Formula One Group Hones In On Site, Track Designer

Soon after the announcement that Austin would be the host of the United States Grand Prix in 2012, Formula One fans wanted to know two things: where will the track be and who will design it?

Those answers are beginning to emerge. Richard Suttle Jr., an attorney for Full Throttle Productions of Austin, the group behind bringing the race here, told the Statesman that it's "a safe assumption" that the land for the racetrack lies along the Texas 130 corridor. "We're just not ready to disclose it yet," he said.

Suttle also said that German engineering firm Tilke GmbH will design the Austin course. That's not too surprising, given that architect Hermann Tilke has built or redesigned several F1 tracks on this year's race schedule.

With those answers in place, there are a couple of important questions remaining: how much is the track going to cost and will the track be done in time to host a race in 2012?

Full Throttle managing partner Tavo Hellmund has said that money from private investors will be used to construct the track. That's encouraging, because estimates for building a track from scratch have been around $250 million.

But Texas legislators also approved $25 million per year in state money to support the race under the Major Event Trust Fund.

As for timing, the Formula One season runs from March to November, which means organizers have between 22 and 30 months to be ready for an event that Austin has never seen before. It also brings up an interesting question about scheduling. March in Austin is dominated by South by Southwest, so that's out. UT football season begins in September, so you have to be careful with weekend dates then, and also work around the Austin City Limits Festival in late September or early October. That leaves the summer months as the most readily available, but we don't have to tell you that it can get a little warm in June, July, and August.

That leaves April or May as the best fit for weather and no conflicting events, but that would also put race organizers under the gun to deliver on the short end of their timeline.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jeff Beckham in News, Other on May 27, 2010 11:30 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Solomon Light

Fantastic to hear F1 will be coming to Austin. Let's hope they get the track design right for fans and drivers. This could be the beginning of some great F1 racing in America.

V8Cosworth

I want to say thank you, Austin! I'll be coming out from San Francisco for this one, rest assured. However, for those of you who might not be F1 fanatics like some of us folks (SF is known for a lot of us F1 gearheads), I beg you to bombard the promoter and any other responsible officials: do not let Herman Tilke have a free hand in the design of this track! Let me say that again: DO NOT LET HERMAN TILKE HAVE A FREE HAND IN THE DESIGN OF THIS TRACK.

Tilke has a long history of designing tracks with spectacular vistas and excellent facilities...and lousy racing. His tracks are notorious for staging parades, with little overtaking. So, let your voices be heard. The new premier racing circuit in the USA must be the best in F1, offering the most exciting races.

Sacha

The racers are definitely used to extreme temperatures on the track. So even if they were at the height of summer they would be OK. But I do agree with mswain7 that the race would most likely fall in June some time. They would probably do the Montreal race (if it's still taking place at that point) and the Austin race on consecutive weekends. I'm from Austin but live in London now and this is just the most exciting news for me. It's a massive sport here and I think that Austin will really embrace it. It's racing with serious class.

nausea95

I'm as surprised as anyone and I agree this is great news for Austin. In some small way this makes up for growing up in Austin without any local pro sporting events.

Here's hoping in some small way this news influences Google in their selection of regions to roll out their fiber based internet access experiment. I wouldn't expect it to, but you never know.

mswain7

Given the way the FOA schedules events by region, it will likely happen within 2 weeks of the Canadian GP. This almost certainly means the race will happen in June, barring any changes to the region schedule.

Jeff Beckham

That makes sense. By the way, Austin's average high temperature in June: 91 degrees. http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/USTX0057