Austin GP

[andrew]

Because it's in America which immediately moved it to the front of the line of greatest venues to go watch a GP.

Beats being mugged in São Paulo.

Or KILLED in Bahrain.

Or ambushed by a savage marmot in Montreal

Or catching hypothermia at Silverstone.

Or getting lost and dehydrating in the desert at Bahrain.

Or being forced to wear a Ferrari shirt in Italy.

[Rattlehead22]

Me and a buddy are making it to this years GP, we've already got our room booked, just waiting for tickets to go on sale. Anyone else planning on attending this year?

[LewEngBridewell]

Me and a buddy are making it to this years GP, we've already got our room booked, just waiting for tickets to go on sale. Anyone else planning on attending this year?

Texasmr2 will no doubt be rocking up

[What's Burning?]

I'm not entirely sure I buy pretend money figures, but hey I'm not the one that has to buy it, it's the advertisers. Acording to this, they did well at last year's Austin GP.

F1 USGP generates nearly $200m of media coverage for Austin

The city of Austin gained global media coverage worth $191.2 million from hosting the 2012 United States Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas, according to new research by Formula One industry monitor Formulamoney.

This comprised $166.7 million in exposure generated verbally and visually through television broadcasts and a further $24.4 million through mentions of Austin and F1(TM) in print and major online media.

The event also generated a high level of exposure for the other brands involved in F1. The 162 brands displayed on cars and trackside hoardings during the race gained exposure with an advertising value equivalent of $150.9 million. This total ranks the United States GP as the best race of 2012 in terms of brand exposure, giving F1’s sponsors bigger benefits than famous events such as the Monaco, British and Italian Grands Prix.

Two thirds of this exposure, $100.2 million, was experienced by the sponsors of F1’s teams, meaning that the race was a big benefit to the sport’s competitors. Trackside advertisers benefited from exposure worth $49.8 million, despite the Grand Prix having no race title sponsor to share in this coverage.

The best-exposed sponsor of the race was series tyre supplier, Pirelli, which in the absence of a race title sponsor took several prime trackside advertising slots for the event. This resulted in total exposure worth $24.5 million, or 16.2 percent of the overall exposure value.

The top five brands in terms of exposure during the race were rounded out by Red Bull ($19.3 million), LG ($14.1 million), Verizon ($14.0 million) and Lotus ($9.5 million). Together they drew more than half of the total exposure value. Red Bull Racing was the team which brought the best exposure for its partners, with total coverage worth $16.6 million.

The United States Grand Prix also performed well in terms of spectator attendance. The race drew the second-highest race day attendance of the season, with 117,429 fans placing it second to only to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone where 127,000 people visited. In comparison, the last United States GP held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2007 attracted 84,458 spectators, with 20.2 percent of sales coming from the local area. Austin also scored the third-highest three-day attendance of 2012, with 265,499 fans putting it behind only Britain and Canada.

About Formulamoney:

Formulamoney is the annual data report on the business of F1 containing 220 A4 pages with more than 300 tables. These uncover every aspect of the sport’s finances from a valuation of each current team sponsorship deal to the typical budget for a Grand Prix. The company also provides consultancy services for numerous parties within the sport such as circuits, sponsors and investors.

[LewEngBridewell]

Always good to see some positive press

[stonemonkey]

I hadn't seen this before, F1 on dirt

[youtube]Zdc5B2g-xuA[/youtube]

[Jabberwocky]

Does the car do more than about 50 mph at any point?

[stonemonkey]

lol, dunno, wonder how much ended up on the cutting room floor too. Still not something you see too often. Only other things comparable has been Mika in the snow and Redbull did something on a beach once, has there been anything else?

[darwin dali]

lol, dunno, wonder how much ended up on the cutting room floor too. Still not something you see too often. Only other things comparable has been Mika in the snow and Redbull did something on a beach once, has there been anything else?

Jaime Alguersuari in Puerto Rico, was it a Toro Rosso?
Nick Heidfeld on ice (Lake St. Moritz in Switzerland if I remember right).