My dad and
I were there as well, in the Turn 2 stand along
with Rick. I agree with Mr. Larson & Rick's
assessments.
The Friday
practice crowd was huge relative to other GPs I've
been to. I think their estimate of 60-70k is
accurate. This was about the same on Saturday for
Qualifying - more like what I'm used to,
suggesting that more of the attendees of this
event came specifically for the spectacle and the
entire 3-day experience. PA estimated as much as
35% of the crowd was from Mexico. Our hotel was
packed with TelMex branded peeps. However, I heard
many different languages over the weekend, so I
don't think it was all North American locals.
Crowd for the race was not nearly what I was used
to. There was elbow room in the stands and a lot
of open seats. However, I don't think this was
because the people didn't buy tickets or show up -
I think it was because everyone was excited about
the new track and spent more time wandering from
area to area to figure out where the place to be
is, or using the very generous grassy areas for
the General Admission crowd.
The track
is beautifully done and well laid out. About the
only improvement I would suggest is that the two
bridges needed to get from the main entrance to
the far side stands are too narrow and were
significantly bottle-necked a number of times
through the weekend. Still no more than 15 minute
wait to get through, but that's a lot when you're
just staring at bald spots and fencing. They did
an incredible job with restrooms and cleaning up.
No longer wait than 3-4 minutes for restrooms (can
be 15-20 minutes in Montreal). Food was very good
but they could have used a few more vendors. Very
expensive was the biggest complaint - $5 bottled
water/soda, $8-9 beers, $10 pork tenderloin
sandwich. Nothing about this weekend was
under-commercialized.
The
critical stuff at the facility was finished and
done well but you could tell there was a lot of
"finish" work to be done over the next year. Some
paths were still unpaved, some landscaping still
under plastic green erosion barriers. Suites
looked temporary - delivered complete like pods.
We stayed
downtown and used the shuttle busses. The lines
were incredibly long but moved very quickly - very
well managed. The biggest delay was getting
people's fat asses into the bus and seated so it
could roll out and let the next one pull up. There
was always a line of busses waiting to load people
- supposedly 400+ busses contracted and I saw bus
markings from as far away as Kansas. Leaving
Sunday was definitely slower - about 45 minutes in
the bus line, but once on the bus it was very
quick back to downtown. They need to manage the
line barriers better since there was a near riot
about people cutting, but it was fine and we even
had a "wave" going through the bus line for a
while - fun.
For me the
only real epic failure of the facility was no
broadcast of the track PA (usually on an FM
frequency somewhere). However, I think this was on
purpose so they could sell more of the FanVision
personal TVs. As I said, Nothing about
this weekend was under-commercialized.
The city
was very well organized and a lot of fun. TONS of
cops on duty - not sure what they were expecting
but at times it seemed the ratio of fans to cops
was near parity. Cops were very friendly and were
pretty much hands-off. I asked about it and they
said that being a college town they were used to a
lot worse and that they generally didn't bother
people unless they were seriously making a
nuisance of themselves. There were the usual
street parties that are normal for Austin but
swelled a bit for the GP. They had a bunch of
downtown support stuff like concerts going on. I
saw Enrique Iglesias & Nelly at the Austin
Civic Center and it was well managed and well
produced. Pretty amusing, giving the Hispanic
leaning of attendees, to see Enrique Iglesias
mobbed and then have the Civic Center nearly clear
out for Nelly. I doubt he's played to that small a
crowd since he was doing high-school gyms - and
Austin is his home town!
I think the
city vendors made some short-sighted decisions.
They all jacked their rates like crazy. We paid
$410/night at a La Quinta Inn with a three day
minimum and pre-payment with no cancellation.
Holiday Inn Express Airport was getting
$525/night. Nice downtown hotels were as much as
$4k/night for suites. Even the food trucks doubled
their prices for through-the-window tacos, which
pissed off a bunch of the drunk college kids who
couldn't scrounge enough for 4th meal through the
weekend. If the race attendance falls off
seriously next year, I would blame the city
vendors rather than the track and its efforts or
the City of Austin and theirs.
I had a
much better time than expected and will probably
try to re-visit the track later next year for
MotoGP or V8 Supercars. I think turn 15 would
offer the best seating. Turn 12 looks best on
paper but the stands are very far away from the
track. Fifteen is very close and on the
double-hairpin. Turn 19 seemed to be the one with
the most action if you like run-offs and slides. I
was shocked that the 1st corner came away clean
for everyone.
I would
definitely go back for the GP if the locals back
off of their "rip off the tourists while you can"
mentality.
-- charles
George,
I am a
lurker/very infrequent poster. Not an infrequent
spectator of NA open wheel (f1,indycar and
ladders) and a multitude of sports car series
races.
I was at
the race all day Sat and Sun with fca seats in T2
and parking in lot H.
· The track
itself (driver comment/layout/visual appearance)
and the permanent structures are well beyond
anything else in NA. Well done. No Barber
Motorsports manicure yet, but that the overall
design is excellent, just needs filling out and
installation of remaining permanent seating
structures, landscaping, etc. I can’t fault
anything they did except for forgetting the dust
suppressant.
· The on-site
logistics were well beyond other races with only
shortage of food (sometimes long lines) and COTA
souvenir kiosks (long lines). The critical items
(water, toilet and safety personnel) were in
abundance.
· Traffic
management. On and off-site----the best I have
every experienced including police escort.
· Personnel
consistently friendly, available and helpful.
· Great
support events with GT3/458C/vintage GP. F1 was
telecast.
Next year,
I would pick GA and bring a chair and park myself
between T17 and 18 (you have a great view of both
T1 and T20 from here), with second choice above
T11 (hairpin). I would then explore getting a pit
pass in addition.
From: George P. [mailto:ygpz4re [at] hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012 6:59 AM
To: HQ-Brian Larson
Cc: The FerrariList
Subject: [Ferrari] USGP in Austin
Ok, so can any
F-listers *WHO WERE ACTUALLY *IN* AUSTIN*
comment on the event? Ticket prices, crowd,
commute in/out of the track, etc etc etc???
Thanks,
gp
sbcglobal.net)