The Official 2012 F1 Thread. Spoilers possible!

Jenson takes us 'round COTA

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At COTA working with a Ferrari Challenge team. Track looks great. F1 management sucks. They control everything. The bullshit here is ridiculous. Montreal is fine, don't know why their such dickheads here. Apparently the track has no balls and needs to pay a new mortgage.

What is it about the COTA that keeps producing such lame background programming about the track?

First, Speed produces 30-minutes of Varsha MC'd unorganized interviews and lousy track still photography to come up with "Building the Circuit of The Americas" which, BTW, says almost nothing about how the track was actually built. Now we have Button doing this ten minutes of pure fluff and breezy visual effects that says virtually nothing about the track either. I hope the race is better than the promotion of the race.

- Mark

very patriotic



looking back from turn 1



another view

high curbs on the inside of the esses



another cool aerial.
lots of elevation changes

too aggressive at the hairpin & you'll have this to deal with

NBC Sports Network NEWS: The F1 booth next year will be Leigh Diffey, David Hobbs and Steve Matchett.
so I guess Varsha stays at Speed to cover Barrett Jackson...
gripping stuff those auctions....

well, that should keep everyone happy (for the most part).
I wonder if they will pick up Buxton as well?

I can live with that, hope they grab Buxton, he's entertaining.

Anybody know for sure about practice and qualy coverage yet?

speed says:

Friday, Nov. 16
Practice Session One (10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., LIVE)
Mobil 1 The Grid (Noon to 12:30 p.m.)
Practice Session Two (2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., LIVE)

Saturday, Nov. 17
Practice Session Three (10 a.m. to 11 a.m., LIVE)
Qualifying Session (1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., LIVE)

Sunday, Nov. 18
F1 Grand Prix of the United States (1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., LIVE)
The All-American Victory: Dan Gurney Wins the Belgian GP (4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.)

Already have the DVR set for this race , looking forward to all the practice sessions, I was wondering if anybody has heard anything regarding the NBC Sports coverage for next season and what they will be covering, I'm hoping for at least P2 and QP to be covered like Speed does now.

Which Challenge team? Are you a fly-in, or do you work for a dealership? I'm with FoH, but not the Challenge team.

Rats. Matchett won't shut up and Leigh Diffey has a broken volume control. He's all shout. I understand that Buxton tweeted that he was out.

Anybody watching first practice? The track is unbelievable! Fast, technical, and not much grip (yet). Cars are all over the place! This is going to be a fantastic race!

My question is why are you not there :huh

I made it to both practice sessions today. These cars sound amazing. The Force India's sound like they are going to explode on deceleration. Lots of rough popping and the Ferrari's aren't much better. The track is awesome. I'd suggest getting seats in Turn 12 or Turn 15 to catch the best action whether it be autos or motos. My first few pictures are from Turn 5 which is at the end of the chicanes. The latter are from Turn 15 which catches them coming off the back stretch into a tight infield section.

They also have a vintage gran prix class running. The pics of those cars were taken at the hairpin which funnels off onto the backstraight.







































Anyone up for some inflated merchandise? The Red Bull stand was worse. They were selling $225 jackets. I just bought a $9 Dos Equis.

That puffy vest is perfect for the Texas heat!

Thanks for the report!

I just watched the first airing of that Dan Gurney show. Trust me, find room on your DVR for it, and marvel at the size of the balls it took to drive a car with a magnesium monocoque tub surrounded by 50 gallons of race fuel.

That's still sitting on my deeveeare. Gotta get to it.

The Austin track looks great on TV. The camera at the beginning of the front straight really shoes the dip and rise into turn 1, and the esses shot is tremendous. Turn 1 seems to confuse the drivers, so here's hoping there's lots of action there.

Sure looks like a premier facility. I hope they can keep the race for a long time. The great crowd for practice is an encouraging sign.

I'd say I was looking forward to the race, but early signs are of another Red Bull cheating car romp. Speaking of which, as expected Charlie Whiting announced new tests for flexing body parts, to be introduced next season. Suppose we'll see what we saw this season: Red Bull slumps as the rules are enforced, then they rise again when they find a new cheat.

Ah well, forget that. I'll just enjoy the spectacle of a F1 race at a great-looking track in the United States.

Thanks for sharing. It's always nice to see something from a fans perspective. Ta!