I’m very happy to go back to the US. I obviously raced there in January at Daytona, and then I went to Barber in Alabama a few weeks ago for the Indycar test. Now, I’m going to another circuit – one of my favourite ones, Austin – for the last time in Formula 1 in the US. I’m ready to enjoy the magic atmosphere there. For me, it’s always very nice to race in front of the American fans. Hopefully we can get back into the points that we need for the constructors’ championship, to help the team and to give us a boost in motivation. We had a good race in Singapore a few weeks ago, but we weren’t in the points in the last two races, so in Austin we want to change that. It’s going to be a fun weekend and I’m also looking forward to seeing a lot of friends there.

I’m really looking forward to heading back to the US. I’m a big fan and have been spending more and more time there recently. Austin is a really cool city and every year I spend time with the team exploring and trying out cool restaurants. You can’t go to Austin and not have Texan barbecue! I also really like the COTA track. It has a great mix of corners and is fun to drive. The fans too are really enthusiastic and we seem to have bigger and noisier crowds every year we go there. It’s tricky to make predictions, but this track will hopefully be a bit more favourable to our car. The last couple of races have been difficult for us but we hope that in Austin we’ll be able to show a bit more performance.

Although Austin is a relatively new grand prix, it’s already become one of the preferred stops on the Formula 1 calendar. The circuit itself not only provides an interesting mix of different corners, but also great visuals. Clearly, our results of late have not been satisfactory. Nevertheless, we continue to work hard to improve our performance each and every race weekend. Needless to say, the US Grand Prix is one of the most important races of the year for McLaren and we look forward to hosting many of our friends, customers and guests at what I’m sure will be an exciting and fun weekend.