So, here we are in Texas (Yee ha!) and thus far I have seen a lot of darkness and a lot of sunshine. The slight drawback of having the circuit in the east of a city is that every morning you drive into the sun and every evening (if you leave early enough) you drive into the sunset. This means that you cannot read the road signs. I looked at a map and planned a route in, only to find that constabulary had blocked off half the roads. We always work on the principle that one should ignore all police instructions when it comes to getting into circuit and so we arrived in the area of the circuit without any real drama and without being led on a police-inspired goose chase, disguised as a traffic plan. Once we reached the circuit the one thing we noticed apart from a lot of militia (and big gas-guzzling monster Hummers) was a complete lack of any signage suggesting where we ought to go. So we drove around a lot and finally tipped up in a place where the cars had the right passes on and so we stopped there and wandered in. It looks like a nice race track, although one has to say that if one anyalyses the place it looks like Hermann Tilke took a load of good corners from other tracks, turned them back to front or inside out and stuck them all together. There was Hella Licht, Becketts, the Adelaide Hairpin and Turkey’s Turn 8. I hope it works. America deserves to see F1 at its best.
Last night I was on a plane, minding my own business, sitting next to two people heading for Austin. One was a rabid race fan, who was remarkably well-informed and reminded me what a complex sport this is, who was lecturing the nice lady from Austin, who was patiently nodding sagely and wondering when it might all end. Still, it was great to see such enthusiasm, even if he did say “I sometimes come across as nerdy when I start talking about F1, so tell me when to stop”…
Yes, he was a bit nerdy but he did a good sales job. I doubt the lady will be coming to the race, but perhaps one day she might take a peek.
One of the reasons that some folk will not be in Texas this weekend is cost. When I arrived in Atlanta, the Immigration man was a race fan and so I asked him why he was not going over to Austin.
“$1000,” he said. “That’s what the weekend would cost me. Maybe one day.”
I live in Iowa and I am going to the race. I hope it will be a good one. Looking forward to finally seeing an F1 race back in the US…
…especially when you can go to an ALMS race for 10% of that, and get up close enough to the cars to touch them.
“$1000,” he said. “That’s what the weekend would cost me. Maybe one day.”
That’s comparable with me visiting silverstone (I live about 100 miles away):
Roughly:
Tickets £350-£380 each + £25 parking (we use motorbike but)
B&B £250 per night min of 2 nights (this is a 20min drive away)
+ food (approx £30 a day each)
+ Transport (Public Transport could add in the region of £150 to that bill)
With two of us going we budget for about £1500 total, so slightly more than $1000 each, Would be relatively much more expensive to go by myself.
I’m not going to say what the Honeymoon at Spa cost but we couldn’t do a european grand prix for any less than the British.
This F1 is an expensive business even for a fan! Especially now there is the mandatory Sky sports subscription…
I wish it was only costing me $1000 for this trip but then I’ve come from Australia, not Atlanta.
Joe, I believe Tavo Hellmund is responsible for the layout of the track, and that’s exactly what he did. Check out one of his original “drafts”:
http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/statesman/pdf/04/042412F1.pdf
I absolutely love that. My favorite comment: “Bernie thinks still too technical and slow.”
Original article from the Austin Statesman here: http://www.statesman.com/news/sports/motor-sports/turn-for-turn-austin-tracks-design-layout-should-1/nRnFP/
If it was Tilke’s design that rough sketch on a piece of paper would have cost $10 mil
Well, the track itself costs over $400M…
Considerable differences from Tavo’s original drawing. For example there is a super long straight in the real track but nothing of the kind in Tavo’s drawing.
True—but it doesn’t seem like much of it came about through Tilke’s input. You can see the final version of the track already forming in Tavo’s notes on this sketch: the admonition from Bernie to speed it up, his own note about adding an Istanbul turn 8, his note that his buddy Kevin has suggested adding a Hockenheim stadium section. That pretty much accounts for the final version right there.
I bet credit goes to Tilke for fine-tuning and sculpting the radii of each corner (the Hockenheim section has his fingerprints all over it), but it’s clear the overall vision of a “greatest hits” track was Tavo’s. Props to him for it; it produced a brilliant race today.
“We always work on the principle that one should ignore all police instructions when it comes to getting into circuit and so we arrived in the area of the circuit without any real drama and without being led on a police-inspired goose chase, disguised as a traffic plan. ”
Those sound like great words to live by; I shall remember those.
$1000 bucks! As you said – yee ha!
Considered going to the race. If I did, I would’ve rented an apartment with some friends. Much cheaper than hotels at least when I looked at airbnb earlier in summer
Quickly checking Kayak, and throwing a hypothetical booking forward to the first weekend in March, you get an adult return from Atlanta to Austin at $334 with Delta (I tried April too, same result). Add two a couple of nights stay, food, car hire and it’s pretty understandable.
It’s not like it can be described as his “local” race though, it’s 800 miles away. In terms of distance, that’s like asking an immigration official at Heathrow if they’re going to Monza.
I say this in part because I’ve pissed away most of my day marvelling at a) how huge North America really is and b) how far south it all is when you compare it with latitudes in Europe.
Is the Adelaide Hairpin the first corner to be stolen (or recycled) twice?
$1,000 seems pretty conservative actually! If a grandstand ticket is $500 and a flight at least $300 that doesn’t leave much left over for a hotel, food or anythign else!
I am driving 11 hours (straight through) from Iowa which saves me money on a flight and I am staying with friends. The tickets were pretty expensive though $425…
I just hope that the race good…
“$1000,” he said. “That’s what the weekend would cost me. Maybe one day.” A ludicrous price! Totally out of reach for most fans, and yet the place is apparently sold out.
Were there many people there today Joe? (I only have BBC not Sky)
I would guess that there is some kind of competition going on amongst the media to find the noisiest place to interview someone, since Jenny Cow always manages to speak to Gary Anderson about 2 inches away from an engine which is then immediately fired up, and its rev sequence started. Other than this it seems to be hanging over the pit wall but waiting until a good gaggle of cars is coming.
For goodness sake, I can remember Lotus Cars working on in car noise cancellation circuits 30 or more years ago, it doesn’t take a genius! Or maybe it does and we’ve run out of ‘em.
So what is it about turn 19, everybody going off on an apparently ordinary full view corner?
There are many of us here in the US that would like to go but are put off by the prices. Another issue is proximity to the US Thanksgiving holiday, which is next week and is a major travel holiday (i.e.., deals are in short supply).
“$1000,” he said. “That’s what the weekend would cost me.”
Bloody Bernie. His fingerprints are everywhere.
Three things put me off of going: 1) the price (it would have cost about $2,000); 2) the date (next week is Thanksgiving); and 3) the location (I’ve have no desire to go to Texas for any reason). Hopefully New Jersey gets sorted for 2014.
As a F1 fan since 1960 (Many races at the Glen, as well as a number of European races.) I looked very seriously at Austin. $800.00 per might with a 4 night minimum at a Red Roof Inn (Normally, approximately $65.00 a night.) meant that I never even checked ticket prices. Which I understand are outrageous.
The track (Anti-clockwise…sigh) seems OK, but with all of the asphalt run-off it seems to be another, somewhat higher quality, Tilke drome.
I want it to be a success because I want F1 in the US, but I figure it will be around as long as the original contract, and then vanish for lack of funds.
All of my American hard-core F1 friends, as well as myself, passed on the race. Believe me, it was not for lack of funds. But none of us were willing to be gouged.
I would much rather spend the money on a trip to one of the classic GPs than COTA. Even with the plane fare and the tickets it will be a better investment.
Oh, and the New Jersey/New York race will never happen. Never.
Count another long term fan put off by cost. Am only 900 miles away, always intended to go, but between the tickets and the motel’s multiple-the-usual price no way. Could afford it but just not worth it.
But kudos to the organizers, apparently sold out sometime ago.
Thanks Malcolm above for comparing this to nominal cost of an ALMS race.
$1000 isn’t bad. It costs me about $500 for a pit straight grandstand ticket, $500 for 3 nights hotel and $250 for flights from Sydney to Melbourne and back. Thankfully in Melbourne I can stay within walking distance of the track so there’s no transport costs each day, Then there’s the cost of food, and the merchandise prices are insane, triple what you would pay for the same item without an F1 brand on it.
I’m happy if the trip costs about $1500 all up.
God bless Texas.
How does the support card stack up to a Nascar race?
There were some complaints that there was only one support race for the Abu Dhabi – and the V8s were given very few laps hours before the F1 race.
Do you get a full days racing each day- or only 4 F1 sessions and the 1.5-2 hour race over the weekend?
(I assume Nascar fans usually at least get the Nationwide series race the day before)
Does Nascar bother with music concerts?
(Something I wish F1 wouldn’t bother with – I go to an F1 race to see motorsport – I’ll go to a gig or festival to see my favourite bands)
I suppose my point is – If its trying to compete with Nascar do you get the same number of hours of entertainment over the 3 days?
To begin with, it should be noted, that a NASCAR fan, by and large, is not going to follow F1 at all. What NASCAR does however is realize more than any other race group in the world perhaps, that the fan is their life blood and go far, far above what many other organizations do in order to instill that the fans get more than their money’s worth at all of their events. So yes, you often will see musical events at the races, some of which are actually part of the opening Cerimonies. As to if you like the musical acts or not, well that’s always a crap shoot!
Wonder how the experience, aside from some nice live music, Austin wierdness, and BBQ, and a circuit that amounts to a greatest hits coverband compares to Indy which was affordable, had a greater capacity and knows how to manage traffic and crowds. It’s a shame they couldn’t tweak that,
Although the elevation change is compelling, we still have some decent races on flatter circuits.
Joe, if you don’t like America, just say so. If you’re going to write about the United States Grand Prix in this tone, please keep your writings to a minimum…
What are you on? I’m a fan of the US and always have been…
Huh? How did he ever arrive at that deduction? I’m an American and have been reading your blog for quite a while. Not once, today or prior, have I ever once had that impression from you. Ever. In today’s world I do find however, that there are a large percentage of people, who will are just dying to find reasons to be offended by virtually anything and will go out of their way to find reasons to be the victim. I attribute it to a psychosis of one nature or another and I seriously feel that these individuals are in need of professional help from psychologists, or psychiatrists. It’s a very pathetic state of affairs when someone creates something out of thin air, such as this and it is a clear indication that there are red flags being waved.
I generally leave people to get on with their own psychoses.
6.9 billion people just breathed a sigh of relief . .
Steve: Put the beer down and think before you type next time.
Yeah, drinking beer and typing at the same time is only for pros, like me . .
‘Please keep your writings to a minimum’. Joe’s writings are compulsive reading………but not compulsory, especially for those who are thin-skinned enough to perceive some kind of slight to their nation.
Maybe the old Soviet Union, or maybe China would be better for you, when their perception of a negative comment would bring the secret police to your door.
Looking at ‘Homeland’, the CIA can’t be that different. Now I’M waiting for that knock at the door!
Odd comment. Not picking up on whatever it is you are, Steve.
By the time you figure airfare, local transportation, hotel, tickets, food and libations, attending almost any out of town major sporting event will cost at least $1,000 for a long weekend. That is at least what the cost of traveling by air to see a weekend baseball series or an NFL game. And F1 is three days, not three hours.
Just imagine how much it will cost to go to the Jersey race if they ever get that one off the ground.
For me Montreal is the better play not only because it is cheaper for a Northeasterner like myself, but also because overall compared to Austin it’s much more F1 focused and lots more partying all weekend. No worries about driving to the track either compared to Austin.
I dearly wanted to go, but for comparable seating, hotel, entertainment and food, Montreal was by the lower cost vacation F1 weekend. Powerball lotto is tonight, perhaps there is still a chance I will go to Austin.
In the 1980′s I lived in the Bodton, Ma. area and became good friends with a fellow F1 fan. During that time there, on Grand Prix Sundays I would be up at 6am and drive to his appartment to see the race at his place to watch the race, as I didn’t have cable tv, which aired the races. In later years he moved and the situation reversed itself@, as I had cable tv and he didn’t. Over the years my friend moved to Plano, Texas and I back to Florida. My friend, who has always said “The world stops when the Grand Prix starts!”, lives about 200 miles from Austin and is a very successful business man with three teenagers, went to the track earlier in the week, however retreated back home to Plano, only to watch qualifying on tv because “The hotels got outrageous yesterday”. I didn’t ask how much “outrageous” was, however here is a guy who makes something like $150k a year and has been mainlining F1 direct in the vain for all of his 50 something years, retreating 200 miles because of hotel costs, strikes me as though whatever was available, must have been through the roof! He is driving in today for the race.
He couldn’t handle the kitsch “F1″ theming? Obviously good taste can in emergency take precedence over the race.