I had the opportunity to go to my first ever Formula One race the weekend of Oct. 17-19. This Grand Prix was held at “The Circuit of the Americas” in Austin, Texas. An F1 weekend typically consists of practice, qualifying rounds, then the race on Sunday. At this track, there were also two Porsche Carrera Cup Grand Prix.
On Friday morning, after waiting in long lines, we were able to get inside to see and hear the driver interviews at the amphitheater before they hit the track for practice. We were able to see the Aston Martin team and the Sauber team.
Not long after the interviews we could hear the F1 cars driving through sector one.
We went to the grandstands at turn 15 where, in my opinion, the best seats are because you can see the cars coming down the back straight going around 200 miles per hour. You can also see the best overtaking zone from turn 12 through just after turn 15.
After practice, we went back to the amphitheater to watch more team interviews. McLaren’s team principal Zak Brown was there. We watched him until I heard more cars on the track. These cars were louder than the F1 cars and had a much deeper sound.
The Porsche GT3 racers were on the track warming up the cars for their practice session. I quickly ran over to the final turns to watch the cars come by. One of my favorite pictures came from this section of the track. A Porsche with an American flag drove past the section of track that has red, white and blue stars behind it. I posted the picture and tagged the driver and team, and to my surprise they both reposted it.
After the Porsche practice session we had about two hours to kill before the F1 Sprint Race qualifying. A Sprint Race happens every three to four races and is basically a mini race instead of two practice sessions. We went to turn one to watch the session because of the great views of the start line.
On Saturday, we got up bright and early in order to watch the Porsche Qualifying session. When we arrived, we went straight to turn one again. Turn one is a great spot to be because you see them come around turns 16, 17 and 18, drive the straight toward to turn one, and go silent coming into the turn, then speed off through turn one. The engines on those cars are like nothing I have ever heard before.
After qualifying, we held our ground at turn one as everyone arrived to watch the Sprint Race. The Sprint started at noon, which was about two hours after Porsche qualifying.
They got set at the line with Max Verstappen on pole, Lando Norris in second, Oscar Piastri in third, Nico Hulkenberg in fourth, and rounding out the top five was George Russell.
When the lights went out, Verstappen and Piastri had great starts. Verstappen took an early lead and made it through turn one with Norris right on his tail. Piastri tried to make a move down the inside of Norris, but Hulkenberg had the same idea and they collided. Piastri, on two wheels, bounced into Norris and took out his rear tire forcing him to retire the car. Hulkenberg lost his entire front wing and spun out in the middle of the track, also hitting Fernando Alonso, forcing the next 10 cars to slow or swerve to avoid hitting him.
A safety car was released for the next five laps while the track crew cleaned up the damage and debris. From just the first corner, three cars were out of the race and one had to pit for a new front wing.
Not much happened after that until lap 16. As the slowest driver, Lance Stroll, came down the straight just a few hundredths away from Esteban Ocon. Stroll swerved to the inside just before the turn, locked up his brakes and slammed into Ocon. Both drivers had to retire the cars.
After they crashed, they rode right in front of us to get back to the pits. Everyone clapped for Ocon because he was the victim, but when Stroll came by everyone booed. It was funny to see just how many people agreed with the fact that Stroll should not be an F1 driver.
Verstappen won the Sprint, earning eight points toward the championship battle.
We had the option to move to turns three, four, and five which is the S section of the track but we decided to stay at turn one because that’s where more action happens.
The Porsche race was very exciting for the first 10 laps, while the cars were still very close to one another. As the race went on, the gaps between cars grew, and that made it a little repetitive. The race was still very fun to watch because the cars sounded so good and it was cool to see how fast a street legal car could go.
Just after the Porsche race, F1 had qualifying for their race, which was on Sunday. For qualifying, we moved down to turns three through five. I loved watching the F1 drivers go through this section. These cars go around 160 miles per hour through three turns. From where I was standing I could see them come down from turn one into turn two and then fly through the S.
Sunday morning we woke up and raced to the track. We had to get a good spot early at turn 11 so that we could get out quickly to catch our flight.
The race was very fun to watch. From our spot we could see the cars go down the longest straight at the track. If I had the choice I would’ve gone back to turn 15 because during the race, a lot of overtaking happened in that section.
Verstappen won the race by a long shot. Every lap he would create a bigger gap to second place. The gap after only 18 laps was up to 11 seconds! He lapped five drivers by the end and added 25 points to his total in the championship battle.
I am super grateful I had the opportunity to experience an F1 race, especially at “The Circuit of the Americas. I loved the track and we got really lucky that there was another race happening.
