A to-be-determined-as-I-write-this number of thoughts on yesterday’s U.S. Grand Prix, coming from right here in Austin:
1. Holy butts there were a lot of people.
400,000. Compared to 351,000 in 2019. Netflix and ESPN, man. Netflix and ESPN. Austin’s airport is setting records, and this town is a swarm for SXSW. Having lived in Minneapolis for the Super Bowl and Austin for SXSW 2019, I’m not sure the Super Bowl was bigger in terms of its impact on the city.
2. Holy butts the rideshare situation was bad.
Reception was sparse, at least for AT&T, and picking someone up took forever. Thankfully, only had to do it once, on Friday afternoon, and when I dropped someone off on Saturday I made sure to skedaddle as quickly as possible, dodging any requests back to the pickup lot. Goodness.
3. Holy butts there were a lot of people.
Thankfully, the city was packed, so it wasn’t too hard to stay away from giving F1-specific rides overall. Absolutely packed. Busier than for either weekend of ACL, especially since a lot of people came back to the city at night instead of staying for the concerts, which is the opposite, as you might imagine, of what happens with music festivals, where the concerts are the point.
4. The race!
Good race. Daniel Ricciardo didn’t win, which of course broke my heart, newfound Daniel Ricciardo fan that I am. Fun drama between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, though. F1 really has it good in this regard, because without a two-person duel (and a compelling one in terms of the personalities), races with as little action as F1 races would be pretty boring. The global campaign aspect of it every year and the mano a mano showdowns this year, week after week, are compelling. Quite compelling. Also helps that the races are so short. Yes, this is all a comparison to NASCAR.
5. The spectacle!
Shaq was arguably the best part. George Lucas and Ben Stiller? Didn’t get anything out of seeing them besides a realization that not very many famous people were there. You had 400,000 spectators and you still got out-famoused by Lakers games. Brutal.
6. I didn’t realize how close the race for third (team standings) was.
Ferrari and McLaren are going at it.
7. The race for the team championship isn’t over.
Somebody tried to tell me it was, but 23 points? That’s possible for Red Bull to make up.
8. The individual race is sensational.
Twelve-point gap now between Verstappen and Hamilton.
9. I missed that they finalized this year’s schedule.
Qatar, I see. Good to know. So we have five grands prix left? Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
10. People know way less about this than they think they do.
On that last note—people, as I suppose is our species’ custom, are way more confident in their F1 knowledge than they should be. The guy who told me the team race was over. The passenger on Friday who thought the series was going to Africa. Everyone who’s treating COTA renewing the contract as a done deal when the deal hasn’t been done…I mean, I guess that’s reasonable, since F1 put it on the 2022 schedule, but until there’s a signature on the dotted line, I’m gonna keep googling it semi-regularly.
11. I could not figure out what time the race started.
I’ve been using ESPN as my schedule, since it’s always in Eastern Time, and that led to me getting bamboozled twice over yesterday. Thought the race started at 12:30, then thought the race started at 1:00, then it finally did start at 2:00. Woof. Gotta be better about this, personally.
12. How do they decide who has how many of which tires?
I got confused by this early and would appreciate an answer.
