Circuit of the Americas

Published hot target 30.5 / 32.0 psi at 92°C tread, on a 15°C morning, with the corner figures above: cold set 21.5 / 21.5 front, 22.6 / 22.6 rear. A different car, tyre or morning moves every number, which is what the calculator is for.

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