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)