Texas??? You've got to be f*****g kidding me.

Just read this news and i can't believe it.

Nothing against Texas (except for the Cowboys) but, what the **** has Texas got to do with F1?

This must be a joke.

I thought that Monticello NY was the most realistic thing to come along.

And what is wrong with Road America?

A few upgrades would be a hell of lot cheaper than building a new circuit in the middle of rattlesnake country.

Will wonders never cease!

As an Austin, Texas based F-1 fan, this is a headline I never thought to see.

Austin is one of the least friendly towns in the State when it comes to development, encouragement of growth, etc. They are also militantly liberal (for Texas), and staunchly Green. All of that led me to conclude long ago that there would never be an F-1 race in this area. That being said, when the Austin Powers That Be decide they are going to do something, it gets done. This deal was announced with quotes from the Mayor of Austin, the Texas Comptroller, and the Governor himself (who apparently took time off from shooting coyotes while jogging - look it up - to give a quote). These folks would not announce something that is going to embarrass themselves. The Governor has a very serious re-election campaign going, after all.

So with my skeptic-meter on high alert, there is much about this announcement that makes sense. The quote from Tavo about location makes sense. The territory east of Austin is relatively level, really good farmland. It's avalable for cheap, as farmland is not very expensive in this State. They just build a massive toll road out there (SH 130) that has little to no traffic on it and passes through the farmland with little in the way of housing located near it. This is also near the Austin airport, which is a very nice former Air Force base (means really long runways). And the State has been squirreling away money in various "economic development" and "tourism promotion" funds for the past several year. I suspect they will be tapping a fund designed to help bring big sporting events to Texas (intended to help Jerry Jones lure the Super Bowl to his ginormous stadium in the Dallas area).

So it MAY just happen. As a survivor of the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix, I beg Bernie not to put this race on the calendar in June. Either a spring or fall race would be much better. Fall is ideal, because we get little rainfall around here that time of year.

And if anyone wants to know the best places to hang out in town, let me know!

Avanti Ferrari!

I am totally flabbergasted by this. Not in a negative way, but the Autosport article reads like an April Fool's joke. Where is the money coming from? What will the environmental impact be and what convinced liberal Austin to sign off on it? Will people from far away make the trek to a track with no history? This is an absolutely bizarre turn of events.

I hope this happens Austin is a very cool city. I would rather fly in to San Antonio for this race. Are the people in Austin willing to finance this track with taxes? Or give up the land and build the infrastructure like all the stadiums are built here? Build it and someone else will own it, thanks Jerry Jones (I mean Texas) for that billion dollar stadium. I hope all the Environmental Impact reports and EPA stuff gets going quick and the NIMBYs don't kill it. Go Texas Go don't let them liberal Austinites (environmentalists) kill our F1 track.

That's great news!

all I can say i s that people here in Austin is getting excited , many tv local news are reporting : " world class racing is coming to town " on the news tonight ...

It's a chink in NASCAR's armour. Texas might be seen as the heart of NASCAR country, but from the sounds of things, Austin is a very worldly, cosmopolitain cty; the stereotypical opposite of the NASCAR stereotype. Rather than go in for a race in a northern state and keep Formula 1 as isolationist, they've gone south into the one city where Formula 1 can flourish. It gives better coverage across North America as well: the northern states and Canada get the Canadian Grand Prix, while the southern states and Mexico get the Texas race.

Plus, ALMS has proven that European motorsports (okay, so it's an American series, but it has its roots firmly in Europe) can work in Texas.


Um, everything. Way too narrow, and in some places there's no room for expansion. It's also in Wisconsin, and is pretty isolated.


Why do they have to divulge every last detail? For now, it's enough to know that the race is being run, and since a contract has obviously been signed, it's pretty clear that there is indeed money in place. An environmental impact assessment will come once the final site is settled, because that's the way any development works - you can't assess local environmental impacts until you've defined what 'local' is. From reading some of the articles posted on the websites of Austin newspapers, it seems the city has been kicking the idea of a motorsport event around for some time. And what the hell kind of queston is "Will people from far away make the trek to a track with no history?" We've had seven pages of discussion on Formula 1 attempting to break into the United States with the majority of supporters posting words to the effect of "yes, the fans will come in their droves".

Welcome to my and I'm sure a few others' ignore list(s). A clueless post.

Nothing wrong with it being in Austin, but put me in the "I'll believe it when I see it " crowd. From a quick web search the promoter hasn't handled more than a lower tier NASCAR race and some USAC events. Now he's ready for the F1 circus? But really, where is the money going to come from? Bernie expects a Shanghai-level of facilities at new tracks now, which means hundreds of millions of dollars. In this economy? No way any local or state government is going to pay a major chunk of that.
Maybe Bernie and the promoter have found someone to pay for it, but I think in a few months it will end up with Bernie getting a nice payout from the promoter for yet another broken contract.

So when this finally goes down we're having an Autosport BBQ at your place right?

I think this whole announcement is just an exercise in fi$hing



Yeah, I loved it! He has the balls to protect himself and his family. After reading that (among other things) I decided that I would be giving him my vote again; he'll probably be the only incumbent that gets my vote.

IF this happens, I sure hope they don't go to the east side of town as the west has better topography.

I agree about the timing; springtime would be a rain...make that downpour GP = disaster, May-August = sweaty arsed disaster, Fall =

Dude, you don't know Austin.

You just made yourself look ignorant and prejudice.

I hope I am wrong but my initial thought when reading this was that Bernie now has a big shiny bargaining chip to use.
I would like a race near Austin (not in high Summer) and hope the track is another Istanbul. I go to 1 "long haul" race each year and would definitely go in 2012.

I don't expect them to release a 75-page business plan on the first day--just musing about how the hell this is going to work. I and many others here will believe it when we see it.

I guess you were too young to live through Nixon's price and wage freezes.

I don't care who you are, that right there is funny. It 's more like an insignificant gnat on the windshield of stock car racing. It's great that they can announce a date but don't sensationalize the importance.

Absolutely!

Well, the important stuff has obviously been settled. Think what you will of him, but Bernie Ecclestone is no sucker. Given that he had his heart set on a race in or near Manhattan, the Austin proposal must have been fan-bloody-tastic for him to agree to it with no prior warning and without any kind of foreshadowing. I don't think he's ever mentioned Austin as a potential host once. And this is hardly a snap decision by the city, either - Austin mayor Lee Leffingwell has been quoted as saying that the city council has been working on the idea of bringing a major international motorsport event to the city for months and that he'd been talking about it ever since he met the state comptroller. The diligence is in place, we just haven't seen it yet because as fans, we're at the bottom of the food chain for things like this. We don't see the business plans because we don't need to see them. We're not an authority and we're not in a position to make decisions about any of it.

Let me add a little bit of perspective for those questioning this news.

This wasn't a big PR stunt by a mayor throwing his hat in the ring and proposing a downtown or lakeside venue that would require tons of political wrangling. The land we are talking about is completely undeveloped with little hope of anything substantive being built there for a long time. They just built a huge toll road out there and would do anything to start pushing development in that direction.

You aren't going to see the mayor, governor and any other politician herald something like this as being a done deal if there was funding issues that involve taxpayer money. Even though this city is doing well, we still have budget issues. The Governor is involved in a reelection coming up and cannot afford for something like this to embarrass him without doing some serious homework. He also has been pushing for a major transportation corridor through this exact area that runs from Mexico to Dallas. They all have a stake in it's success.

Austin is the 15th largest city in the US but has no realistic hope of ever getting a major sporting franchise. Houston, Dallas and San Antonio would never allow it. That means instead of building giant stadiums for teams, we have to put money into other things that will attract tourists and increase our international profile. That is what companies look at when opening new offices or relocating.

Bernie Eccelstone is not going to make this deal in a relatively unknown/obscure F1 destination without some significant plan in place. This isn't a New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco situation where he is trying to gauge interest. This is an announcement of a signed contract with a real person. The funny thing is that he wasn't the only bidder in this. There were at least two other groups working to get F1 to Austin and both were shocked to hear this.

Austin is already a favorite hangout for tons of actors, musicians and athletes. The famous people mingling on the grid here would rival anywhere, bar Monte Carlo.

Finally, I am so damn excited that I probably won't sleep. A few of my best F1 buds and I have kids that are going to be ready to see the races with daddy in a few years and this is so cool that we'll be able to do that in this town and watch it grow into a tradition.

PS - I know this can all fall apart in a heartbeat, but at least tonight, I know it will happen.

I love good BBQ. I'll stop in Kansas City and bring some down to the race...

I'm not sure if this gonna get off in the first place. No track layout, no mention where its going be at around Austin. I been to Austin and I can't find a certain place to have a street course around there unless you go up way north past Round Rock.

Track is gonna be flat

It's not a street circuit. The plan is a purpose built road circuit, specifically for F1.

You go past the Austin city limits and it has its hills but its mostly two lane highway.

Good luck for that. They might go passed the airport east of the Austin city limits

Reading can be a good thing.



http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/5/10824.html

Doesn't automatically make it a bad thing. Silverstone is mostly flat. Gilles Villeneuve is mostly flat. Albert Park is mostly flat. Hockenheim is (and was) mostly flat. They may not be top-tier circuits like Spa and Interlagos, but they are and were certainly quality circuits.

And as Tilke proved with Yas Marina, if there are no hills conveniently located nearby, you can always build your own.

The real Hockenheim was epic. This will be a TEXAS track so expect it to be BIG cause Texans don't know that Alaska is almost three times its size

lol.

Welcome to my world. Your opinion a clueless post?

Read it again.

With all due respect to Texas, how is that a place to build a new facility?

When there are other places, with some upgrades, that would be more centrally located.

Is Austin a better location than Indianapolis was? I just don't think there's enough local or even American Formula One fans willing to support a race here. I think it would have a much better shot at succeeding at a vacation destination area like Florida where there are other things to do, and can more easily draw from Europe and South America. It seems like after the initial "buzz" ends, and the reality of Bernie's terms sets in, the whole idea won't look so good.

"a world-class facility will be purpose-built to host the event", from Bernie, this worries me.

Texas doesn't draw from South America? you wanna mulligan?

Haven't you worked out by now that when it comes to new circuits, Bernie likes Formula 1 racing on circuits that are built for Formula 1 first nd everyone else second?


Jesus. You lot whinge and complain about how there's no United States Grand Prix when the race is integral to Formula 1, and yet when you finally do get a race, you whinge and complain that that it's not good enough. Shut the hell up and smell the roses.

It's there because that's where the people that want to build it want to put it. The reason it's not at any current circuits is because they don't want it. Not everyone falls all over themselves to get a Grand Prix. It's pretty obvious you've never been to Austin.

Eh that statement is false, that was in 2005. The last time they raced there was 2007? And all 'men' raced there.

Wow.. what a big news! A grand prix in Texas, as if F1 could look worse than it does..

It's gonna be duller than Las Vegas, and will bring less glory than USF1 to the country. I suppose that Dick Cheney will be involved, the Gulf of Mexico owes him a big one.

Austin, TX is 13xx miles from Los Angeles, 17xx miles from San Francisco and 17xx miles from New York. How much more central can you get?

Drugs are bad.

Austin,It's a good location and gives a much wider scope of available dates than farther north..
The ideal alternative would have been Orlando that has the infrastructure to support a race,apart from a track, and very accessible from Europe.
They also need another World Class event to bolster their flagging Tourist revenues.
But Austin,Texas it is which is not such a bad idea.It can be the major event in that area rather than just another bit of entertainment it would have become in NY,Indy or many of other places mentioned.Will it attract direct European flights to Austin?

The only place worse than Austin for a track would be in the middle of Utah.

I'll see your middle of Utah and raise you a northern Alaska.

LOL "But, but Florida this..." Guys, there's a reason they picked Austin, it's killing two birds with one stone. Bergstorm Airport has a HUGE runway (with more than enough length for teams jets' to fly in), firstly. Second, Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas are no more than 4 hours apart from Austin (a already huge city), and it's within 4 hours to Mexico. Thirdly, it's a purpose built facility for F1, last road course that did that was Watkins Glen, and I must say that circuit is still doing well for itself when people thought it would fail because it's out in the middle of nowhere. Fourth, Austin and Dallas are Fashion and Technology centers in the south. Fifth, Austin is the 'greenest city in America' which improves F1's green image indirectly. Sixth, it's South-Central US, as someone stated earlier, 17,000 Miles from Sacramento,CA and 17,000 Miles from New York. Houston and Dallas also have major airports and then would send people on small commuter flights (not longer than 50 minutes each) if it wasn't a direct flight, (they do many of those a day). Seventh, it's a race in U.S. soil that's been secured for 10 years and at a brand new purpose built facility at one of the most cultural cities in the U.S. What ELSE could Florida POSSIBLY give that this venue doesn't have?

Plus I've got family in Florida, and let me tell ya, Florida is the culture vacuum some of the ignoramuses here think Texas is. Florida just absolutely stinks as a state, at least the southern part. That Brits go there tells you why Brits have no place critiquing America.

I'm an uber-liberal San Francisco native and I love Texas. People who don't think Texas has culture are freakin' morons. Absolutely no clue what they are talking about. I don't mean in just the patronizing "Oh, Austin is a liberal oasis, it must be nice" way, I mean Texas is just flat out an interesting and cool place.

I'm surprised and rightfully I think a little skeptical this ever goes off, but if it does, I'm looking forward to having me some chili (no beans, of course) and barbeque washed down with some Lone Star beer watching some F1.

Well as long as it shall have -



Disabled parking, then all should be fine...

Funny how that track in the middle of nowhere has attracted major events....

Btw, for all of you claiming we are in NASCAR country and they only care about NASCAR, you do realize that one of IICS and CCWS more popular events were in Texas, right? (Texas Motor Speedway and Grand Prix of Houston, respectively). Hell, IICS has a race in Birmingham, AL (Barber Motorsport Parks) that was very successful this past year and historically had a very successful race in Charlotte (for those that know your history, the infamous '99 race had a reported attendance of 60k, a huge increase from the previous year). Americans love racing, and as long as you aren't putting it against a NASCAR race at TMS or Memorial Day Weekend or some other bs, you will draw quite well.

Or Istanbul or Abu Dhabi or Dubai or Shanghai or Gwangju...

If this is the case then I will NOT be attending. Have you checked the price of jet fuel lately?

Umm have you been to an F1 race before? I've got news for you. The fans at all the European races are not showing up in their Astons and Ferrari's. They are 99% working class, just like the people that will show up to the USGP. The rich 1% are the ones you see on TV walking the grid. The people in America that like NASCAR are no different than those who enjoy BTC in England, DTM in Germany, and the WRL across the rest of Europe. Think before you post such ridiculous comments.

Um, he actually means that it's 1700 miles, not 17000 miles. 17000 miles is the equivalent of Austin - New York - London - Tokyo - Austin.