Austin could be very interesting; next-to-last race of the season on a track that none of them has driven on.
India has also only had one run, and Korea only 2. Both will be new to Raikonnen and Grosjean
Vettel was just in my neighborhood, Apparently he’s testing out some of the waterfront streets here in New Jersey for a possible new circuit!
Having Formula 1 here would be so cool!
I think it would be spectacular especially if they used the day into night format like they did at Abu Dhabi. Bernie Ecclestone was casting some doubt on the race but that may be just talk.
Seb was supposed to be on the Letterman show last night but I gave up waiting with the drawn out Marky Mark segment.
I heard about that when it was announced. I’m sure Bernie Ecclestone would love to have a successful race right next door to New York City. My only worry is that it seems unlikely for the U.S. to be awarded two Grand Prix, and Austin must have spent a fortune getting their circuit built. (Not sure how it was financed.) I could see Bernie ditching Austin for New York, and leaving one more city (and maybe state) full of people that F1 has pissed off in the U.S.
Not sure if the day/night thing would work. I looked up the site when the whole plan was announced and it was somewhat of a residential area, and most of the fans will be coming from someplace else. There’s a ferry dock to bring people over from Manhattan, and I think some may park at the Meadowlands and get to the race by buses. Either way sounds like a bottleneck, and it’ll take hours after the race is over to clear the site.
That said, I remember one comment I read at the time which said there was no way they could ever pull it off. I looked it up just now, and they’re making progress. Pit lane is being built and Vettel was there yesterday to tour the circuit.
If it DOES happen I’ll be there every year. Place is literally 5 minutes away.
I call dibs on crashing on Kinthalis’s couch.
So, is it going to happen? Can they build the circuit, and bring the teams, equipment, media, and 100,000 fans into your neighborhood? I’ll believe it when I see it.
Not as fun as it was watching them PASS the Ferrari! 
A while back Bernie pointed out that the whole of Europe has only about twice the population the US does and they get EIGHT races. Depending on the popularity of Austin and New Jersey he left the door open for expansion even beyond two, mentioning the west coast (specifically California) as an area he felt might be able to support a third race should fan support justify it.
It was my understanding that New Jersey was a done deal, on the program for next year.
It is.
From the article: "Organisers have a ten-year deal to stage the race and construction has already begun in a few areas, **although confirmation has yet to be received it will be added to the calendar **for the 2013 season. "
Doesn’t sound too concrete to me, there. Hope it goes on…
Not a done deal evidently, but I’m optimistically looking at another quote…
"Reports have continued to circulate of funding and other issues, but Leo Hindery, a founding chairman and former CEO of the YES Network who are promoting the race, dismissed them and said he was confident official confirmation for 2013 would be forthcoming shortly.
“I don’t know where these rumours are coming from, but this race is going forward,” he told USA Today. “If we had any doubt we wouldn’t have brought Sebastian and all these people here today.”
I think it should be a huge success.
I think I’d rather have the NJ course than Valencia any day of the week. I recall a few years ago they ran the F1 cars through some London streets to much delight and there was talk of a London GP. Won’t happen unfortunately but I’m all for aesthetically pleasing and atmospheric locations.
Though a word of caution, don’t think it is a done deal until the cars are there and racing. Bernie will whip the rug from under you at the drop of a hat.
And New Jersey, too.
A-bum-tish!
can’t take it seriously when a driver pulls over to let his teammate win.
Are you an F1 fan?
An interesting couple of GPs in the last four weeks.
Alonso winning in Spain after two alternator failures in Renault-powered cars soon after a safety car period ended probably stung Renault. It certainly hurt Vettel’s championship chances. The Silverstone race was also not good for him, but worse for McLaren. The best you can say about their weekend was that both cars finished in the points.
Both races were marred by an incident involving Pastor Maldonado. This is getting to be a habit with him; let’s not forget that he had at least one incident last year as well.
The BBC tells me he has been fined and reprimanded for the collision with Perez, after a 20-second time penalty in Valencia.
Perez’s language was quite strong.
Alonso’s had two races where his tires let him down so close to the end.