Wonderful article on being a guest in F1

[PlywoodPascal]

Stumbled across this article, a very readable journalistic account of being a media guest of INEOS at the Austin GP. It is wonderfully written.

It was written for/published in road and track but seems to have come down from their website. Web archive caught it.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240301170542/https:/...

said:

The trip to the track took about 30 minutes. When we came into the entrance, there were people walking from seemingly miles away with lawn chairs. The landscape in Texas always looks a little burnt and scruffy, but the asphalt leading into the track was new, dark as night and smooth as butter. The buildings themselves were white, clean-lined, and pristine. They reminded me more of a horse track than a stadium such as Charlotte Motor Speedway. In the middle stood a viewing tower in the form of a parabolic spire, which added a bit of architectural flair. When we got out of the cars, we were given VIP passes on lanyards. They had a luxurious heft to them, kind of like the Apple credit card. What I did not realize until that moment was that we would be viewing the race from the paddock with all the team sponsors and employees and random assorted people willing to spend the equivalent of more than my life's savings on one afternoon..

said:

When we got into the garage, Lewis's car was naked, its insides visible for all to see. I think this was the moment where my respect for the sport as it exists really made itself clear. It is hard to describe what I felt looking at that car. The closest phrase I have at my disposal is the technological sublime. I pictured a living, breathing animal of extraterrestrial origin, hooked up to a thousand arcane sensors that delivered messages in little pulses. All the tubes and sculpted carbon-fiber parts and the endless net of wires all working in service to the godhead engine, formed something totally incomprehensible to me, a feat of engineering so vast it breached the realm of magic. Hamilton himself walked through in his helmet, unexpectedly on an errand. After being in the presence of the car, I perceived him differently than before, when he was just a guy driving in circles on TV. The scope of his capabilities became more directly known to me in the face of that which I believed to be unknowable. All of that was built in service of him. He stopped and looked into the open maw of the car. The tour guide led us hurriedly into the back room where the coffee and tire bags were stored so that no one could listen to what Lewis said.

[2fast748]

It is a fascinating piece, and I think it reflects the reality of motorsport the world over really.

[mikecassie]

Kate Wagner is a brilliant journalist, she reported honestly on what she saw at the race and in the paddock. It'd appear a new editor in chief at the magazine, Road and Track decided to pull the article. As long as Kate has got her invoice paid, she's probably more in demand now after all this hoohaa too.

[gotoPzero]

I did a good number of races as a guest of a team from about 2011 to 2014.

It was a great experience on the whole and I got to see and hear some pretty cool stuff.
The cost at the time seemed eye watering especially with travel too but looking back it was money cant buy sort of stuff and I considered myself very lucky to be in the same or sometimes better position than people who were paying millions a year in sponsorship.

After my first couple of races I could basically roam around the paddock and in and out of the garage without a guide which was cool. It was back in the days when the media pen wasn't locked down like it is now so I used to split my time between the garage, motorhome and pen. You could learn the best places to hang out, most of the races the paddock is set up the same.

The podium was always the best part of the day, as soon as the flag dropped you could cross the red line so I would run up and get a spot normally at the very front, The teams used to push me out of the way but eventually I learned to just stand your ground

I got champagne in the face more than a few times. Alonso got me twice!

Another cool thing was getting to meet people, actors, sports stars, WAGs etc.

There were also a few uncomfortable moments, when drivers were told bad news or there was some sort of disagreement. I remember eating breakfast one morning next to a driver and his manager and they were having a heated discussion about the next race.

I would love to go back and do another but I don't think there would be anything like the access that I had and I guess the cost would probably be 5-10 times!

[Sandpit Steve]

That’s great writing, and very interesting to see an outsider’s view of a day out. I think most of us reading this would like that experience once, and was good for the author to note that she was enjoying a money-can’t-buy day at the races, hanging out with the sponsors and teams themselves.

[vaud]

gotoPzero said:

I did a good number of races as a guest of a team from about 2011 to 2014.

I was a guest of a team once for the British GP and it was an amazing experience, from chatting with the drivers (it was Williams when Nico was driving and he is a super guy, very funny), meeting Frank W, and watching a live GP2 pit stop from within the pits.

The helicopter in and out was very civilised.

[davidd]

Interesting article. I've spent time in the paddock with a good level of access over the years, seeing the paddock club folks swanning about paying no attention to the actual event and race has always saddened me.

[belleair302]

Late 90s and early 00’s I used to host upto a hundred guests within the Paddock Club each day and it was hard work. Many were interested in garage visits and our technical presentations, some had no interested whatsoever, came for the beer and to be seen. Interesting to read somebody’s own opinion.