An Epic Day in Austin, Texas

260 days. That is how long curious Austinites, die-hard F1 fans and everyone in between had to wait since the first F1 USGP Press Conference in July 2010 and this week's coming out party in Austin, Texas. In Tavo's defense, to say they have been busy would be an understatement.

We arrived at the Palmer Events Center on a typical April afternoon in Austin: 80' F (27' C), sunny with a few clouds in the sky, and so many people frolicking about in the neighboring Zilker Park, you begin to wonder if anyone works a typical 9-5 job in this town. As evidenced throughout Austin's cohesive, collaborative, laid-back yet get-down-to-business vibe, we passed by the sunny fun-loving people in the park and walked into the Palmer Events Center, where we were transported to a high tech press conference with a platform for innovation and excitement, and some cool backdrops. The stage was bordered with two giant screens looping some new and some familiar snapshots of Austin; the Williams F1 car served as a focal point and photo op; and about 100 media and invited parties began to fill the room.

We mingled, ran into our friend USF2000 Driver Rodrigo Sanchez, met a few new folks and took our seats behind the "Reserved Row," not knowing who would join us, but impressed when we were joined by Del Valle School Board President Richard Vasquez, Austin City Manager Marc Off, Texas Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, Texas Sen. Kirk Watson, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell (hard to see from this angle) and Council member Mike Martinez.

SPEED TV's iconic Bob Varsha welcomed everyone and noted that he had visited the construction site and was "impressed with what was being accomplished at the track site." Before introducing the founding team on stage, Red McCombs, Tavo Hellmund and Bobby Epstein, he also shared his newfound love for the city of Austin, and shared our sentiments that it is an active and entertaining town supported by the welcoming and fun-loving people of Austin.

You may recall that McCombs and Epstein were announced as the major financial backers at July's press conference and Tavo is the ring leader in this entire project. McCombs quickly took over and before announcing first order of business, the naming of the track, he reminded people of the scale and magnitude of this project, equating it to "a SuperBowl every year" for the city of Austin. There has been so much buzz around this press conference in the past week, including speculation about what was going to be announced, that we were confident a title sponsor would be named, thereby revealing something of the sort: "The AT&T Williams Momentum Park." That was my calculated guess because AT&T is headquarted in Texas and has strong business and historical ties to central Texas, that Williams F1 car keeps popping up, and Momentum Park was a name that was referenced via some online research.

Alas, McCombs, Epstein and Tavo revealed the track as "Circuit of the Americas - Home of the World Championships, United States," or "COTA" for short. I've heard some mixed reviews of the name, but the thought behind Circuit of the Americas was to tie in the United States with Canada, South and Latin America, where I think F1 fans might rival US F1 fans in number. I'm unable to embed the video here, but SPEED TV just posted a great 8 minute+ video of the highlights of the press conference. If the full press conference is published, we will share that video with you in the future. For now, you can watch the SPEED TV video of this F1 USGP April Press Conference by clicking here.

McCombs then invited Steve Sexton, F1US and now COTA President, to the stage and Steve also shared Varsha's sentiments of the warm welcome he has received as a new Austin resident. Then the discussion transitioned from the "Who" to the "What and Where." This is not just a race track, folks. The Circuit of the Americas is a destination: a high-end, multi-purpose development that has grown from 970 acres to 1,100 planned acres. Tavo began to paint a clearer picture of what we can expect at the Citcuit of the Americas:

• 40,000 square foot, 3-story tall conference center bordering the 300 yard pit area
• 14 executive suites, each 3,600 square feet with elevators, kitchens, latest A/V gear, high-speed connections and capacity for 75 people each (to be used by teams and sponsors on race weekends for meetings and hospitality)
• Main grandstand includes luxury suites for business entertaining and capacity of about 750, including commercial kitchen and cafe
• Media and conference center - business conferences, seminars and receptions, and converting to international media center
• 500-person banquet hall (private or corporate dinners and nonprofit fundraising galas)
• 5,400 square foot Medical Building with year-round use as a training facility (professionals and students) and converting to trauma care center for driver-athletes
• Live music entertainment venue during race and non-race weekends, including indoor and outdoor space, and spanning the equivilent of 3 football fields wide with a capacity of 35,000
• 22-story Observation Deck providing breath-taking and memorable views of the destination set amidst the gorgeous Texas Hill Country
• Entertainment and festival venue with capacity of 35,000

This article, "Circuit of the Americas Partners with Texas Schools," is a great overview of the educational institutions that have jumped on board with COTA and their specific roles "linking classroom learning to practical application work." We are really hoping to hear that Austin's own University of Texas at Austin and Texas State University-San Marcos are also jumping on board!

Tavo continued to highlight the business and economic impact of the facility not only during this fast-paced construction phase that we are currently in, but also the sustained opportunities for local and global companies for the duration of the 10-year contract with Formula One Management and F1 racing:

• Agreement with Austin Energy to build a new energy sub-station in Del Valle
• Research and development opportunities almost solidified with two large auto manufacturers
• Potentially 1300-employees tied to the multi-purpose facility
• Construction expenditures alone of over $400MM, with a focus to keep 80% or more of that in the pockets of local Texan businesses
• In addition to plans for on-site retail, the COTA team is in talks to bring a major hotel developer to the development
• In the course of a single F1 race weekend (which, as we know, is only 3-5 nights out of the facility's 365 days of planned business), you can expect 300,000 guests to spend 3-5 nights in the Austin and surrounding Central Texas areas and spending an average of $1400-1600

Tavo then shifted the focus back to the "Who and What" by introducing two icons in an equally exciting motorsport field: 1993 World GP Motorcycle Champion Kevin Schwantz and 2010 MotoGP "Rookie of the Year" Ben Spies. Schwantz made the highly-anticipated announcement of the addition of MotoGP motorcycle racing to the circuit's lineup. MotoGP is to the world of motorcycle racing what Formula One is to the world of automotive racing: they are both the cream of the crop in their respective fields; partnering the highest advancements in technology and innovation to deliver non-stop excitement to their large international audiences. The introduction of MotoGP's partnership with The Circuit of The Americas facility was met with energetic support from the crowd as Schwantz also reported a 10-year agreement was met to bring MotoGP to Texas from 2013-2022.

While I was live-tweeting snippits of the press conference via our Twitter feed, I heard Schwantz ask Spies "How excited are you to be able to come and race in Austin in 2013?" His response was "Very!" and I think you can expect to see an expansion of our COME AND RACE IT© product line to show our support of MotoGP's introduction to the Texas lineup.

As the press conference wrapped up and we were directed to make our way to the shuttles leaving for the construction tour of the facility, we snagged two great interviews with Bob Varsha of SPEED TV and Christian Epp of Tilke Engineering. You can enjoy them on our dedicated Press Conference page or via our Vimeo Channel.

For all high-def photos and official facility renderings, check out our Gallery.

Next up from us: our recap of the site tour, and hopefully next up from COTA: the "When" and more announcements on the "Who" regarding this decelopment of epic, Texas-sized proporstions.

In the meantime, tell us what you thought of the Press Conference and enjoy the first-ever video of the drive up Turn 1 at The Circuit of The Americas!

On Location at the Circuit Of The Americas from The Austin Grand Prix on Vimeo.

Is Momentum Building at Austin's Newest Park?

Austin's track is gaining momentum, YEEHAW! It's been an amazing couple of weeks since all activity at the SXSW Film, Music and Interactive conference in Austin, Texas. Let's recap:

-Congratulations to Asif Kapadia, Manish Pandey, Working Title Films, Universal and all parties involved with the SENNA film, as release dates have been progressing:

• 13 April - Valencia, Spain - Spanish premiere

• 4 and 6 May - Toronto - Canadian International documentary film festival, "Hot Docs"

• 3 June - UK Release

• 15-19 June - Sydney, Australia Film Festival

• 21 July - Australian Release

• July - US Release

-Asif and the SENNA online outlets (Twitter, Facebook, web) have been working hard to keep us all informed of the latest release info. It is motivating to read inquires from fans all over the world: "When can I see SENNA in MY hometown!?" Keep asking and keep coming back here. We will continue to help bring this movie to you because it truly is an epic film which we so thoroughly enjoyed. Believe it or not, we have even more #SENNAxSW content to share with you in the coming weeks!

Congratulations to the entire Formula One drivers and teams for the amazing first two races of the season. Although Bahrain was cancelled, Sebastian Vettell gave everyone a run for their money at Australia and Malaysia. Check out this Formula 1 interview here.

And now...there have been many reports in the past few weeks that suggest development at the future home of the Austin Grand Prix is racing ahead.

-Tom O'Keefe published his recap of his Texas visit on Autosport today; you can read it here.

-Dave Doolittle, of the Austin American-Statesman, reports that zombie roadkill is halting F1 construction at the site! Oh no!

-Bob Varsha, of SPEED TV, said "We have a delegation from SPEED that’s going to go visit the track and assess the situation with our own eyeballs on April 13."

-During SPEED TV's airing of the Malaysian Grand Prix on April 9/10, they also made an announcement regarding the upcoming April 12 "special news conference" and said they plan on bringing you a live feed on Tuesday night at 8pm ET.

-Austin's KVUE News posted a supershort video of earth-movers and construction at the site from the ground level, however we're still partial to our exclusive aerial video which F1 Russia picked up and sent us viral! Here it is if you'd rather not dig through our archives:

Exclusive: First Aerial Video of Austin Track Construction from The Austin Grand Prix on Vimeo.

So, with all the recent rumblings, we want to know what YOU think will happen at tomorrow's news conference. Here are a few ideas we've heard and/or made up over a few cups of coffee this AM:

• Tavo Hellmund and Bob Varsha will skydive out of an airplane to give you an idea of a real aerial descent upon the future track site, since they weren't too happy with our photos or video.

• Since the Bahrain race was cancelled, construction is really going to ramp up and the Austin race will actually happen in <gasp> 2011 later this year!

• Red Bull is going to return to Austin, the home of their largest U.S. Flugtag audience of 85,000, and create a permanent Flugtag stage constructed over the F1 pit area. (What's Flugtag? Read recap of 2007 event here.) by Lynn M. Stone

• The official F1 USGP team is going to formally name the track: "The Best Little Race House In Texas."

• SPEED TV will start the highly-anticipated 24/7 webcam of progress, so you never have to miss a second of the non-stop action as earthmovers crawl around the track!

• Bernie decided that in addition to artificial rain, he would also like to create artificial snow for future driving "excitement"...in Texas...in the summer.

• While Tavo and Bob dive into the track location, Bernie will be on the ground to catch them atop his new ride, this lovely Texas Longhorn:

What are you expecting tomorrow and what would you like to see?

Before I go, I wanted to introduce you to our expanded product line at COME AND RACE IT©! We now have shirts in 4 different colors:

Natural, Texas Orange, Heather Grey and Ladies Mocha Brown! (Click on the pictures above to go directly to the order page.)

Here's our shirt Down Under at the Australian Grand Prix last month! We would love to get pics of you in your shirts at every Grand Prix and from all over the world. Please send them to us at COMEANDRACEIT {at} gmail.com. Thank you for your ongoing support!

TEDxAustin: Tavo Hellmund Speaks in Austin

Image courtesy of TEDxAustinTavo Hellmund spoke this afternoon in Austin at a satellite event of TED, known as TEDxAustin.  TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and is a series of global conferences designed to culminate idea-sharing. In his speech, Tavo highlighted several things, not only some interesting things about F1 in Austin, but also his mantra as a person.

He began in a very humble manner, acknowledging the other speakers invited to talk at the event, but Tavo quickly dove into explaining his perspective on the future of Austin and his desire to engage the community.  His vision for the new racing facilities will effect the lives of so many people and in order to succeed, the facility needs to be used year round, capitalizing on the technological and educational potential which Austin culminates.  We think that his message was well received and important to understanding the long term success of his goals.

He highlighted that, not only will this facility bring 300,000 people to the city, create jobs, and attract 500 million viewers in 180 countries around the world, but these are just the F1 weekend numbers and just a the tip of the iceberg of the potential he sees in the overall plan.

Some of the key points Tavo mentioned about the F1 facility itself:

Algae research, like what UT Biology Department conducts.There will be a large focus on the Educational component of the track.  Education has always been a big part of his life, and since the tragic loss of a very good friend of his, Tavo launched his Safe & Sober® campaign to target educational outreach in order to help spread the message of driving safety.

Lance Armstrong in UT's Human Performance Lab, Image Courtesy of UTResearch will be a huge part of this facility and Tavo higlighted two major component of this research: an engineering facility focused on alternative energy research (hopefully partnering with UT Biology Department's research in Algae), as well as research labs in human performance, probably also in close relationship with UT's Human Performance Lab.

Overall, the talk allowed Tavo to really set the stage for the future of not only Formula 1, but the long term success of the region to help ensure true sustainability through a year round calendar at this exciting new facility.

 Here are some of Tavo's unofficial quotes that Kerri tweeted during the speech:

"It's going to be an awesome track!"

     "We're going to have the closest thing to a traditional grand prix track, like the ones 30 years ago, here in Austin."

     "I'm hoping this project, which is getting all the attention, gives Austin more than the economic impact."

     "Recognize the power within you and realize how to develop and use it."

     "What drives you? Fear of failure."

"It's not about how fast a car can go, it's about how fast that PERSON in the car can go."

Tavo Hellmund speaking at TEDxAustin on February 22, 2011. Image copyright The Austin Grand Prix.

     "F1 is the most cutting edge of technology-the advancements in your car were developed in last 35 years from F1."

     "Everyone knows about the splurges of success over central TX" (...becase of relocation of huge companies to Austin).

"If you build it they will come...will that work?"

     "Kids today are more impressed with the delivery of the message, more by the method; than with the message itself."

      "We're going to design something to use the other 362 days of the year - including an educational component; we're working with university and elementary school systems..."

      "What happens after the [F1] weekend? Of course we're going to do other events outside one weekend."

It was exciting to see Tavo on stage with many other creative minds. It was also great to hear him interact with and update the Austin community on this large and exciting project. We hope this is the beginning of many more public discussions.

Update

on 2011-03-24 22:01 by Kerri Olsen

Here is the official TEDxAustin video of Tavo's presentation.

Introducing Your Crash Course in Formula 1 Racing: F101©

What is Formula 1?

How is it different from other racing?

How fast do the cars go?

Image courtesy of How Stuff Works. © 2007

These are the first three questions I get when I talk to people in my social and professional circles. For the veteran F1 fan these questions might stimulate an eye roll accompanied with a deep sigh ("Where, oh WHERE do I begin!?") but for the majority of Americans these are very real and valid questions.

Over the holidays Kevin and I began to work on a new educational feature of our website. It's called F101©.

Over the past nine months we've witnessed first hand the enthusiastic reaction of novice and veteran F1 fans to the announcement of Austin as the future home of the United States Grand Prix.  Some of you know quite well that we started this site because we were frustrated with the lack of dedicated and reliable news sources reporting on this monumental (to a few of us at least ;) news. Since then the number of online sources has grown radically, but we still pride ourselves in delivering valuable and innovative content.

It's no surprise that there is a whole new demographic that wants to learn about F1 racing. We're launching F101© as a creative alternative to the other educational sites (no offense, Wikipedia). Each week we'll answer 3-5 questions about F1 and also have an option for readers to submit their own inquiries.

Our goal is to continue to educate and network with our fans - we hope you'll participate!

Here it is: our F101© page

Thank you for your support :)

-kerri

DNQ - So why is it Americans hate F1, again?

For my first entry, I decided to just go for broke and write a treatise on the state of Formula 1 fandom in America. It's long, covers a number of subjects and is probably stiflingly pedantic. Oh, it's so long and rambling you say. Blogs are supposed to be short, quippy and go directly. To. The. Point. In the future I'll be brief and include lots of Youtube links. Scout's honor. So let's just get out of the way. Imagine... imagine this being read to you in the voice of James May. There. Isn't that better? On to the show.

And here we find ourselves, about a month away from the 2011 Formula 1 season. I always wonder at the beginning of a season if and how I might coerce, entrap or otherwise bludgeon a new friend or family member into joining the Formula 1 party crew. Which is basically me. Neither a party or a crew. I digress. Last season was arguably one of the most brutally contested in recent memory. Down to the final race. Epic and exciting stuff! America exerted a collective yawn, scratched and rolled over. 

As a relative latecomer to the F1 party thanks to ignorance and lack of access, but eventually by way of enthusiasm for things that make a lot of noise and go fast, I think the ambivalence it has faced in America over the past few decades is honestly not easily explained away. To set the tone here, we should probably admit our context of the sport is skewed, thanks to our equally skewed perspective of Europeans, arguably the most religious followers of the sport. There's generally a perception that every European lives and breathes the exhaust fumes of 18,000 RPM V8s. Having lived in England, I think I have some degree authority to say that ain't quite the truth. Per capita there are undoubtedly more F1 fans in Europe than the States, but the level of antipathy or downright loathing is proportionately about the same as we see directed toward NASCAR here, or really any other popular sport. Even in Italy, outside of Monza, Rome and Maranello, you'll have a fun time with the GPS finding any sort of F1 memorabilia retailer. Maybe my limited experience is too limited or maybe I'm just flat out wrong, but it seems around the world, Formula 1 is just a segment of a sporting culture as dense and diverse as we know here in the States. It's not the be all, end all of sporting events. That would be soccer… I mean football. Still, F1 thrives everywhere but here. And that's interesting.

Racing is racing in the same way a ball game is a ball game. That's to say, the similarities often end right there at the name of the game. Each series has its own (daunting) learning curve, history, personalities and idiosyncrasies. That doesn't stop half the world from figuring out how the hell cricket is played. I do think F1 is set apart from the majority of sports, however, simply because at least at this point in its history, it's still more about the competition and the tools of competition than the associated, often fabricated drama. Not that there isn't (Webber vs Vettel comes to mind), just to a lesser degree. There still seems to be some of that gentlemanly, brotherhood of warriors vibe hanging around the paddock. Or maybe Bernie simply doesn't want to include that element into the product package? And he holds those reins with a Shaolin monk's deathgrip.  

I personally know NASCAR fans who don't actually watch races. I don't think they really care about the driving so much as the personalities of the drivers, their stories, their conflicts. Again, no disrespect, but they wear the gear and live the lifestyle, and maybe tune in to the post-race recap or any number of programs that offer analysis of the races after the fact... but that more significantly run down the minutiae of the drivers' lives and whatever conflicts are simmering in the conflict cauldron. If you were bored, I have no doubt you could distill an entire NASCAR season into a daily soap opera. Let's not even acknowledge NASCAR romance book clubs, other than to whisper of their existence and tremble with fear. Don't misunderstand this perspective as necessarily disparaging of NASCAR. It's true of any old sporting or entertainment product.  Obviously we don't see F1 in that light simply because it's not high visibility here. Visible at all, really. And again, while I'm sure there's some really interesting stuff happening off the grid and behind the scenes, it's just not promoted as an element of the overall entertainment package. Maybe that's due to the simple fact that Formula 1 by its nature appeals more to the hardcore racing fan, the techie, the gearhead, the Stig wannabe, and less to the drama junkie? OK, there's that Max Mosley thing. You can have Max Mosley. Backing away from that argument... and moving on. 

I don't think it's even that complicated, though. The politics and the drama and the legal issues and the rabble rabble rabble of the worshipping and/or loathing masses. On these shores, Formula 1 is probably quite a lot like soccer in the eyes of the public at large. As the staid old argument goes, Americans just can't relate at a cultural level. No American drivers. No American teams. No American cars. No American races. Elitist Europeans, bah and humbug to you. The reason this site exists and we're here reading and writing about F1 is in response to the elimination of one of those so-called stumbling blocks.  Provided the Mayans and George Lucas are wrong, Austin, Texas will be home to the American Grand Prix starting 2012. So goes the proximity argument. The other relatability issues are a bit trickier though, or at least slightly more intricate sociological arguments. For example, the chances of a factory Ford, Chrysler or GM team is as remote a possibility as Porsche entering NASCAR, and the ironically named Scott Speed was our last contender in the cockpit. The argument... Are we really that nationalistic? Yeah, probably.

Outside the States, the game we call football is called American football, and aside from the odd crowd of university-aged Yankophiles who take over the city park every Sunday afternoon with their buckets of KFC and black-market Raiders sweatshirts, it's not held in especially high esteem. Too slow, too boring, too many breaks for ads, and not as reliant on skill, technique and finesse as their homegrown version. Back in our quadrant of the planet, American audiences tend to think soccer, aka football, is too low-scoring, too boring and takes itself far too seriously. More importantly, we tend to believe the sport, its players and its fans look down on our culture and mock us for enjoying our "inferior" version of the game. That's the biggie. We don't like being told what to think, what to like or how to be. Collectively, that's probably how the majority of Americans understands the European perspective of our culture, including the supposed superiority of F1 to NASCAR or drag racing. There's a certain undeniable snoot factor that spoils many potential fans before they even have a chance to experience a race. The battle lines are drawn as soon as an F1 fans begins an argument with the words, "F1 is the best racing on the planet and NASCAR is a joke, I win, end of argument... now go home to your sister-wife and your mother-daughter, hillbilly troll."

For at least the first half of its existence, at least until NASCAR learned how to market itself, Formula 1 wasn't the exclusive domain of European playboys and Middle Eastern royalty (pardon the gross generalization). American Dan Gurney and his Eagle cars are legendary. The guy was a phenomenal and frequently winning driver who was, and still is, a hero to American racing fans. No American drivers? Tell that to the authoritative source of all Internet wisdom. So it's not as though there isn't some entry to the sport, at least from a proud historical perspective. Aspirational American F1 drivers are not unicorns. At some point, maybe sooner than later thanks to our new dedicated circuit, we will see another American world champ. And let's be honest - even if you bleed Ford Blue, if you don't hold respect for Ferrari, Lotus (in name, at least), Mercedes and McLaren as racing machines, there's a problem in your brain. That's not an opinion. These aren't esoteric one-off shops like Panoz or even Dallara (who make the Indycar chassis). These are the progenitors of the modern racing car and the modern sports car. Point being, fast cars going being driven quickly is relatable to pretty much anyone who calls themselves even a casual racing fan, regardless of the badge on the machine. 

After all those words words words, what is the barrier, the problem, with F1 in the United States? Even the most ardent F1 fan is going to point an angry finger at the intrusive regulations that have sapped a lot of the energy and excitement, as well as danger, from the sport. The march toward Health and Safety Compliance began with its heart in the right place, led in the '70s by World Champion Jackie Stewart, who had essentially tired of seeing his friends die or suffer life-altering accidents. The Great (some might say perfect) Ayrton Senna was the last driver to die on the track, in 1994. The argument is whether or not increased safety means increased blaah. I'll admit, for the past many years, epic battles for position and balls out overtaking, aside from the possibly insane Kobayashi, God bless him, are rare. You're more likely to see races won through chess-like pit tactics than wheel to wheel competition. It happens, but compared to the rubbin' is racin' dictum of NASCAR, I can see how that would be a turn off to folks who expect crashes to be the highlight of a race. More than the drama surrounding drivers' and teams' conflicts, audiences want to see four cars abreast going into a corner knowing full well at least two of them have a better than average chance of exploding. That's good TV, and you could even argue good racing. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Need an analogy? Citizen Kane. Die Hard. Both perfect. 

So I haven't answered any questions here, just thought out loud about how we fans of F1 can help others become fans, or at least accept the sport as either entertainment or the positive implications for the Central Texas region. Last season, the global viewing audience for F1 actually grew, from 520 to 527 million. In America… well, how many people have Speed Channel and a DVR? Deep sigh.

Two allegorical anecdotes for you. I was watching a race one Sunday morning when my step-father in-law, who was visiting for the weekend, sat down next to me on the couch. He hadn't watched a car race of any sort in ages and was just curious about what was happening on the screen. He's an accountant and number junkie, and was quickly taken in by the analytical aspects of the race. How many laps could a car run without refueling? How did average speed correlate to tire wear? He's also an avid golfer. What really snagged his interest, at least for that single race, was the pursuit of perfection. He was amazed at the consistency of the lap times, even factoring in traffic. I don't play golf, but he explained that the addictive quality of the game was that same pursuit of perfection. How every variable  interacted with one another, from the initial action of gripping the club up to the point the ball lay absolutely motionless on the ground, and how you're playing every moment of the game in anticipation of the next swing being better than the last. Just like every corner of every lap of every race. It's the consistency and the ability of the driver to manage those aspects of the race he can control, and the ability to either anticipate or react to those he can't. So there's that.

This one's a little bit looser, but bear with me. When we first started dating, my wife claimed she hated science fiction. It was the one genre of entertainment she simply couldn't abide. I wasn't necessarily mocked, but I certainly wasn't enthusiastically encouraged in my fandom of all things Trek, Battlestar and Wars. So it was surprising to find Buffy the Vampire Slayer in her DVD collection. Oh, and if you like Buffy (I do now, thanks to my wife.. .we'll get there in a sec), then you'll loooove Firefly. Well, on principle alone I couldn't tolerate a show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Seriously? Nope. However, turning her Finger of Self-Righteous Mocking back around, aren't those shows both technically sci-fi? Doesn't that make you a sci-fi fan, I asked my wife. Oh crap… her resignation. And with that, Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Who and any number of other seminal sci-fi shows ended up in our Netflix queue. All it took was for her to realize and then admit she was a fan to open the door to a weirder, geekier world. She wasn't alone either. We're halfway through the entire seven year run of Buffy, and it's probably one of the best television shows ever produced. Go ahead, argue with me. The moral is, if all it took for her to become a fan of something she thought she hated was to realize something she already like qualified as that very thing (and be big enough to openly admit it), and for me to just give something a chance watch a couple of hours of a show I couldn't tolerate simply on the basis of its name, then there's hope for Formula 1 in America. 

Will Today's America Embrace 'Senna'?

An important film had its US debut at Sundance a mere 48 hours ago. It's a film for Formula One fans past, present and future. It's a film that paints the picture of the “greatest that ever drove” with minutiae detail that rivals a Van Gogh. It's a film where producers Manish Pandey and Asif Kapadia whittled down 15,000 of never-before-seen archival F1 footage into a comfortable 104 minutes, without losing the essence of the legendary Brazilian Ayrton Senna.

In a Formula1Blog post 'Negative Camber' peels back the layers and gives us a deeper understanding of the writing and producing that went into making this epic film.  Check out the interview: Q&A With Senna's Manish Pandey and Asif Kapadia

I first heard about "The Senna Movie" from 'Lois Marketing' in her October 2010 post on the LinkedIn group "Friends of Formula 1 Austin Texas."  Once I heard about the film, watched the Japanese preview, and read up on its reviews, my immediate thought was "This needs to be screened in Austin during the SXSW Film Festival." I started tweeting Pandey and Kapadia and even posed the same question on the LinkedIn group page and our Facebook page.

After reading the interview my belief is reignited.  As Kapadia mentions in his interview with Negative Camber, he wasn't an F1 enthusiast when approached by Pandey to do this film. But they were both able to get to the heart of Senna's story with the aid of 15,000 hours of unseen archival F1 video, and create a story that "somebody who doesn’t like Formula One, or a person who has never heard of Senna, will get the film...".  So, someone who wasn't an F1 enthusiast spent the past few years pouring himself into 15,000 of archival footage to tell a story - one that you will probably love because you're already an F1 fan reading this blog - but also a movie that you can take your F1 newbie friend to as well - and they will probably enjoy it? <insert lightbulb moment>

This sounds like a no-brainer to me! Seriously - how can this movie NOT be screened in Austin - the future home of the United States Formula 1 Grand Prix from 2012-2021 (and hopefully beyond)?

Pandey and Kapadia have taken the time to tell a chronological and psychological story, and from everything I've read, they've done it well.  I hope F1US realizes the potential of this film for past, present and future US F1 fans.

Have you seen it? When do you think it will come to the American masses? How could this impact the future of F1 in the US?