The Official 2013 F1 Thread. Spoilers possible!

They're reporting slightly lower attendance than last year (maybe 10k fewer over the three days), but there were quite a few more GA tickets sold, which were limited to 35,000 last year. I was being offered expensive tickets left and right last week, either free or at less than half face value, but there were a lot of people outside the track trying to buy GA tickets yesterday morning. There were a lot of open seats in grandstands, but the hills around the track were pretty packed. I think fans are much more sensitive to ticket pricing than the organizers realize.

I was there, sat in the grandstand at turn 15. great seats, the cars are visible for over 35 seconds of a 1:45 lap.

Very well organized, beautiful facility, great, very international crowd. On the downside. parking is a problem, with the shuttles subject to the same traffic as everyone else.

We parked on Sunday in a private lot, down near the main track entrance. The idea being that while everyone else is tied up in the jam trying to get out of the closer parking lots, we would walk the half mile to the car, climb in and blast out. It worked exactly as planned. we had no problems getting out. Remember, the farther in to the track you park, the more traffic you have to navigate to get out at the end of the day.

We paid $100 for the ticket, each day, and while they were excellent seats, and the race was quite boring, next time, it's general admissionm, and wande around.

The price of drinks and food was stunning. $4.50 for a bottle of water? WTF.

The team merchandising booths were non stop busy, and the stuff is really cool, is obviously overpriced. Really? $50.00 for a baseball cap with logos?

But, alll that having been said, I will be there again next year.

oops, forgot to attach the pics...


View from our seats towards turn 15



View towards turn 15, and on to turn 12 beyond.



The tower 4 minutes after qualifying ended...
from our seats



One of the Caterham cars in turn 15



the zoomed-in view of turn 1, from our seats




The crowd in the marketplace, in front of the Red Bull Infiniti booth



The Ferrari booth




Oh, there are many more, but this is just to give you an idea...

I was in turn 12. Pretty good seats. The vintage F1 "race" and Ferrari races were more entertaining than F1. Hope Red Bull gets it wrong next year and doesn't run away with it. Would like to see better racing. Stupid hard tire choices and one stop didn't help.

Was there last year and I'll probably come again next year although maybe Montreal might be fun instead.

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Montreal was a lot of fun....
But I would say that in Montreal you want grandstands (not general admission).
The grandstands are nice, but the other places to watch the race are limited.

Unlike say Moto GP at Indy or SBK when it was at Miller. Those two venues its almost better to wander.
Still, I'd like to do Austin one day (and Spa... and Japan... and Australia...)
PowerBall why do you mock me?????

I hear ya. I have the wife on board to travel to some races I think... No idea how I did it...

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animated proposed changes to the Formula from 2013 to 2014
pretty interesting.

LINK

looks like the driver gets a bit more normal seating position

Everyone thinks Seb's listening to his iPod but really Rocky is relaying optimum baggage carousel strategy.

Look like great seats, California. Not often you get to see that much of a road course.

We had seats high up toward the apex of turn 1 at the top of the hill - from there you can see about 1/2 of the track. It is a really nice track for viewing from the stands. In Montreal, we could see a lot less of the racing from the stands.

The RedBull swag trailer was Double the size of Ferrari's.

Wow, that's great, you get a passing zone and a huge chunk of track.

last race of the year....
and the testing goes on



I don't think I am really sad the season is over...
hopefully next year is more interesting.

OK tire warmers? yup....
brake warmers?



interesting.....

Something to help build heat due to the wet conditions? Good question tho, i'm curious.

general consensus: regulating temperatures / bringing them up to operating temp / window

Force India w/ a different approach

Agreed.

It is important to live in the moment and to try an enjoy the present, you never know what the futur will bring. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst...

Next year could bring a car that is 2 seconds faster than the rest of the field!

Said everyone in the paddock except Vettel.