As I've blogged before, Formula 1 is coming to Austin! As a way to stir up interest, a 2 day expo was held at the Austin Convention Center. Having already bought my (pricey!) ticket I wanted to see if I could find out more about the race. My first stop, however, was not at the Expo but at the track being built to the southeast of Austin.
Wide open on Texas highways!
Farm to market Road 812 leads you into the track. Roads leading into the track are sparse to say the least. Except for those owning Personal Seat Licenses, personal parking will not be permitted at the track. Everyone else will go through a shuttling system to get in.
Finally I'm seeing some construction work being done. My previous trips down had only seen earth moving going on.
This little store just outside the track entrance hit the jackpot! Workers stroll over there all day long and it's landed right in the hotbed of activity for races. Surprised they don't tear it down and rebuild it into something nicer.
Surrounding land sure is for sale!
Here's a short video of track construction:
I got in early as I could to the Expo. Naturally, the track had a presence there. I listened as their salesman hawked the PSL option to anyone who would listen. From what I understand only 30% of the PSLs sold are local to Texas. F1 is a worldwide sport.
My seat is in the grandstand there on the left at turn 12 Plenty of simulators were on hand. You could "drive" the actual track - if you were willing to stand in line! Some other F1 sims were also around to feed the endless appetite for racing fun.
I took a video snippet of the sims in action:
To take your own three laps around the circuit, check out Codemasters’ awesome video below:
Pretty cars were on hand to delight the eye, with Lotus having a heavy presence. The exotics added to the air of elitism and exclusivity that goes along with the Formula 1 scene.
Four Lotus in a row
This beastly McLaren with close to 600 bhp retails for about a quarter mil.
A few British vintage cars were on display as well.
Legendary AC Cobra
Gorgeous Lotus Esprit
Car porn!
One really cool feature of the event was the wall of Formula 1 images from over the decades from Sutton Images. You can purchase your own copy at their website. Spanning from the early Sixties right up to the present, they have an embarrassment of wealth of pictorial racing lore. I wanted to take the whole wall home with me!
The great rivals Senna and Prost! No love lost there.
You could also transpire your own pit stop, changing out an F1 tire just like the pros do with an air gun and the single nut attachment. Pit stops are crucial in F1 and are by no means to be taken for granted to be routine. Wheel nuts are improperly placed all the time, with tires sometimes flying off right in the pit lane as the driver attempts to exit.
Here's one guy's brave attempt at changing a tire (a good time in race conditions is under 4 seconds) :
A good stop can bring you victory!
But do you have the right stuff to be a driver or even a pit lane member? Take the agility test and find out.
Random lights flash at various points and your reaction is tested. I taped a family trying it out.
I wandered around to various booths and displays.
Uh, nice go kart!
Another treat for me were some vintage Formula 1 cars from years past. I overheard these and others like it will be raced after qualifying the day before the race. I will probably stick around for that.
I was excited and surprised to find world champion Alain Prost's car. But this was not a championship car and was in fact a poor example placing no higher than sixth that season (1980). Next year, the legendary Ron Dennis took over McLaren and turned it into the powerhouse it remains to be to this day.
More interesting was the late Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari. The display sign gave the pertinent info:
Ferrari 312-T5 (1980)
2991cc Ferrari Flat 12, 510 bhp@12,000
After winning the Constructor's Championship and finishing first and second in the World Drivers Championship in 1979, the team of Ferrari, Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve struggled in 1980. The 312 T5 was a make-shift ground-effects chassis hampered by the flat 12 cylinder engine which was never adequately developed. In truth, the car was a virtual spare-time effort while everyone concentrated on development of a new turbo-charged engine and car for 1981. The irrepressible Villeneuve was a joy to watch as he willed the uncompetitive car to the front with supreme skill and passion.
Best of all was Mario Andretti's championship Lotus from 1978. Still a very popular driver, he has been named ambassador for the Austin race.
Lotus 79 (1978-1979)
2993cc Ford Cosworth V8, 475 bhp@10,800
This stunningly beautiful Lotus 79 followed a long tradition of break-through design by Colin Chapman. It was the first true "ground effects vehicle" which provided Mario Andretti with the perfect car with which to win the 1978 World Drivers Championship. Team mate Ronnie Peterson was second in the Championship and the team's six race wins earned another Constructor's Championship for Chapman. The Lotus 79 was the culmination of three years of effort by an R&D team led by Chapman. This together with Mario Andretti's enormous experience, intuitive sensitivity to his car's behavior and his dedication produced a car with conquering performance.
7 time champion Michael Schumacher was represented by one of his winning Ferraris (no stat sheet on it).
Note the rain tires as opposed to the usual racing slicks
But a few more modern beasts were on hand too. The proud and rich name of Lotus has only recently returned to the Formula 1 circus and that makes me happy to see. Lotus was a pioneer in the sport when the rules and regulations were more wide open and they took innovation to the next level leaving tradtional powers flat footed. Now if we could only get Maserati back!
The real treat for many, though, would be the Red Bull car greeting visitors right as they entered the room. Red Bull has dominated the sport recently, winning the championship for the past two years and still in hot contention this year.
I'll leave you with a 360 video of the Red Bull car. All in all a fun event though it begged to have more of an official F1 presence to it. The race iself in November is expected to cause chaos in the Austin area with hotel rooms already going for several hundred dollars per night. Celebrities, actors, rock stars - you name it - will be on hand for what promises to be a landmark event in racing. Can't wait! See you there!
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