F1 Returns to USA - COTA - Bring on 2013!!

[prisonermonkeys]

Also, don't bring a camera with a lens over 10 inches long.

You obviously need a media pass if you plan on bringing anything bigger.

 

[Pupik]

You obviously need a media pass if you plan on bringing anything bigger.

Yeah, I'd imagine a large lens would be an annoyance to others in the stands. A typical 300mm (focal length) lens should be less than 10" in overall length.

Media passes are probably quite a bit more expensive than parking, though. Also, they probably will request credentials, references, make you take a polygraph test, and pledge allegiance that the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone can do no wrong.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

If you really want to park your car just outside the track, prepare to be lightened by...$214.13

(In ten years, I've never used that smiliey until now...No joke.)

I'd say this is intended as a deterrant rather than a revenue-raiser. The circuit is accessed via Elroy Road, which is in incredibly poor condition; it was never particularly well-built to begin with, and with the roasting Texas temperatures causing the road base to expand and contract, the volume of traffic the road current handles has caused the road itself to physically shift over time. It's going to get an upgrade to accomodate race traffic, but it won't be ready until next year's race. Until then, the organisers are probably going to try and deter people from driving directly to the circuit, to prevent something similar to the congestion we saw at Silverstone this year, and instead encourage spectators to take public transport. Once the upgrade is introduced, the parking fee will probably be reduced to abolished.

Yeah, I'd imagine a large lens would be an annoyance to others in the stands. A typical 300mm (focal length) lens should be less than 10" in overall length.

Photography is my brother's hobby; I've seen some of the lenses he uses that are well within the circuit's guidelines, and even they would be an annoyance to others. It sounds unreasonable to ban photography at the circuit before you realise just how big some of these cameras can get.

Media passes are probably quite a bit more expensive than parking, though. Also, they probably will request credentials, references, make you take a polygraph test, and pledge allegiance that the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone can do no wrong.

No, I believe you have to go through the FIA to get them. They're not actually that difficult to get; you just have to be working for an approved media group and go through some additional training, because photographers often have access to areas that are out of bounds to regular spectators. It's to stop spectators from trying to access areas they should not be by trying to pass themselves off as the press. I'm pretty sure that most media outlets can write press access passes off as an expense, so even if they're more expsensive than tickets, it's not really a problem for them.

 

[Pupik]

I'd say this is intended as a deterrant rather than a revenue-raiser. The circuit is accessed via Elroy Road, which is in incredibly poor condition; it was never particularly well-built to begin with, and with the roasting Texas temperatures causing the road base to expand and contract, the volume of traffic the road current handles has caused the road itself to physically shift over time.

Many of the roads in Texas are actually built to a decent specification, but being they are typically "farm-to-market roads" (In the TxDOT-parlance); usually two-lane roads built as connectors to arterial roads, deterring anything other than buses, trams, and coaches is probably a good idea, as you've said.

Better to wait in traffic and make it someone else's hassle. Wonder how much parking is going to be as the off-site parking lots...Not very far from Austin Bergstrom International Airport, either.

 

[Sanji Himura]

Not so fast...

Farm to Market 812 (the portion that runs in front of the main grandstands and into Turn 1 is actually in De Valle, TX), is actually a two lane road. The actual road that you pull into to get to COTA's grandstands, Piland Triangle, is a one lane road. Elroy Road, which turns you to the North part of the track, is about 1/4 mile from Piland Triangle, and that is one lane.

Looking at the geography of the track, prisonermonkeys is correct in saying that parking at the track is more of a deterrent than a fund raiser. This is to protect the roads until they upgraded them. It was the same for awhile at Texas Motor Speedway's premium parking while they did improvements to S.H. 114.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I believe that the organisers had planned to have the road upgrded for this year's race, but when they lost the state support for the event, they reallocated the funds set aside for the road upgrade so that they could get the circuit done.

 

[Peterram430]

Some potentially very bad news getting onto Twitter:

Oh dear. All appears not to be well at COTA. Garages haven't been built to spec and are far too small. Teams meeting Charlie to discuss.

Health and safety won't allow them to work in the garages. Bernie won't allow them to work under tarpaulin. One royal screw up brewing.

 

[Müle]

oh boy.

 

[Wardez]

It's fine. They worked in smaller garages before. These might just be from new protocols from the FIA. They should be able to do some last minute stuff to fix it. Will Buxton ALWAYS over exaggerates. Wonder why he has so many followers on Twitter?

When I was in Silverstone the different between the old pit complex and the "Wing" was crazy. Each garage seemed almost twice as big and tall then the old pit garages at Copse.

 

[TheBook]

Why didn't this come up when Whiting was there giving the circuit its Grade 1 certification, I wonder?

 

[Wardez]

Do these look too small to you guys?

http://imgur.com/a/AVDks

 

[CodeRedR51]

Nope.

 

[Wardez]

Yep. Annnd it's completely bunk:
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/cont...s/2012/10/05/cota_garages_not_too_small.html/

Buxton's really gotta quit this type of thing. Getting annoying :/

 

[RACECAR]

And thats another guy that needs to be slapped. Really Buxton, starting crap like this and its not even true?

 

[CodeRedR51]

Large cameras are allowed now, due to high demand.

Hey F1 USGP Fans! We’re listening to your feedback and making a change to our camera policy. Detachable cameras lenses of all sizes WILL BE PERMITTED at the 2012 FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX™ Nov. 16-18. Please note that individual video cameras will not be permitted on site; however, cell phones with photo and video capabilities will be allowed.

 

[Sanji Himura]

Buxton appears to be an idiot. Those garages are built to spec, or otherwise it wouldn't have gotten certification in the first place a month ago. Speed needs to can his butt.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I've found that Buxton tends to race to report things, and I'm guessing he doesn't do the due diligence that he should do when he stumbles onto something he thinks is breaking news. When he's reporting things that have already happened, he's fine, and he can be very insightful on his day (for example, his article on why Red Bull has no presence in GP2 and GP3 despite them being considered - at the time - the premiere category for young drivers was very interesting).

 

[Ardius]

I can't stand Will Buxton on Sky's GP2/GP3 coverage. I hate to admit it but even James Allen is better because at least he seemed to have studied commentary in some respect.
But Buxton suffers the same problem Allen did/does - great when they have time to write a considered and researched piece but absolutely terrible when asked to speak immediately. Especially as both (but Buxton even more so) have horrible bias.

I think it should be a rule that journalists should not be commentators. Or if they are, they should take some proper lessons on it. I think the thing I hate the most about Buxton is he always seems to jump to conclusions and frequently debate on-air about driver mistakes or crashes.

I think the one thing that surely no one had a problem with Murray Walker with was his handling of crashes or driver mistakes - he didn't blame people or jump to conclusions and tended to keep it positive and tread the fine line.

If anything a good journalist should not be so judgemental anyway! Balanced and informed news reporting and discussion - not opinionated babbling.

 

[RACECAR]

^After reading what you just said, I'm glad Speed just keeps him as a pit reporter. Seeing as I despise him now after the crap he just pulled, I'd be just livid having to listen to him commentate.

 

[Pupik]

His outtakes in GP Debriefs are kind of funny. The thing is journalism has the investigators become the reporters, in the quest to be the "first on the scene". This means potentially more bias and/or fact-checking, but it's been the state of things for at least the past 30 years or so, since news broadcasting has its current morning-lunch-evening-nighttime, rinse-and-repeat cycle, even more accelerated since the internet/24-hour news mills.

 

[jcm]

Situation was resolved 16hr ago.

@willbuxton
Just had a catch up with Charlie. Clarified COTA garage issue. Team complaints were over unequal allocation. Situation now resolved.

Top teams won't have quite as much space as they'd like, but they'll just have to suck it up. As Charlie says, "It's a beautiful facility"

It's a beautiful facility and the top teams have to suffer, looks like Caterham will be in the points

^After reading what you just said, I'm glad Speed just keeps him as a pit reporter. Seeing as I despise him now after the crap he just pulled, I'd be just livid having to listen to him commentate.

You despise him for two posts on twitter, which were clarified less then 19 hours later? I thought Will seemed like a pretty nice guy, who does a pretty good job helping Speed channel with their coverage

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Seeing as I despise him now after the crap he just pulled, I'd be just livid having to listen to him commentate.

I don't think there was anything malicious in what Buxton did. He probably just heard a garbled messages and reported it without fact-checking.

 

[RACECAR]

You despise him for two posts on twitter, which were clarified less then 19 hours later?

Did you not see when I made the actual post before quoting this one?

 

[jcm]

Did you not see when I made the actual post before quoting this one?

? Your post about how you despised him was made 13hr after he clarified it. Sure, no one posted the twitter feed, but if you're going to despise someone you should do your research. And before you say that Will is the one who should have done his research to avoid you despising him, keep in mind that Will's only error was trusting Charlie's initial interpretation of a situation, something that has gotten a lot of teams in technical arguments with the stewards

I don't think there was anything malicious in what Buxton did. He probably just heard a garbled messages and reported it without fact-checking.

That's probably how it happened, but when he got all the facts he cleared it up 👍

Unless you're talking about your first post, which was fine since Will hadn't clarified it yet. That said, saying he needed to be slapped might be a breach of the AUP

 

[RACECAR]

? Your post about how you despised him was made 13hr after he clarified it.

And again, did you see the post that lead me to saying that.

And thats another guy that needs to be slapped. Really Buxton, starting crap like this and its not even true?

The point is I didn't make just the post you quoted long after he cleared it up, I already had one around the time that tweet was made because at the time, I was disgusted at what came off to me as someone starting BS.


Edit:
And before you respond telling me again, I get it. He cleared it up, I simply misunderstood. I'm just saying that wasn't the only post I made regarding the issue as you made it out to be.

 

[jcm]

Yeah, your first post was fine 👍

It was just your second post that wasn't. It's okay though, you were just overreacting to a misunderstanding, something Will did also though, so no worries

Sorry if I made it out like that was your only post, I was just curious as to why you despised him for a simple misunderstanding, and now it all makes sense so it's all good

 

[prisonermonkeys]

That's probably how it happened, but when he got all the facts he cleared it up 👍

I'm guessing he either heard a garbled message and rushed to post it, or heard it from a source he trusted and didn't feel double-checking was necessary, only to discover that the source was wrong.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Paint!

 

[Azure Flare]

Can't wait to see it finished.

 

[RACECAR]

Looks neat 👍