Austin promoters claim race will raise $300m
F1 Fanatic round-up
In the round-up: The Austin GP promoters tout the race’s benefits for the local economy.
Links
Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:
Major Event Trust Fund Gain from U.S. Formula One Grand Prix (PDF)
Document produced by the United States Grand Prix promoters describing the anticipated benefits to the local economy from the race.
“One feature that I haven’t seen before is that the entrance to many of the corners is going to be wider than the preceding straight. So if the straight is three cars wide then the entrance to the corner at the braking zone will be five cars wide to encourage overtaking and alternative lines.”
Red Bull and America (Joe Saward)
“The news that Red Bull is going to pull out of NASCAR and leave its team to find other partners has led to the suggestion that the Austrian drinks company will probably be spending its US motorsport budget on something else – and the suggestion is that this will be as the title sponsor of the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.”
“Wow cool just realised I still have the lap record in Valencia. Let’s see if the Red Bulls will take it off me this year! What do you think?”
Taskforce set up to revive French GP (Autosport)
“The group includes Paul Ricard circuit director Gerard Neveu, which suggests that the track that hosted the race 14 times between 1971 and 1990 is the most likely venue.”
Formula One Fantasy – Red Bull’s Mark Webber (F1)
“Q: You can only drive at one circuit for the rest of your life – which circuit, past or present from anywhere in the world, do you choose?
MW: Sepang. It’s a great track. It’s a tough race, with the conditions that are always there, but I love the track.”
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Comment of the day
How will the new restrictions on engine mappings affect the teams? Some thoughts from Lee:
Red Bull, Renault and Ferrari are the teams that seem to be exploiting this more than others. Red Bull in particular appear to have a boost mapping that gets them away from the field quickly before they settle back down to normal pace and apparently their qualifying mapping uses 40% more fuel then normal.
Just look at the evidence. In Canada Vettel’s car looked like it had rockets attached at the start and on each safety car restart yet near the end of the race Button was able to catch him very quickly indeed. It looked very much like they did not have enough fuel to run the special mapping and get away from Button.
Lee
From the forum
Ajokay is trying out a (no doubt unofficial) F1 management game on his phone.
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On this day in F1
Ayrton Senna won the United States Grand Prix at Detroit on this day 25 years ago.
Jacques Laffite claimed second place after passing Alain Prost. Laffite was enjoying a resurgence in form for Ligier, but it was sadly curtailed three weeks later when he broke his legs in a crash at the British Grand Prix, ending his F1 career.
Here are the closing stages of the race:
MethylONE (@methylone) said on 22nd June 2011, 9:30
I think there is loads to be excited about in Austin. The way the elevation is setup around turn 1. The change in track width in some corners. It’s a purpose built Formula 1 racing circuit in the USA. Where we build some incredible **** when we have the money.
Look at Cowboy Stadium.
BasCB (@bascb) said on 22nd June 2011, 9:52
I really hope this one will work as well.
ajokay (@ajokay) said on 22nd June 2011, 10:30
Are any other series lining up the Circuit of the Americas for a race. Will we see it appear on the IndyCar schedule, for instance? I’d love to see that.
With so so many forms of motorsport over in the states, I can’t believe F1 will be the only ones to visit. American Le Mans series? Rolex Sports Car Series? NASCAR?
Icthyes (@icthyes) said on 22nd June 2011, 11:16
They’re looking to have MotoGP but IndyCar would be great too.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys) said on 22nd June 2011, 11:22
I doubt Bernie would be happy about Indycar racing there since Indycar is the main open-wheel racing series Formula 1 will be competing against.
V8 Supercars are looking to race Stateside, so maybe they’ll go.
Gubstar said on 22nd June 2011, 11:41
I am sure bernie wouldnt mind too much as it wouldnt be scheduled close to the F1 event, crowd levels are hopeless at present in indycar (apart from Indy itself) and on road courses the indy cars are not as quick as F1 cars, so I cant see any other issue. Anybody have any other suggestions?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 22nd June 2011, 11:57
It was previously written into F1 race contracts that the tracks weren’t allowed to hold other major single-seater races.
But that changed around the time of the EU investigation into anti-competitive practices in F1, and after that we saw, for example, Champ Car racing at Montreal and A1 Grand Prix racing at Sepang and Shanghai.
ajokay (@ajokay) said on 22nd June 2011, 12:38
Glad to hear they’ve written that out of the contract, a bit of competition never hurt anyone. Its healthy, if anything. I’d love to see the IndyCars on more road tracks. I’ve been getting into it for the first time ever this year, (the road races, that is, couldn’t care less about the ovals) and to see the IndyCars on more circuits that we’re familiar with would be great, especially head to head with F1 tracks.
Can’t believe that America’s premier open-wheel series wouldn’t end up racing at the country’s newest, purpose built facility.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys) said on 22nd June 2011, 16:50
I’ll bet you there’s an exclusivisty clause in the contract, though. One that allows Formula 1 to race at CotA as the sole open-wheel series for three, four or five years before the promoters are allowed to attract other series. Because it just won’t do if the circuit was created for Formula 1, but Indycar runs parallel to the event and proves to be more popular.
If supermarkets do it all the time – certain brands and products are only available at Woolworths and others at Coles (or in the UK, Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s) – then Formula 1 will be able to do it.
Gerdoner (@gerdoner) said on 22nd June 2011, 21:17
I also doubt that IndyCar wants direct competition with F1 since their cars would be way slower then F1s on the same tracks.
TommyB (@tommyb89) said on 22nd June 2011, 12:35
Stands very similar to what happened with Olivier Panis in 1997.
xtophe (@xtophe) said on 22nd June 2011, 12:50
Autosport is bringing old news on the French GP, it was known a few weeks ago, just not on an English newssite. (http://www.lejdd.fr/Sport/F1/Actualite/La-Formule-1-pourrait-faire-son-retour-en-France-en-2013-325201/?from=headlines)
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys) said on 22nd June 2011, 16:44
It appears the new engines have been pushed back to 2014. And they will be 1.6-litre V6 engines instead of four-cylinders. The change was made because Ferrari felt that the planned engines were “not relevant” to their road car division.
In effect, they have screwed over both Renault and Craig Pollock. Renault have made it known for some time that their continued presence in the sport depends on the new rules being introduced in 2013, whilst Craig Pollock and PURE planned to get their engine on the test bed by the fourth quarter of 2011. Renault will now be hard-pressed to justify staying in the sport, while all the work PURE have done will be for nothing and they will have to start again. But hey, Ferrari got their way, so it’s all good.
Has anybody else noticed that Ferrari seem to get their way a lot? And that their way isn’t always what’s best for the sport? They agreed that Formula 1 needed to “improve the show” and then pulled that little stunt at Hockenheim last year. As the article here at F1F described, the 2010 German Grand Prix was the least-popular race since the Rate the Race polls were started. Ferrari then managed to get the ban on team orders overturned despite a) the evidence that it was so unpopular that it ruined the race, and b) the way contradicted the teams’ stance that improving the spectacle of the sprot was the best thing for it.
So forgive me if I’m sceptical about this. I have a precedent.
hohum said on 22nd June 2011, 20:30
A look at the crowd at almost any GP will tell you why Ferrari are influential. I think it will be a pity if it is only V6s why not allow I4s as well.I still think it is a backwards step but BMW proved 4 cylinders could compete with 6 cylinders in 1.5l so should be viable 1.6L. Renault probably want to use one of their diesel engine blocks de-stroked to 1.6 as a basis.
Michael said on 22nd June 2011, 18:06
The info that I’ve seen leaked about the Circuit of the Americas pricing may keep casual fans away, I copied and pasted this from another racing forum site:
Platinum Suite/Paddock Club: Full hospitality, directly above pit box. These suites looked decent, but the seats looked amazing (they include digital renderings of each grandstand area). Estimated cost: $4500
Gold Grandstand: Front-straight seating, lower level. Located opposite the pit wall (and the toffee-nosed crowd in the suites above), you could see the entire front straight and Turn 1. Access to the hospitality section (which includes a couple 5-star restaurants) is included. Estimated cost: $1800-2500
Silver Grandstand: Front straight, above Gold & one Stadium Section Same deal as Gold, but no access to hospitality. Estimated cost: $1000-1500
Bronze Grandstand: Several locations, including the back hairpin & the technical “stadium section” of Turns 12-16 Some seats look great, others don’t. They tried to put grandstands at potential overtaking spots. Sometimes this works. Estimated cost: $500-700
Infield General Admission: 3 vantage points to choose from This is where it gets tricky so try to stick with me. If anyone’s been to Indy for F1, you’ll remember that a GA ticket was dirt cheap, allowed you to roam anywhere you wanted and see the best action. This has changed. It sounds like you now have to choose which part of the infield you want to view the race from: back downhill sweepers, back Suzuka slalom section, or back straight. No more roaming. I think some of these vantage points will give the best views of the cars in action (jaw-dropping directional transitions). Also, roaming vendors will come to you with food/drinks. Mid-Ohio already has this & a lot of people like it. Estimated cost: $250-475/season
That’s right. It’s a season ticket. It allows you that same infield spot for whatever other events they hold there that year. Sounds like Indycar, Trans-Am & MotoGP are contenders. My thought was: “But I can’t afford to travel to Austin 3 times a year!” Well, they thought of that. Kind of. They’ll be setting up a StubHub-type site where you can attempt to pawn your event tickets off to people who want to see a particular event. IF you can recoup some of the money for other events, these prices could be Indy-cheap for F1. But let’s be realistic: no one is going to offer you $125 for a infield pass at a Trans-Am event. You might get $25. Maybe.
Again, these prices are just what I remember from taking a lengthy, complex survey late at night. I could be way off on some of these prices but most I believe to be accurate.