f1 usgp 2023 @ COTA fanacc

[hyojungss]

now playing: love story by taylor swift

i need to be a special snowflake so i'm going to write this post in a different format to kaia's. there is a lot of overlap if you do follow her but i will assume that you don't bc this will be public!

🏁 formula 1 united states grand prix @ circuit of the americas (austin, tx) 🏁

 

planning/logistics

• after the 2022 us gp, kaia and i started seriously discussing attending the 2023 event! i read a LOT of reddit posts about traveling to this race over the past 11 months and i think they steered us in the right direction with one major exception i will discuss later (the shuttle).
• tickets went on sale dec 13 2022. we bought 3 day seats @ the turn 12 bleachers (row 31 23-24) for approx $675 each after fees. the appeal of turn 12 is that it's the end of a long straight so it's a very good spot for overtaking, and with the height of row 31, you can also see turns 13-15 from your seat, as well as distant views of turn 1 and some other straight (?). 
• we immediately booked an airbnb in southeast austin for 3 nights (so, 10 months in advance). many people advise against booking an airbnb because the hosts are prone to cancelling on you once they realize it's f1 weekend and they can relist for exorbitant prices. however after holding my breath for this whole time ours did not cancel <3 
• we also stayed in airport hotels to supplement but those are obviously more expensive
• re: transport, the three main options for getting to COTA are driving + parking (either on-site or off-site) / rideshare / shuttling + parking by the stop. we were planning to stay near the circuit but my impression was that getting an uber from cota would be really difficult with lack of service and traffic, so we chose to buy the 3 day downtown shuttle pass and planned to uber downtown. IN THE END: i think the lack of service was exaggerated. for where we chose to stay it made much more sense to uber directly to the high school (rideshare dropoff point) in the mornings when there was no traffic, and even in the afternoons with higher pricing it still would have been cheaper than the daily shuttle fee (on top of the additional uber). however you live and you learn!! we did utilize that route to buy dinner in the downtown area so it wouldn't go to waste entirely.

 

packing list

this is where i go crazy. i spent some additional time in dallas before driving to austin so i definitely overpacked, but my packing list had like... 75 items on it. i am a very needy person so i consider it worth the sacrifice of aesthetics to bring items that increase comfort. i will not cover everything but i will discuss what people on r/grandprixtravel recommended and how we used it over the weekend.

general

• sneakers: a must with the amount you walk around over the course of the day
• linen pants: this is just personal preference but i would rather wear loose fitting pants than have to reapply sunscreen on that much of my body wearing shorts... again, sacrificed the aesthetics!!
• hat: seriously with the weather being as hot and sunny as it was i would have died without a hat on. so my leclerc 16 baseball cap was extremely useful ♡
• sunglasses: it was sooooo sunny and you were constantly dehydrated which makes my eyes sting. so 2 me these were very critical! (to be fair could we have drank more water. yes but the bathrooms have lines yknow...)
• a backpack: just with the sheer amount of items i have it was really necessary. i was sad because my fav shirt and the only f1 shirt i have has the design on the BACK but again it was a necessary sacrifice 
• seat cushion for bleachers: we did not bring actual seat cushions but we did bring jackets to sit on, and this was very useful. because not only are you sitting on bleachers for a few hours a day (not consecutive), you are also sitting on concrete, or grass the rest of the time while you are waiting for sessions. 
• sunscreen: is wearing sunscreen sticky and annoying. yes. is reapplying sunscreen every two hours or more annoying. yes! did i get a painful and itchy sunburn. no. ♡ i actually quite like the neutrogena dry touch sunscreen which reminds me i need to order more expeditiously. and then for the face i have biore uv aqua rich and peripera tone up cream which have spf but when reapplying later in the day i would use the neutrogena since sun still hits your face with a hat on
• deodorant: umm... nothing to say. you can't not sweat in 95F weather
• power bank: i lost my favorite power bank recently (still hoping it turns up) but i still have another 10000 mAh but surprisingly i didn't use it up on a daily basis so i never actually charged it. i think part of this is that i was using a new phone so the battery life was still quite good. i did use it to charge during the day so i didn't have to worry about battery at all
• water bottles: okay so i was going to discuss this in the weather section, but austin was basically 85F to 99F during the day, hot/sunny/partly cloudy at best, except in the mornings of course. water at the track is like $5... the cota rules say you can only bring in 1 factory sealed 20 oz water bottle but security does not check every bag. so i would refill my disposable water bottle with water the night before, freeze it in the airbnb overnight, and stash the ice bottle in the bottom of my backpack. after they didn't check the first day i started doing two bottles. if i was conservative with drinking those i'd still have a little cold water left around ~3pm :') i do not know what i'd do without those... also mclaren x chrome gave us free water bottles so in the end i had three and kaia had two. the water fountains at cota had like meh temperature water which wasn't hot but also wasn't cold so i mostly had it with the electrolyte powder or if i didn't have a choice. 
• electrolyte drink powder: this also saved my life... i don't know the science behind it very well but i feel that drinking these was both delicious and helped my eyes not sting. i bought a box of 10 strawberry kiwi propel packets at heb and we would share 3 per day. i would have had more honestly but target and whole foods did not have affordable electrolyte packets so i couldn't restock. the normal amount is like 17oz of water per packet but i think it tastes like jello water if you halve that ♡
• misting handheld fan: i bought one of these on amazon and i was glad to have it but i also don't think it was as helpful as i expected it to be, which may be because i was trying to conserve the battery. but the fan itself is not very strong, it feels better when real wind blows. the water is what really helped even though it evaporated instantly - you feel some relief in combination with the fan. 
• radio: i read that the commentary at the track is not very good/you can't hear it when the cars pass by, and service isn't good enough to use f1 live timing, but after considering buying a radio i chose not to make the investment just for this. which turned out to be very good because amex was giving out free race radios if you had an amex card and i have a corporate one ♡ they only had one channel which was the f1tv commentary i think. i always listen to sky so i wasn't a big fan but the audio was quite helpful to know what was going on during quali, sprint shootout, sprint, + race. actually during the race they seemed to have decent track speaker commentary (which was different?) but i was using the headphones so i can't really say how that experience would have been. 
• wet wipes: not really that useful but idk. i always keep spray hand sanitizer in my bag, so it probably wasn't necessary to have both
• snacks: sneak them in too.... track food prices were crasy so we had snacks to tide us over and 1 split meal a day.
• edit: earplugs: i brought these but they weren't needed for f1 or f1 academy! i think one of the support series was loud but i don't remember which...

schedule

thursday

• 12:00PM: arrived in austin
• 1:00PM: walked around south congress (touristy shopping area) and got groceries at h-e-b
• 2:00PM: bought butter mochi donuts
• 5:30PM: went to williams fan zone to line up for jenson button q&a (free but in the downtown area)
• 6:00PM: jenson button q&a
• 6:30PM: got dinner and headed back
• 7:30PM: returned

friday

• 6:00AM: rise & shine
• 7:00AM: left airbnb
• 8:00AM: arrived at circuit dropoff
• 8:45AM: entered circuit, got mclaren x chrome tote bag + water bottle
• 9:15AM: got spots @ amphitheater for mclaren, williams, alphatauri, fernando alonso (aston martin) & alfa romeo engagements
• 10:25AM: engagements, approx. 1 hour
• 11:45AM: made friendship bracelets at the tent
• 12:00PM: ate lunch
• 12:30PM: [TRACK SESSION] fp1, 1 hour (the most hellish hour of the entire weekend)
• 2:00PM: accidentally ended up at amphitheater during jack doohan + christian lundgaard + marcus armstrong engagement
• 4:00PM: [TRACK SESSION] qualifying, 1 hour
• 5:30PM: [TRACK SESSION] f1 academy qualifying 1&2, 45 minutes
• 6:45PM: left gates to line up for shuttle
• 7:22PM: shuttle departure
• 8:05PM: arrived @ downtown, got food and ubered back
• 9:00PM: returned

saturday

• 6:00AM: rise & shine
• 7:10AM: left airbnb
• 8:35AM: went to engagement stage immediately after entering circuit to stake out
• 9:45AM: f1a race 1 was playing on the screen in the amphitheater
• 10:10AM: ferrari, red bull, haas, mercedes, alpine engagements
• 11:30AM: lined up to make more friendship bracelets and barely made it out before ss
• 12:30PM: [TRACK SESSION] sprint shootout, 45 minutes
• 2:30PM: ate lunch
• 3:30PM: [TRACK SESSION] f1 academy race 2, 25 minutes
• 5:00PM: [TRACK SESSION] sprint race, 35 minutes
• 5:45PM: f1 academy engagement & autographs, 30-45 minutes
• 6:45PM: left circuit to shuttle area
• 7:15PM: shuttle left
• 8:00PM: arrived in downtown
• 9:15PM: returned

sunday

• 6:00AM: rise & shine
• 7:35AM: left
• 8:35AM: entered circuit
• 9:40AM: [TRACK SESSION] f1 academy third race, 35 minutes
• 12:50PM: [TRACK SESSION] drivers parade, 30-40 minutes
• 2:00PM: [TRACK SESSION] race, 1.5 hours
• 4:00PM: walked to track invasion, walked turns 19-20 & start finish straight
• 5:05PM: exited circuit to shuttle area
• 6:45PM: made it to downtown
• 7:25PM: returned

monday

• flew home

 

general thoughts

i got my touristy activity out of the way when we went to soco on thursday! not in soco but i love butter mochi donuts now... and i love CAVA.... ← our dinner twice
 

   

 

i was in such awe that we got to see jenson button in the flesh on thursday evening for free, but that was truly just the start b/c we ended up seeing 19/20 drivers close up, plus the f1a girls too. i'm still ??? at why lance stroll was not at the aston martin engagement... laura winter did not mention his name once until the end. also we timed our queuing so well... we got to the williams fan zone 30 minutes before which was enough to get a view of him (not great but good enough), and getting a spot for the friday engagements 1 hour ahead was better than getting one for the saturday engagements 1.5 hours early. we learned that the view from the right side was better and the drivers were more likely to toss merch that way but i like my pictures from the center very much!!
 

 

 

 

 

speaking of lining up for the williams fan zone, that's when kaia started watching the landoscar finish the lyrics video. i refused to watch it with her which was the right choice because it would have immediately caused a terminal error in my brain. i'm not talking about them here. baby just say / yes...

in alex's engagement they put a screenshot of alex + george driving around together on the screen and alex was just like george is such a bad driver and kept going on and on (and in george's ment the next day he skirted around it so much.... so much to unpack here). even though the engagements were sort of fanservicey 10 minute bits i still really enjoyed them, found them cute and memorable, and am so glad they were all free/included and you could get a decent view simply by staking out around when gates opened (2 hours tops)... kcon could never, seriously!! this is a bit harsh on kcon i guess but i liked that f1 doesn't have any sort of vip tier @ the engagement soooo much. obviously if you have paddock club etc you have more access to the drivers but within the event itself it was nice to feel equal

 
 

free practice 1 was just horrid because it was our first time up in the bleachers, zero shade, just pure unfiltered sunlight beating down on you for an hour straight!! it was 95F at that point i think. we'd missed f1a fp1 since it took place while we were in line to get in the grounds, and i think we only stayed for a few minutes of f1a fp2 afterwards because it was so bad. the problem with fps is that they don't mean anything since they're for data gathering and setup, so it's kinda pointless to sit there and just watch cars go around in circles. the one good thing was that fp is the best session to get pictures... because again it's meaningless so i wasn't missing anything by focusing on my phone LOL and i will begrudgingly admit that the sunlight makes for more vibrant photos. the 5pm shots from quali are my favorite though!

whenever we weren't in the bleachers for a session or standing in the amphitheater for engagements, we were either sitting on the grass, at a picnic table, or on the floor of the amphitheater just to have a place with some shade. this was not that bad because cell service was okay and bathrooms/water weren't that far either!
 

photos of charles + oscar taken during friday's qualifying

qualifying was really good because charles got provisional pole and then he lost it to max but then it turned out max's lap was deleted for track limits so i really experienced all the highs and lows of being a sharl fan. unfortunately this was truly the high point of his weekend... nothing to say. even with the high of pole you still had to laugh at his for fuck's sake radio @ his race engineer xavi's terrible communication skills. it's better uncensored of course but i don't have that clip. i made my day 2 friendship bracelet based on this and it TRULY applied so well to both his saturday and sunday. nothing to say.

 

 

 

it's also so funny that i made my "it's like this" bracelet for charles (who used to say that on a weekly basis about each race weekend for ferrari being a disappointment; c'est comme ça translated) and then i was like kaia he's so going to say it's like this again after the sprint. and then he changed to "but it's life" (c'est la vie). anyway i now know two phrases in french

 

i was such an elitist about friendship bracelets btw... so bad of me. i spent weeks leading up to the race wanting to make around 10 friendship bracelets (as making them was promoted by cota) to trade with people but in the end i just made 11 for myself and kaia??? and i was too selfish to give up my favorites. this is part because i was too shy to ask people to trade but it was quite lucky that i had two spares (yuki + forza ferrari) because two people did ask to trade. one was a little kid and he gave us a max bracelet :') the problem is that most friendship bracelets incl the ones you could make at the free cota tent were made with pony beads and i really invested in aesthetic 6/0 seed beads... but if i were to do it over i would have made more so we could have gone to the friendship bracelet swap. i just truly did not anticipate that i would want to wear and keep 5 whole bracelets for myself...

sprint race was super boring and eventless, which really disappointed me considering 1) sprints this year have been pretty good for one reason or another, and 2) cota 2022 was a good race, and 3) ferrari's performance/tyre deg was soooo bad so i had literally nothing to look forward to on sunday. oscar wasn't in the points either... so i was already catastrophizing that sunday's race would be bad
 

driver's parade was cute for some reason i enjoyed so much that ferrari drove their own car (as opposed to having a staff member drive both drivers.) i think i just like special snowflakes

sunday's race.... i don't even want to talk about it at this point and i think kaia already said everything i would have said but it wasn't a bad race. part of this is because f1tv commentators SCAMMED ME into thinking lando/lewis had a chance of a win on a 1-stop. once charles kept missing the 2-stop pit windows i kept, foolishly, hoping ferrari knew what they were doing... alas this is one of the worst strategy attempts i can remember them putting charles on this season. i thought they had gotten better than this!!! (and it's all because charles was BETTER at managing his tyres than carlos. if i speak)

and that wasn't even the worst of it because he ended up with a dsq hours later anyway. but i think charles getting disqualified alongside lewis for an understandable setup mistake/risk is less embarrassing than him ending up p6 in the record books behind both carlos and checo. i hate it here... it's a miracle he even got p3 in the sprint. this is because carlos is good at defense though.

sad that oscar got damage after his excellent start +4 places :( proud of lando though for leading the race for so long... I BELIEVE IN MCLAREN 2024. i don't believe in ferrari. happy for yuki points and for logan point... i hope it helps him

track walk was cool!!! wish i was less tired so we could have walked more than 2 turns but this weekend was brutal and i'm still feeling the after effects. turn 1 is sooo cool because it's steeply uphill but i know it would have destroyed us!!

 

   

 

 

even though the f1a racing wasn't that good (track limits were not enforced...) i was still super glad they were there for representation reasons... not going to belabor the merits of the series itself here but i trust susie wolff. also bianca bustamante is so cute and funny i'm pleased she's popular and hope she can cut ties with the nfts eventually. abbi pulling is so cool... and of course our champion marta garcia
 

 

 

 

and kaia's photocards were soooooooo cute no one is doing it like her. highlight of my week ♡
 

  

the airport was full of f1 ads btw.... i know they are ADS but they made me happy anyway. i love this picture of charles
 

 

estimated costs

omitting some so my personal trip cost more than this, but:

• 3 day turn 12 tickets: $677 each
• transportation to/from track: $225 each ($300 shuttle + $150 rideshares for two people. we could have spent much less w/o shuttle though)
• lodging: $200 each for 3 nights 
• food: $80 each for 4 days

this does not include travel to austin or extra lodging nights. this trip would have run me a lot more if i hadn't split certain costs with kaia but everything honestly worked out very well, and again the greatest savings would have come from not buying the shuttle pass... or going general admission but that would have been a worse experience for several reasons. 

would i do austin again? (looks at climate change...) i wouldn't NOT do austin again... but kaia is trying to convince me to buy montreal resale so we'll see how that goes ♡