Hi, my name is Devin Lancaster. I am 17 years old and a Junior in high school and I am currently pursuing a career in motorsport and/or automotive journalism. I have been writing and blogging with the open wheel sport of Formula 1 since April of this year (2014). Last year I got the opportunity to watch the 2013 United States Grand Prix live from Circuit of the Americas, back when the 2.4 Liter eight cylinder screamed at 18,000 RPM that was paired up with a Kinetic Energy System, and the season was dominated by a four time world champion. This year the regulations changed along with the power units. But that didn’t stop me from visiting Circuit of the Americas once again to attend the 2014 United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
So to start out we (Me, my brother and my dad) were on the road before the sun had risen and were out of Iowa before I knew it. I volunteered to drive first so I would have the rest of the day to relax and catch up on sleep, but that didn’t seem to happen too much since I can never sleep anyways. The drive to Texas was actually going pretty fast until we finally crossed into Texas and ran into a traffic jam in Fort Worth, which is a pretty big city and close to Dallas. The ride wasn’t too great from then, I barely even saw any nice cars on the way down unlike last year where we saw a few Ferrari’s outside Oklahoma City, but I caught a glimpse of an Aston Martin in some parking lot and I guess there was a Porsche and a Maserati dealership outside of Kansas City, but that was really it. We reached our hotel in Waco where we would stay for one night and go straight to Circuit of the Americas when we got up in the morning.
The hotel was actually not bad at all. They even had waffle makers that would make your waffle in the shape of the state of Texas which I thought was pretty interesting. We then set off for about another hour and half before we arrived at the lot where we would park our Toyota Tundra and take a shuttle to the circuit. The shuttle last year was an actual school bus, but as I walked around a corner I saw they had much nicer, charter buses.
The bus ride took around 10-15 minutes but it seemed a lot faster than that every time we took the bus. Anyway, when the buses were parked we had a long walk ahead of us to the circuit. You see the logic of whoever runs the lots, is that we would be dropped off at almost a mile away from the circuit in another open lot, I mean why couldn’t we have just parked there instead?
The walk made me think about last years United States Grand Prix, I never knew a V8 could sound so loud and rev so high, that was the first year I had ever heard of Formula 1 and it was an amazing race to be at. By now the walk was halfway over and I was curious at how a turbocharged hybrid would sound like live, which was really the only reason why I wanted to see free practice one and two.
There were a few things weird about what was going on that weekend. For starters, Caterham and Marussia would not be taking part in the race weekend at all because they literally did not have the money to run their cars. When I first heard this I was really disappointed, I mean that is four cars that would not be on the grid that weekend. Not to mention the amount of fans that I saw last year that were Caterham or Marussia fans. Another odd thing is that Sebastian Vettel had used all of his five power units and you know what that means! Well first he had to replace his fifth unit with a sixth one, but he would be starting from pitlane. Also, Lotus would be testing a new nose instead of the twin tusks design which had been banned for the 2015 season. The nose looks more or less like the Mercedes nose, only a little more sloped. Also Sahara Force India would have a brand new steering wheel, one of those with the small screen to allow the driver the see more data and what’s up with the car, I thought it looked like a nintendo controller.
By the time I got my massive ticket scanned for general admission, it was literally just in time for free practice one to start with only a few minutes to spare. Our entrance was near the grand plaza where the Rolex clock was standing the shadow of the massive COTA tower that lights up in red, white and blue at night. Excitement was setting in the gut of my stomach and I hurried over to my favorite turn, turn 19 to get a distant glimpse of turn 1 and see if any sort of car had left the garage and started up the hill.
Some time passed and I was growing impatient. Until I looked up at turn 1 again and I saw a car shoot up from in front of the paddock building and take a sharp left turn down into turn 2 and to start the long turn 3. But I told myself one simple word that I probably use too often: What? I mean I never would have noticed that car if I was looking somewhere else. But, What? There was no sound whatsoever. Another car shot up turn 1 and took the same corner and set off for the next turns. I could not hear a peep from those cars. That excitement that I had a few moments ago was starting to turn into disappointment.
Now I had never been one of those fans who had bashed the sport for the difference in sound, but I was starting to at that moment. It was until that first car came around turn 19 that I said, it’ s only practice.
And that was the case for the next hour and a half. The drivers weren’t even pushing the cars half as much as they would in qualifying or at the actual race. Occasionally you would hear a driver hit the pedal hard and that is when I was satisfied with the sound. It’ s a not a high pitch sound at all as you would expect since you have probably watched a grand prix on the television. The sound its so deep and when the compression is forced out the turbocharger it makes a loud whistle when the driver lets off the accelerator. The cars did make some weird sounds that I guess came from the turbo or the electric motors but every time it happens you find yourself saying, oh something might be wrong, but it always turned out that nothing was wrong.
It was time to move away from turn 19 so that we could see the rest of the track while almost all of the drivers were out on track. As I was walking away I did not take my eyes off of every driver that would come out from the triple apex of turns 16,17 and 18 which would then lead to the fast bending turn 19. It was just one car after another and you want to see if how the cars would handle around that corner. The weather in the morning was fairly colder than previous (63 F) because it had rained so much the day before. The rain had made the track damp in some areas and that made the cars behave with some uncertainty if you were drive into one of those damp areas. Also because it was such a drop in temperature that morning, the cars were locking up in some turns where they wouldn’t normally lock up since the brakes weren’t up to normal operating temperature.
We crossed the track and found ourselves around the long swooping esses that were almost a signature series of corners that you have to set your car up right, in terms of balance, if you want to get the series of corners right. Here you can see the cars up closer and hear them better as well, since I seemed to find out. This was the point that I found out that the 17 year old, Max Verstappen, was practicing in the Scuderia Toro Rosso car. How can a 17 year old even get their hands on a Formula 1 car?
It was time to move up to the single digits in terms of turns which meant that we would start climbing up a giant hill. I kept noticing these suites that seemed like huge white tents with an elevated platform so you were way above a section of the track for a better view. They were filled with nicely dressed people that could probably care less about the sport and were only there for some sort of promotion that wouldn’t even matter anyway. Anyway I thought they were in the way for most of the spectators, anybody would have a much better view if they weren’t there.
We stopped at turn 2 for a few photos and this was probably the closest you could get and here you can really see some of the details in the all new 2014 cars. Some might say they aren’t much different from the previous cars that had once rocketed around this track for the first few times, but the differences really stand out, new nose, new exhaust exit, it’s all there.
You just keep climbing up the hill and past a few more of those unnecessary suites until the pavement starts to level out again and you walk around a television platform to find yourself at the top of turn 1. From the bottom of the turn, the drivers basically look at a wall. If you watched the race from your couch you will see shots from turn 20 looking across the grid and just a huge wall of pavement. The change in elevation is 133 feet and the drivers will be looking for a blind apex while the nose on their car is pointed to the sky.
Turn 1 is a huge general admission section with some grandstands as well. This is the signature turn where everyone wants to be to watch the cars climb up the hill and slowly take the corner while some cars will usually be pushed wide into the run off area. For us, this wasn’t the best place to watch the race. Yes the turn is amazing, but there would be so many people there and the tall fences usually obstruct most of the view, so it would almost impossible to get a seat where you could enjoy the race.
At this point it was lunch time and I just spent a considerable amount of money on an overpriced corndog when the session finally came to an end. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in free practice one with a 1:39.941. Which is a fast time for being for the first practice.
We decided to head back over to the other side of the track since it was more general admission friendly and there is just more to see overall. As we walked past turn 2, we noticed the safety car and the medical wagon doing a track inspection. The safety car is an impressive Mercedes SLS AMG that has an amazing sound that is low and deep. While the medical wagon is also an AMG and has a custom exhaust that is still low but is a lot louder than the SLS. Both of the cars are belong in Formula 1 and they both are very impressive cars.
On our way to cross the track, the Ferrari Challenge cars were following their safety car before they started their practice. I noticed they were somewhat different from last year other than some of the cars’ livery, they also had massive GT wings on the back of their cars. Whereas last year they didn’t have any rear wing at all! The Ferrari Challenge cars are all identical other than the way they could setup their cars. All of the cars are Ferrari 458 Italia’s with the standard V8 you could find in a road 458. The cars put out 570 horsepower to the rear wheels and barely have any differences from the road car other than racing seats, an aerodynamic package, a different exhaust system and a roll cage.
While my brother and my dad found something for lunch, I got to catch a bit of the Ferrari Challenge Practice and the cars are amazingly loud compared to regular 458 Italia. I didn’t catch much of the action since I wanted to check out the front plaza with the Rolex clock. It wasn’t too long after the Ferrari practice that free practice two went underway and would be the last time we saw the cars for the day.
This time we were laying on the hill over at turn 19. It was short into the session where I saw Lotus driver Romain Grosjean slide off track. Other than that, the session wasn’t much to watch in terms of action other than Romain actually had a few spin offs in other areas, which lead me to the conclusion that Lotus would have to do a little work with their car in terms of balance and suspension.
The session seemed like it was taking forever and the sun was beating down on me as I felt my forehead cooking away. This was usual Texas weather, cold in the morning and steaming hot in the afternoon. The session came to a close with Lewis Hamilton again setting the fastest time with a 1:39.085. It wasn’t surprising to me that the Mercedes driver was doing so well since he won the inaugural grand prix here back in 2012.
We packed up our things, which was really nothing and left the circuit. It had been a long day but we were still determined to attend the COTA fan fest in downtown Austin that night. I am pretty glad we did that night and after putting on some classy clothes, we left the guesthouse we were staying at and discovered a short cut so we didn’t have to wait on traffic.
When finally finding a parking garage, I noticed a Mclaren 650S sitting on a platform outside of some place, which could have been a bar or a club, and there were a bunch of people surrounding it. So I thought I would want to check that out since I had never seen a 650S and I was a fan of Mclaren road cars anyway. After finding a way out of the parking garage we walked to the place where the 650S was sitting a few feet above the ground on a white platform.
And there it was sitting, in all of its glory. The 650S has the same twin turbocharged 3.8 liter V8 as the MP4-12C but it the turbos are beefed up to produce more combined power. It was basically an alternative for buyers who wanted more than the 12C but less than the Mclaren P1, but how could blame them when the P1 has $1,150,000 price tag? Anyway the P1 is the car of my dreams and I had been contemplating whether I would see one that weekend or not. The new looks of the 650S has the car looking fancy as it sat in the spotlights, but I couldn’t help but notice that no one was really surrounding this beautiful piece of machinery but they were over at another platform that looked like another 650S which I didn’t see what was so different.
After walking over to the other platform I was going to see what was going on but I couldn’t help but notice a two Mclaren MP4-12C’s parked out front of the hotel that was connected to the bar or club or whatever that place was. I managed to catch a video of a white 12C leaving the hotel and the engine in those cars have an amazing sound as does almost all Mclaren road cars. Right next to this white Mclaren was the other 12C and it was wrapped to advertise Circuit of the America’s. I didn’t notice this at first because I was videotaping the engine being revved. I always remembered seeing small videos of cars shooting blue flames and I knew this one could but it wasn’t revved long enough or high enough but it was still awesome.
Okay so now I had to see what all the fuss was about this 650S and how different it was from the one on the other platform. I made my way through a line of people looking at the car and I thought, well it’s the same color as the other one but something was different about the top, it had a hood scoop on the roof and I thought, well this can’t be right. I then looked down on the front of the car and noticed two massive hood vents in the hood and I knew what this car was then.
The car was a Mclaren P1. For those of you don’t know, the Mclaren P1 is a hybrid hypercar that has a 3.8 liter with two turbos, just like the 650S, but has a 170 horsepower electric motor used to either drive in electric mode, another mode is used for gas mileage when cruising around and to charge up the batteries or in track mode, it’s used to fill in the gaps. Let’s say between shifts and when the massive turbos are spooling up, combined they produce 904 horsepower to rear wheels. The car is my dream car as I mentioned earlier. Not just for the looks, but believe me they are there, but because it is the most technologically advanced car on the road today. The technical aspect of it is why I drool over it and the fact that is a Mclaren is that much better, yeah you could say you would rather have the less expensive Porsche 918 or the V12 hybrid from the Ferrari LaFerrari but this car has the looks of an angel, and it’s a car. It turns out the somebody owns that car. The guy was expecting the car to show up sometime in December and was surprised when it showed up early and Mclaren even threw an exclusive party for the lucky guy.
I could talk about the P1 all day, but it was time to move on. As we were walking to the actual fan fest, I heard a familiar sound. The sound was a V12, but not just from any car otherwise I would have never guessed it was a V12. But it was an Italian exotic. I could distinguish that car any day and I did that night, it was a Lamborghini Aventador. And sure enough I saw a Lamborghini trailer. This night was turning out to be one of the best nights I had ever had.
Sure enough the car was an Aventador, but I hadn’t noticed it until after I spotted a different Lamborghini, the brand new Huracan. I couldn’t believe it, I had read about these two cars in magazines for the past five months and here they were right next to each other and I took in the moment. Two of the finest Italian machines on the market were right in front of, but behind ropes. The Huracan is a sort of a next generation of the previous Gallardo since it has the same V10 Audi produced in the Gallardo. The Huracan is almost half the price of the Aventador, which makes sense since Audi basically did all of the work in the Huracan and it has the Audi engine. But the Aventador is certainly more for the money with two more cylinders, killer looks, scissor doors and 700 Italian horsepowers.
It was time to move on again. The rest of the night was certainly eventful with Formula 1 show cars from Williams Martini Racing, Infiniti Redbull Racing and Mercedes AMG Petronas. The only new era car was the Mercedes, other than Williams who just had their livery on a 2013 chassis. But I always love seeing show cars. You can see the work of the Formula 1 mechanics and aerodynamicists up close. It amazes me every time how much detail there is to get the air flowing over the car and to the rear, not to mention the huge diffuser under the car. The Mercedes chassis was also amazing to admire, the front wing was so weird compared to the 2013 spec cars.
The night was coming to a close and it was time to pick a random sandwich shop to screw up my order. That’s exactly what happened. But when the sandwich place got it right, it was amazing. I actually liked that place, you write what you want on your sandwich on this wrapper where the sandwich is placed. They need these kind of places back in Iowa. The night was coming to an end and we had big day tomorrow with free practice three and qualifying. On our way back we stopped at the Mclaren P1 again to see what was different. Really nothing was happening and so we decided to leave. At this point there was an Aston Martin parked in front the hotel and I just happened to get a picture of a 2015 Mustang GT that happened to drive by. I don’t think I will ever forget that night, the night I saw my dream car for the first night and a bunch of other cars I am a fan of. But most of all, it wouldn’t have experienced that night if it wouldn’t have been for Formula 1.
The next morning was even colder than it was the previous day. It had to have been in the upper 40’s in terms of temperature but I knew the temperature would rise as the day went on. We entered the circuit gates minutes before the session started and it wasn’t until we were about ten feet away from the gates that I heard a lady behind me trying to get my attention. I turned around and sure enough it was the supervisor of the gate from Circuit of the Americas and she came right up to us and said “you can’t bring that in to the circuit”. We looked at her with a confused look and then she pointed to my GoPro camera that was attached to a pole that I had brought into the complex a day before. We started arguing with the lady and told her we didn’t want to walk all the way back to the bus and take the bus back to our lot, so she agreed to take the camera and keep it somewhere safe.
So great, but it wasn’t that bad, I still had my phone to take pictures and video as well. I didn’t see why it was such a problem other than she said they didn’t want anybody taking video. Which was pointless because people had much better cameras that would take video better than the smallest camera you could buy. Besides, they couldn’t keep people from taking video with their phones as well.
Anyway free practice three was underway and the drivers were now starting to use the cars at race speeds to see if they could get a fast lap in before qualifying. This time I could hear the cars from turn 1 as we were sitting at turn 19 again. This time we brought lawn chairs so we didn’t have to sit on the grass. Lewis Hamilton again goes the fastest in free practice three with a very fast 1:37.107. The session wasn’t much eventful but it did give drivers a chance to set a fast time before qualifying like I said earlier, just to find a few limits with grip and the car.
We had some time before qualifying would start but we finally got a chance to watch the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup qualifying which was a new event this year. If I were to ever race, I would want to race GT cars (Besides Formula 1), I mean GT cars just sound amazing and they are so much faster than the road cars from which they basically come from. Who wouldn’t want a stripped out version of their road car with a giant wing and roll cage along with slick tires and a racing exhaust? Anyway this was qualifying and I had no idea who got to the top of the leaderboard but the cars were entertaining to watch.
It wasn’t too long after the Porsche Supercup qualifying that we started to see cars shoot out from the designated pit area at the monstrous turn 1 and taking the slow corner and back down the hill to turn 2 and 3. Qualifying was under way and it was time to get cracking. I took notes on this small notepad I had brought with me the other day as well so I could remember some things that happened. I didn’t get to write much but after the first qualifying session Jean Eric-Vergne, Esteban Gutierrez, Romain Grosjean and of course Sebastian Vettel got kicked out from moving on to Q2. Remember that Sebastian Vettel didn’t have to take part in qualifying since he had to start from pit lane because of an engine change, but he still took part in Q1 to get familiar with the circuit and extra practice.
Lewis Hamilton topped that session by the way with a 1:37.196. Q2 started about seven minutes afterwards and this time the laps got more intense as they usually do as the sessions go on. This time it was Nico Rosberg setting the fastest time with a 1:36.290. I’m pretty sure this was the fastest time all weekend so far and it was a whole second faster than his teammate! Pastor Maldonado, Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg and Daniil Kvyat were knocked out and did not advance to the third qualifying session.
Q3 is always the most nerve racking qualifying session and it was no exception in Texas. Throughout the session you can hear the cars so well now and I was beginning to like the low and loud sound, especially the turbo whistle. There’s nothing that sounds like it! I have never heard a road car sound that way ever. But then again this is an open wheeled motorsport, they’re supposed to sound like that. Anyway, Nico Rosberg got pole position for the next day’s race with a time of 1:36.067. There was the fastest time of the weekend! Nico would be followed by Lewis Hamilton started right behind him will be Valterri Bottas.
The day was coming to a close once again, but this time a little earlier than the previous day. The rest of my day consisted of relaxing back at the guest house we were staying at and thinking non stop about the race the next day. I kept making sounds that were mocking the new power units, kind of like I did last year regardless if it annoyed people or not, it was entertaining to me. We ate a nice sports bar that night and the service was alright except the weather was a lot colder that night, but we were also sitting next to a door that seemed to be used a lot.
I turned in for the night since we had to get up a lot earlier the next day. I went to sleep not knowing what could happen tomorrow, but I knew one thing, and that was I loved being in Texas during the United States Grand Prix weekend and I knew I was going to see a fantastic show the next day from my favorite motorsport and one of two of my passions.
I was starting to get used to the temperature in the morning. Bringing my jacket this time I was also getting wiser but it was still warmer than the weather back at home and I was loving it, except for the part that my face was now badly sun burnt. The trip there was normal, along with the bus ride to the actual walk. This was the earliest we had showed up at the gates and this time I had my GoPro camera hidden along with the pole it could attach to. The gates wouldn’t open for another 45 minutes or so, which meant I could basically just stand there and waste some of my phone batteries and see if anybody that was at the race, was on Twitter. And sure enough some people were actually at the same gate I was at!
The gates opened around 9 AM and there were people running to wherever they wanted to view the race. The people who showed up at the gate earlier than usual are almost all spectators with general admission tickets. It didn’t take long to get to our spot and we had by far some of the best seats in the house. We sat at turn 19 like we basically did all weekend. The spot was basically all general admission and you can see the cars come flying out of turn 18 and slow down only a bit for turn 19 before getting on the loud pedal again to the final turn. You could also see cars entering the pits to box and you had a distant, but full view of turn 1. We set up our chairs and waited. I took a before shot of our hill and it was empty. We all knew that could change in a few hours time where we would be elbow to elbow with the people next to us, behind us, and in front of us.
Time was passing and after having the most amazing breakfast burrito from a food trailer, I was ready to see some action. The first event of the day was the Ferrari Challenge race. When the cars came around behind the safety car, I had almost forgotten everything I knew about Formula 1 and was so focused how these cars were so unique. Well the good thing is I completely snapped out of that when I learned there had been a wreck on the opening lap. Actually it was a serious wreck but thankfully the driver was okay and was able to walk away from the incident with no harm whatsoever. The race had a time limit of 20 minutes and with the track cleanup and recovery of the wrecked car, the time was ticking down. By the time the safety car had turned its lights out, the race was either halfway over or even more than halfway over. The race went under way for a lap until there was another wreck and the safety car came out. This time until the time was up and a new winner and then a new world champion was crowned. All for a certain number of laps behind a safety car.
The next event was the Mobil 1 Porsche Supercup. They had the race the previous the day as well along with the Ferrari Challenge but the second race is always more exciting. This time the race would start from the grid and from the time the lights went out to the checker flag, there was no incident in which the safety car came out at all. That race was 14 laps and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, I love GT racing.
An hour later, the drivers parade had started. I remember watching on the giant television as Nico stepped out his car that was transporting him around the track. He got out and had a small interview with a guy from circuit of the americas about the race and the rivalry between him and his teammate. Meanwhile, Lewis hops out his car and starts throwing merchandise into the car and the man tried to talk to him but of course he was too focused on the fans. Other than that Nico tried not to make awkward eye contact with him that whole time. I took another picture of the hill and shortly after the national anthem had started. I forgot all about the former Navy SEAL’s who would be parachuting into the circuit. It was a neat scene to watch them parachute with a flag beneath them and they were stacked on top of each other by standing on each others parachute.
The next half hour was waiting time. By now the cars had started to come out their garages and went around the 20 turns to come to their starting place on the grid. I was thinking to myself how amazing it would be to get a chance to interview some of the people on the grid. I hope that one day I will get to experience that and feel the excitement and the intensity as anyone standing on that grid minutes before a Grand Prix.
Moments before the lights went out, everyone was out of their seat and were ready to see the cars come up that steep hill and turn hit the apex at turn 1. The formation lap came around and everyone was quiet as we listened to the deep sound of the turbocharged hybrid power units. It didn’t matter if you were a fan of a different driver from somebody else, this is Formula 1, this is a sport where every driver is equal, everyone is a fan of one out of 22 of the best drivers in the world. As the cars lined up on the grid, I thought of how I felt the previous year at the 2013 United States Grand Prix. Contemplating on whether it would be the same old race with the same person winning every time. This year things were different and the drivers were competitive. The only thing that was different, is that there were only 18 cars on the grid this year and that could change some things up.
The five red lights showed up. The cars were revved for a perfect start. One light went away, now only four. Three, two, and now only one. That final light went out and the start means everything to your position regardless of where you start. The cars roared up to turn 1 side by side and went down the hill to turns 2 and 3. An incident happened between Sauber driver Adrian Sutil and Sahara Force India driver Sergio Perez while Perez was trying to take an opportunity to make an overtaking move on turn 15 where he made contact with a Ferrari and then smashed in Adrian destroying his own car and the Sauber car. Knocking them both out the race, while Sergio was able to limp back to the garage where he would stay.
This of course brought the safety car out while the marshalls cleaned up the car and the wreckage. The safety car was brought in at the end of lap four and this still left Nico Rosberg in the lead followed by his teammate Lewis Hamilton. The next retirement was on lap 18 which brought out a yellow flag for the drivers after the other Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg retired his car on the long straight an engine failure. Meanwhile the gap between Lewis and Nico was closing rapidly after fastest laps from Hamilton just kept bringing him closer and closer to the German. On lap 22 there was some great racing between Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button who were fighting for seventh position. I found myself leaning forward on the edge of my seat watching the big screen when they were somewhere else and watching from turn 18 to 19 and over to turn 20 when they came by our corner. This went on for a few laps and Alonso finally got ahead of Button on lap 24 right after turn 1.
While this battle was happening, an even bigger battle was happening between the Mercedes teammates. Hamilton was able to pass on the inside of Rosberg right after the long straight as he was in the DRS zone and got around Nico while almost forcing him off track. There was action everywhere. As he came around to our corner people stood up and applauded. It was ironic because it was the same place where Lewis had made an overtaking move on Sebastian Vettel that lead him to winning the 2012 United States Grand Prix.
Overtaking moves were made throughout the race in various spots and it was exciting all around the circuit at the amount of battles that were going on for crucial positions for some drivers in terms of points. Strategy was key throughout this race as with really any race this season. A bad pit stop could result in a position loss and a great pit stop could result in you taking your position back. It all depends on where you are in field and you want to box before your rival does so you have fresh tires, but then again you can also wear your tires out faster than your rival and make the tires start to fall off (lose time) then you have to box again.
There was action throughout the whole race between the middle of the field. Redbull, Lotus, Mclaren and Ferrari drivers were all involved in a pack for a certain position and just kept going back and forth between positions. Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton was setting a gap and before I knew it, the final lap was starting with Hamilton in the lead and followed by Rosberg. When he came around turn 19 he was clear of the field. Rosberg was behind some traffic who weren’t really letting him through because it was the last lap. Lewis Hamilton took the checkered flag with excitement as he weaved his car back and forth in an “S” motion and the crowd was cheering when came back by waving his hand at us.
The final result was Lewis Hamilton on top of the podium with Nico Rosberg right next to claim second place and Infiniti Redbull driver Daniel Ricciardo to take the third spot on the podium. The race was amazing. Compared to last year, I am glad I got to come for second time to Texas to watch the new era and I hope everyone around me enjoyed it as well. We had some nice people around us, there were a few people who were from Finland on my left and then a few other people to my right who were from the states but I couldn’t remember what state they were from.
After the United Kingdom national anthem was played, the trophies were presented to each driver and the champagne was sprayed everywhere. We started to pack up our chairs and said our goodbyes to the people around us since none of them were staying for the Kid Rock concert. The concert wasn’t too bad. I had a few of his songs on my Ipod but I never really listened to him that much, but he was a great performer at the Austin 360 amphitheater. Anyway after the concert we started our long walk back talking about the days events and how awesome they were. I took a final picture of the sunset at Circuit of the Americas right before my phone died and I remember thinking that I was going to come back here, either the next year or sometime in the future.
The weekend will be one I will remember for as long as the new era of Formula 1 stands. To watching a Grand Prix live on that first year of the new era is a privilege. The next time I will watch a Grand Prix live there could be some regulation changes, probably not significant, but enough to make a difference. The new era doesn’t matter too much to me. It made the competition more fierce and also made the sport more entertaining. I have spent more time on this article than any other article I have written. The Brazilian Grand Prix has already seen a winner and the next Grand Prix we will have a championship holder for the 2014 season with double points in Abu Dhabi.
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