US GP talking points: How will Hamilton, Norris move on from woes?

Kimi Antonelli could seal his maiden F1 drivers' title at this weekend's United States GP; Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris are both looking to bounce back from controversies; watch every session of the United States GP in Austin on October 23-25, live on Sky Sports F1

Formula 1 returns to Austin's Circuit of The Americas for the United States Grand Prix with a historic championship crowning potentially in the offing, along with several other hot topics on the agenda.

The event in Texas kicks off the second of three triple-headers to end the season, with races in Mexico and Brazil immediately following this one.

There is every chance that Antonelli will become F1's youngest ever world champion on one of the next three Sundays, but it would require something quite dramatic for that to be in Austin.

Antonelli would need to win the United States Grand Prix and for his Mercedes team-mate George Russell to finish ninth or lower, with Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also finishing fifth or lower.

However the weekend plays out, it will be fascinating to see how Antonelli handles the pressure of the title being attainable for the first time.

Ultimately, there has been little evidence to suggest the 20-year-old will back far away from the aggressive approach that has served him so well this season, and why should he?

A key factor in determining when Antonelli seals the title could be the performance of his Mercedes car, and more specifically the upgrades that have been brought to it in recent weeks.

The Silver Arrows had projected plenty of confidence over the major package they added to the W17 at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, but it appeared to have a negative impact as they delivered arguably their least performative weekend of the season.

That led to the team taking the quite extreme step of running a full test of the upgrades the following weekend in Singapore as Antonelli drove with the new parts on his car and Russell drove with the pre-Sepang specification.

The extreme heat and nature of the surface in Malaysia made it tricky for all the teams to analyse their performance, while Singapore's Marina Bay Street Circuit is also something of an outlier on the calendar.

A return to a more traditional circuit in Austin therefore makes it a crucial weekend for Mercedes, whose plans for the development of their 2027 car will be significantly impacted if this package simply doesn't work.

There is no longer any doubt that Max Verstappen and Red Bull are well and truly back.

The four-time world champion had to wait until the 16th round of the season for his first Grand Prix victory of 2026, but it was then just seven days before his second came along.