Formula 1 United States Grand Prix 2014: Saturday Notes and Photos

The third amazing day here in Austin, Texas for the United States Grand Prix.  The weather, again, was perfect for racing with cool conditions this morning, but warming up nicely in the afternoon without getting too hot.

I hung around the paddock area early to see if I could get a glimpse of some of our F1 racing heroes, and I was not disappointed.  Close encounters with the likes of Kimi Raikkonen, Daniel Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso, and even racing legend Nikki Lauda.  Quite the busy morning.

For FP3, I decided to start my morning off in the esses, starting up at turn seven and working my way back to the inside of turn 2.  Lot’s of different angles here, and plenty of action through this section.  Amazing how quickly these cars get through here.  Watching it on TV just doesn’t give you a good feel for how fast these cars really are and how quickly they can get through the corners.  Amazing machines, for sure, and to see them in person is definitely worth the price of admission.  Anyone who tells you different isn’t really a racing fan – THIS is a damn good show.

For qualifying I started over in the stadium section near turn 12 and working my way back around to turn 15 before getting a lift over to turn 20 for the long shot down the front stretch.  With that, I got the best of both worlds: seeing them stand on the whoa pedal and get the cars down from over 200mph down to under 80 for the sharp turn 12, and then seeing them come off of turn 20 and then accelerate quickly up the front straight.  Truly an impressive sight.

Really anxious for the race tomorrow and to see all 18 cars on track at once fighting for position.  Should be really exciting.  I plan to be on the outside of turn 1 for the start so I can catch all the action!

Here are some of my favorite shots from FP3 and Qualifying.