Ad blocker detected: Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker on our website.
I think I already know the answer to this question, but I figured I would ask just in case since Austin will be my first ever F1 race to attend.
Is the starting grid open to regular joe's on race day, or is the grid walk reserved for the "Elite's"?
Having been to Indy quite a few times I can say that the closest you will get to the cars is when they are on the track and you are standing at the fence. The best you can hope for is that they have a open pit during set up on Thursday.
Russell,
..and having gone to the Canadian GP many times, I have to say that the grid walk is reserved for the "elite". What you will want to be on the look out for is if an "open house" is held the Wed or Thurs leading up to the race weekend. This is what they call it in Montreal - allows fans to walk the front straight and observe the teams setting up, with the possibility to grab a few autographs as well. Given it is the first race at Austin, I would hope they put something similar on.
The other thing you may want to consider, as my friends and I use to do this in the early to mod '90s, is that on Saturday, we would hang around until the very end when all on track activities finished. There would always be an enterprising group that would work away at the fencing and make an opening allowing access onto the track. We would then walk through pit lane and watch the teams as they prepared for race day. At the time, the teams did not seem to mind. In a few instances when we asked if we could go into to the garage itself, they were more that happy to let us in. Eventually security would show up - they would form a wall of people at pit exit and would walk toward pit entrance telling everyone to leave. Everyone did without any issue our repercussions.
It is much more complex than that to get in to the pit area now. There are security check points at every entrance. The last time I was in a grage was in 1999 at Montreal. I arrived at the security checkpoints on Thursday with my Friend Daniele Amaduzzi, who was a member of FOPA (Formula 1photographers association) and he was working at that race as a freelance photographer. As I was accompanying Daniele the security guard on duty that Thursday closed an eye and let me pass. But I had no such luck on Friday. We tried to argue the case but got nowhere. Oh well at least it did work on Thursday. The next year Daniele was in Montreal again but he was very ill and had to return home (Bologna) before the weekend was over. He unfortunatly succumbed to Lung cancer 2 and one half months later. Daniele was a very fun loving and caring individual. He would go out on a limb to help you. I remember one time when he came to our house for supper and had to talk himself out of a ticket for speeding......
But I will never forget that thursday as every team knew Daniele very well and I got access to every garage in pitlane.
Without any such help I see virtually no chance of getting in to the garages and even then you got to get lucky.
In todays world I prefer Historic race meets over F1 races every time. Formula 1 has become to far removed from the fans.
YNWA,
Markus
Gilles and Ferrari will always be synonymous. The others just drive for Ferrari but Gilles IS Ferrari
I don't know this for a fact, but when I talked to the COTA track folks at the Formula 1 Expo in Austin they said this track has been designed with very little access to the inside of the track. All grandstands are located on the outside of the track...except the suites above the pits. They are going to have a set of roads running around the outside of the track with busses and trams that will move you from area to area. Because they have almost no parking out there yet most of us will be bussed from three different locations. They will drop us at a large common area where you can jump on the trams and from there you can get off anywhere and watch the race along the fence for general addmission or go to your seat in the grandstands. Looking at the drawings of the track the grand stands are all outside the track so seems like they might know what they are talking about. Oh yeah, you can not bring folding chairs, or coolers. Cheers, Tim Keily
I really do get the impression with modern Formula 1 racing that the powers that be would rather we, 'the common people' paid our exorbitant entrance fee and then stayed behind the 'barbed wire fences' and didn't cause any trouble to the VIPs, just so long as we go to the merch area and buy all the hyper expensive team gear.
I haven't been to a GP since 1999 and I don't intend going to another.
daveyman wrote:I really do get the impression with modern Formula 1 racing that the powers that be would rather we, 'the common people' paid our exorbitant entrance fee and then stayed behind the 'barbed wire fences' and didn't cause any trouble to the VIPs, just so long as we go to the merch area and buy all the hyper expensive team gear.
I haven't been to a GP since 1999 and I don't intend going to another.
+1 unfortunatly
YNWA,
Markus
Gilles and Ferrari will always be synonymous. The others just drive for Ferrari but Gilles IS Ferrari
daveyman wrote:I really do get the impression with modern Formula 1 racing that the powers that be would rather we, 'the common people' paid our exorbitant entrance fee and then stayed behind the 'barbed wire fences' and didn't cause any trouble to the VIPs, just so long as we go to the merch area and buy all the hyper expensive team gear.
I haven't been to a GP since 1999 and I don't intend going to another.
daveyman wrote:I really do get the impression with modern Formula 1 racing that the powers that be would rather we, 'the common people' paid our exorbitant entrance fee and then stayed behind the 'barbed wire fences' and didn't cause any trouble to the VIPs, just so long as we go to the merch area and buy all the hyper expensive team gear.
I haven't been to a GP since 1999 and I don't intend going to another.
+4 I haven't been since 2006. Yes, they don't want - fans to have access otherwise how can you justify the cost of the paddock club fees?
daveyman wrote:I really do get the impression with modern Formula 1 racing that the powers that be would rather we, 'the common people' paid our exorbitant entrance fee and then stayed behind the 'barbed wire fences' and didn't cause any trouble to the VIPs, just so long as we go to the merch area and buy all the hyper expensive team gear.
I haven't been to a GP since 1999 and I don't intend going to another.
+4 I haven't been since 2006. Yes, they don't want - fans to have access otherwise how can you justify the cost of the paddock club fees?