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Massa

United States Grand Prix

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Very impressed with the Austin circuit again. It's so refreshing to see packed stands on race day, let alone the monster crowds there for Q.

It would be nice if they added the V8 Supercars to this weekend, but it would entail the entire bogan population of Australia getting up at 4:30am and I can't see that happening.

What about Nascar doing a stint there!? Not take away from F1, but to add to it. Or..... and Indycar support race. That would be cool.

Great facilities, great tv coverage, and fantastic crowds. I have to say Tilke finally got a circuit right.

Well done Austin, and well done to the USA. I can see this GP being around for decades to come.

Now to the race...

Webber oh Webber, what was going on with you I wonder. If that was Vettel he would have passed GRO, I have no doubts about that. Was he sulking over something, but dropping back 2seconds every couple of laps?

And Hamilton, wow is he a grumpy guy or what.

Great drive by Bottas. I think Williams will be a team I'll be supporting next year a little bit. No words need to be said about Maldonado's performance, it spoke for itself.

Kovi, not sure what happened there. I expected more from him, but then again he did lost 33-35 seconds getting his nose replaced, and I'm not sure it even needed to be.

Rosberg... what's going on there. He wins a race or two this year, and he's fighting hard for 11h places. Strange.

The Hulk did well. I think he might be best to stay a Sauber. Is a better launchpad into a Ferrari isn't it, since they are an unofficial feeder team in a sense. Not sure going back to Force India will help him as it will sever that Ferrari link and not necessarily be a step up.

The marshals were very slow in clearing Sutils car. We again lost 5 laps for something that should have only taken 1-2.

Oh... loved the lingering shots on the WAGS! More please smile.png Alonso's bird was close to a 10 for me.

Why no Stetson's on the podium!?? I thought that went down well last year and was a hit. I didn't see past the podium national anthems, and Andretti doing the podium interviews.

Was not a fan of the Stetson wearing grid girls. The Dallas Cheerleaders on the other hand!!!

Mate the v8 supercar idea would be awesome, but unrealistic like you said, but NASCAR would be awesome.

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I thought the venue looked even better this time around, but I heard that attendance was down 4,000 people on each day of the race weekend. If that's any sign of what's to come, I definitely won't be happy.

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Very impressed with the Austin circuit again. It's so refreshing to see packed stands on race day, let alone the monster crowds there for Q.

It would be nice if they added the V8 Supercars to this weekend, but it would entail the entire bogan population of Australia getting up at 4:30am and I can't see that happening.

What about Nascar doing a stint there!? Not take away from F1, but to add to it. Or..... and Indycar support race. That would be cool.

Great facilities, great tv coverage, and fantastic crowds. I have to say Tilke finally got a circuit right.

Well done Austin, and well done to the USA. I can see this GP being around for decades to come.

The marshals were very slow in clearing Sutils car. We again lost 5 laps for something that should have only taken 1-2.

To note a couple of points. on the PA they announced that on Friday that had 58,500 people at the track and over 115k for the race.

The facility is good but it could be a lot better for the fans. Granted it is the second year there. Bathrooms are a problem. Our friends went this year and last year and they said the bathrooms were a step up but we all agreed they were not at a level you would need for an event this big. Second, they have a great system of walkways around the track, but none of it is paved. Had it rained, which it threatened to do a couple of times the entire circuit would have reverted to the swamp it was built on. Also, getting to and from the track is horrible. Our neighbors opted to take a shuttle that COTA had running from downtown Austin and they were dropped off 1.5 miles from the actual track and had to walk the rest of the way there through the parking lots. Last year our friends, who had seats at turn 12 this year, did off-site parking and had to wait for the shuttle buses for over two hours to get them back out to their lot.

This year they, and we payed for parking right next to the gate at turn 11 because we didn't want to wait over two hours for a bus, but that was $200 for the weekend. Or $75 per day if you did only one day at a time. And the traffic management in and out was still horrible and still took us over an hour. America knows how to handle big events and this was one of the worst managed massive events I have been to in the States. I just hope they keep on getting better every year. Our friends who have also been to Montreal say that the planning and setup there was much much better.

As to the marshals, I don't think any of them was under 45 and less than 45 pounds over weight. I don't know how it is at other tracks but over the PA they were telling people to donate to a fund for the marshals because they were all volunteers and were not being payed and had to pay their own way there and for food and housing. So they set up a charity fund to help them pay some of the bills. To me that seems ridiculous. What kind of a world class sport does not pay the safety staff of an internationally televised event like an F1 race?

But other than that it was amazing. The track is ridiculously impressive. And there isn't a bad seat in the house. But at the main enterance they have a big sign that has the names of every worker who helped build the track and it says "Thank you, for a job well done." When I saw that I thought to myself, yeah the workers did a superb job, but their bosses only gave them half a track to build. Still, I would recommend it to everybody.

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It was very very emotional & also a bit long winded so you're right on that basis WebRic. Vettel stated his undying love for the team & Horner & how the team should "remember these days" as they probably won't be repeated next season with all the regulation changes. I could go on but I fear that I might break out in tears myself :P

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That's nice if him, just gives seb,Horner and marko something to talk about at the dinner table.

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Ok here goes. This my firt time at a gp so let ke throw some things against the wall and see what sticks.

I know this is kind of late. Posting it about 30 minutes before I head out for fp3 and quali.

My seat is right at turn 4. The middle of the esses. Actually really great seats there, the track is a natural bowl at this part and the cars are noticeably louder here than anywhere else. As to loudness, the Williams cars are the loudest by far.

Turn 4 is also nice because you can see how the cars do braking into a medium speed section and their handling in medium speed corners. The most stable is RB of course but there is even a visable difference between seb and webber. Most cars, first underseer when braking into 4 and then oversteer through 5 into 6 when they hit the gas again. Much more so on the primes but still visibly on the options. Vettel is the only guy to consistantly not unersteer in the braking zone. Yet he too gets acceleration oversteer through 5. Which makes me think less and less of this idea of kers tc. When watching other parts of the track, turn 1 and 11 mostly, the same is true. Vettel is much steadier in the braking zones than the others.

Also the Hamilton and Rosberg looked very shaky in both sessions. Over and understeer for both almost everywhere. Kind of the same problem they had last year all year.

Button on the other hand and to an extent perez looked much neater.

At sauber the hulk was doing very very long runs on the primes. I lost cound after 18 laps. Gutierrez on the other hand was almost exclusivly on the options in fp2.

Alonso and massa were both kinda unremarkable all day. Though the Ferrari and RB were the tones that looked the most planted through the esses and under braking into turn .

Here are some pics. They are just taken with my phone so nothing stellar. Also please excuse any spelling mistakes I am writing this onmy phone.

Thanks for the pics & I'm glad you enjoyed your seats! I agree azbout the esses being amazing and I think T1-10 are easily the best part of the track. However, there's very little, if any, braking into 4, esp in an F1 car. A lift...sure, and understeer as well. But they don't really brake until it tightens at 5 and 6.

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I was sitting in the esses and all I can say about vettel this weekend is that when he was driving slowly through that sectio he wws driving faster than when anybody else was driving at full speed.

Vettel was the only one there that never understeered under braking into the esses or oversteered on acceleration out of them. He hit the same line every time spot on. Every time he drove by he looked like he was in a different catagory all together. He made the other drivers look like a support race going through there.

Didn't you say earlier that Vettel oversteered on exit from the esses like the rest? Or maybe I misread that.

At the race I commented to Formula1Blog's Negative Camber (Todd) that Vettel's car was so smooth that it looked slower than the others, all the while pulling out a bigger margin every lap.

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Very impressed with the Austin circuit again. It's so refreshing to see packed stands on race day, let alone the monster crowds there for Q.

It would be nice if they added the V8 Supercars to this weekend, but it would entail the entire bogan population of Australia getting up at 4:30am and I can't see that happening.

What about Nascar doing a stint there!? Not take away from F1, but to add to it. Or..... and Indycar support race. That would be cool.

Great facilities, great tv coverage, and fantastic crowds. I have to say Tilke finally got a circuit right.

Well done Austin, and well done to the USA. I can see this GP being around for decades to come.

...

The marshals were very slow in clearing Sutils car. We again lost 5 laps for something that should have only taken 1-2.

It's an amazing circuit, but don't give too much credit to Tilke for the layout. Hellmund & Schwantz, as race drivers themselves, had some very specific ideas about what they wanted in this circuit. They wanted a good flow, use of the excellent topography at hand, corners complexes that challenged drivers & required them to take each turn with an eye to the next, etc. They took their wish list to Tilke, describing turns they'd like to see included and a general idea of the layout they'd like given the topography. Tilke's people came back with something completely different and were told by Hellmund & Schwantz to go back to the drawing board. This time, with the help of Hellmund & Schwantz & after much tweaking and then some sanitizing of certain turns by the FIA, the circuit you see now is what resulted.

- Like an architect who might design a very specific plan for your home based on a layout you dream up, Tilke designed the circuit Hellmund & Schwantz wanted.

- Don;t look for V8SC any time soon. They were rumored to be unhappy with the turnout here in the spring and won;t be back next year.

- Though I would love to see them here & I think it would be a very entertaining race, NASCAR won't be here so long as Bruton Smith & Eddie Gossage have a say in the matter. And they do!

- I'm guessing the GP will be around as long as they can continue to make their payments to Bernie. Sadly, that's not a given.

- I'm not sure what the problem was with the marshals. For some reason this track has already had numerous problems clearing cars, with many minor incidents in different series taking several laps to clear. Part of the reason for the slow clearing in this event could be that the SCCA is returning to race at COTA after complaints about how their event went there earlier this year....and part of that deal apparently included providing marshals for the USGP. I'm not sure where these marshals came from, but maybe there was some inexperience there, or at least problems associated with working a new track for the first time?

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Thanks guys! I'm still pretty new to this so that means a lot. Just trying to get a little better each time out. Believe it or not I'm still working on my Sunday pics. Not sure the quality will be quite as good. Tough light, at least for my skills. I hope to get them posted today.

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Thanks guys! I'm still pretty new to this so that means a lot. Just trying to get a little better each time out. Believe it or not I'm still working on my Sunday pics. Not sure the quality will be quite as good. Tough light, at least for my skills. I hope to get them posted today.

Mate, quite a few of those pics, especially one that stands out the most is that awesome pic of Vettel turning in, looks very professional, I would like a large pic of that to hang on the wall, very nice.

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Are you really a hairy scotsman? Good to have more diversity on the forum lol.

Actually i've been wanting for ages to ask any scotsman what they think of the yes/no vote next year.

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Are you really a hairy scotsman? Good to have more diversity on the forum lol.

Actually i've been wanting for ages to ask any scotsman what they think of the yes/no vote next year.

I'm actually American...of Scottish descent. I once spent a week in Scotland & can't wait to return. Incredibly beautiful place & wonderful people!

What's the yes/no vote about?

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Despite living in england for all my 30 years, i've never even been to scotland!!!

In September 2014 the people of Scotland will all vote a simple yes/no to whether to remain part of the UK.

Despite strong patriotism amongst most scots (ie "we're scottish not british"), I think the majority of scots would rather stay in the UK rather than go it alone as an independent nation, but next year we'll find out

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I hope you will continue to attend the various races at COTA, so I can continue to enjoy the photos you share here. :thbup:

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