Hello all,

This is just a quick debrief on my first ever F1 experience. My son and I were lucky enough to attend this year’s United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas last week.

There were no problems flying in on Thursday and getting our rental car. I had reserved the car about a month in advance but I was told that the rental car companies ship cars in from nearby cities to fill the demand of race weekend.

We drove straight to COTA for the Thursday Prixview event. Free parking meant a longer walk to the main gates. Parking in C garage near the gate would have cost $60.

Thursday gave us a chance to walk the vendors area (way too expensive), watch F1 Academy practice and qualify, and do a pit lane walk (very cool). We also made it to kemuri-tatsuya in East Austin for a fantastic Japanese BBQ experience. It would be our only chance at having a nice sit down dinning experience. The combination of longer race days as the weekend progressed, and increasing fatigue from the nonstop long days and constant walking meant we were increasing done in by the end of each day. After Thursday, we had to settle for quicker meals in the Pflugerville area. We found that you can either do an F1 weekend or explore Austin, but not both.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were filled with practice, qualifying, and of course, races. Masters Historic (old f1 cars), Porsche Carrera Cup, F1 Academy, and F1 were all out on track at various times so there was usually something to watch.

COTA itself was great, expect a ton of walking, sometimes slowly through large crowds. The track does a great job with plenty of bathrooms, available water stations to refill your bottles. Food and drink stands are everywhere although they are expensive. Expect to play twice what something is worth off track. The weather was great with each day being a little cooler than the previous. Bring Hats! Our tickets gave us access to the PSL tent directly behind our grandstand. It was nice to have somewhere to get out of the sun for a bit between events.

Our seats were in the grandstand at turn 1 which had a fantastic view. We could see turn 19, the start/finish straight, turn1, and turn 2; And many other views could be partially seen with binoculars. Strangely enough, not many people brought binoculars and I don’t know why, they really helped. On note on seating: Our tickets were great with only one caveat: they were situated just to the far side of the stairs so once the race became static (no real passing this week, unfortunately), it became a never ending procession of people crossing in front of us to either get their seats or down to the amenities below. Mildly frustrating but not a deal breaker. If I had it to do over again, I would have looked for seats that put the stairs behind us.

Logistics to and from the track worked out great for us. We stayed in an Airbnb in Pflugerville (NE of Austin). from there it was a 20 minute drive to the Travis County Expo Center (E of Austin) to pick up the 30 minute shuttle bus to COTA (SE of Austin). Except for Sunday, there was no real line to get on buses in either direction. Post race Sunday saw a huge line that created an addition 20-30 minute wait.

Flying out on Monday was crowded at the airport with about a 20-30 minute wait to get through security.

Final thought: Great place to see an F1 event as far as bathrooms, water stations, easy access to purchased food and drink. Bring a hat, drink plenty of water, and wear sunscreen. Wear comfortable shoes and expect to walk a lot.

Edit: added text