Corners you can't see, kerbs you need to kiss, and compromises you must make at the Circuit of the Americas. Aston Martin Aramco Team Ambassador Pedro de la Rosa shares an unparalleled insight into the engineering, technical, and physical challenges posed by COTA.

The most technologically advanced sport on Earth heads to Texas for the United States Grand Prix. The Lone Star State is synonymous with scientific progress and is home to NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Centre, a cornerstone in humanity's unrelenting quest to push the limits of possibility.

But this week, Texas swaps astrodynamics for aerodynamics as cutting-edge racing machines developed by some of the planet's brightest minds land at COTA to be driven by some of the world's finest drivers.

As we look ahead to the United States Grand Prix, Pedro de la Rosa - a man who has spent thousands of miles in the cockpit of an F1 car - shares his insight into mastering the engineering, technical, and physical demands of COTA.

What are the key challenges the engineers face when setting the car up for COTA?
Pedro de la Rosa: "COTA is a circuit of compromise. It's a very complete racetrack with a mix of low- and high-speed sections, so you're trying to strike a balance with the car setup that meets these different challenges.

"You need to run the car with as wide an operating window of ride height as possible. It must be high enough to operate well at low-speed but low enough to provide downforce in the high-speed parts of the track.

"That is difficult because this current era of cars have a very narrow window of operation, especially in terms of ride height, so it's a big challenge for the engineers and the drivers to work together to get the car optimised for as many corners as possible. You will always have to sacrifice some areas at COTA."

Where on the circuit is the ride height trade-off particularly pertinent and why?
PdlR: "You have to try to straight-line the esses in Sector One as much as possible to unlock lap-time and to do that you need to ride the kerbs. The issue is, you want your ride height low enough to have good aero grip to take the corners at high-speed but not so low that you're hitting the kerbs too hard.

"If the car hits the kerbs hard and jumps, you lose downforce and the rear end of the car. You have to attack the kerbs, so there is a compromise to be found.

"It can also be tough physically for the drivers because the lower you go, the more bouncing and bumps you feel in the cockpit."

The esses section in Sector One is also one of the most thrilling areas of the lap to see an F1 car at full speed. What is that like to drive?
PdlR: "That section is the favourite part of the circuit for many of the drivers because it's very high-speed and you need to be very, very precise.

"You feel a lot of g-force through there. You go from lateral 5 g on one side of your body to 5 g on the other almost immediately; it's fantastic.

"Physically it is hard on the neck, but that's not a big deal because COTA has long straights on which you can recover."

Which other areas of the lap are particularly exciting from a driver's point of view?
PdlR: "Turn One is like the start of a rollercoaster ride as you climb the hill; you really feel the elevation in the car, but it means you can brake very late because gravity is pushing back against you.

"It's a blind corner, and you don't see the apex until late, but it's a very good overtaking opportunity because the track is wide on entry and there are lots of different lines you can take. You can also overtake on exit if you get better traction than your competitor.

"Elsewhere, I've always found the most difficult corner in COTA to be Turn 19. You arrive there very quickly and the entry is also blind but at a much higher speed than Turn One. If you go in too early and you clip the inside kerb, it's easy to spin, and if you go in too late, you will understeer and end up potentially exceeding track limits.

"It is a corner that is extremely difficult to get right because you have to be very precise at high speed, but you cannot see the apex."

Finally, how tough is the circuit on tyres and how do the drivers contend with that?
PdlR: "Like so much else at COTA, managing tyres is a balancing act. They are punished particularly hard in the first half of the lap, so you have to look after them as best you can so they last for the second half, especially in Qualifying.

"You cannot leave anything on the table in the first sector but it's very important to attack it in a way where you are not sliding too much, because if you slide you generate too much heat in the tyres and it becomes very difficult to cool them down.

"In the second half of the lap it is more important to keep the rear tyres alive because there are a lot of traction phases, such as the exits of Turns 12, 13, and 14, and you can lose a lot more time in the slow sections of the lap rather than the fast ones.

"You must be very cautious when applying the throttle, because if you light up the rear tyres on exit you'll pay a big penalty.

"Racing at COTA is all about striking a delicate setup balance so you can push hard."