The Great Wide Open
Notes From the F1 Underground: A Fan's Guide to a Day at the Races	by Thomas C. O'Keefe, USA

This article is written for the thousands of Formula One fans in Europe, the United States and Canada who watch Formula One Races on television and have wondered what they are missing by not actually being there at the race track, relying instead on the likes of Murray Walker, Martin Brundle, John Watson and Derek Bell and the so-called "world satellite feed" for coverage of the race. (Indeed, based on the gaps in the commentary recently, I am beginning to wonder if the commentators themselves are at the track or in some television control room somewhere, as much in the dark as we are.) For me, idle curiosity turned to desperation earlier this year when I turned on ESPN2 for the Australian Grand Prix and was treated to something called the "World's Strongest Man" contest, circa 1996, a "Heidi Bowl" fiasco of a high order as U.S. Sports fans will understand. The least ESPN could have done to ease the pain would have been to show last year's Australian Grand Prix or even an IRL race! It was later reported in the press that filthy lucre was behind the World's Strongest Man Grand Prix. The unholy alliance of Bernie Ecclestone from Formula One and Rupert Murdoch from Fox TV had led to a sale of the 1998 Formula One U.S. television rights to Fox Sports Network and Speedvision, leaving ESPN with no ticket to the party. The rest is history. The quality of coverage since the Ecclestone/Murdoch deal has gone from bad to worse, with tape-delayed coverage of most races, limited coverage of practice and qualification, sporadic coverage of post-race press conferences with the drivers and lackluster "expert" commentary, sometimes in the most extreme form of the mismatched pair of Derek Bell and Charlie Jones (late of the American Football League and the Heidi Bowl) that makes us marvel and yearn for the wit and wisdom of Bob Varsha and Derek Bell from the "old" ESPN coverage. The only bright spot has been ex-Williams team manager Peter Windsor being added to the mix and unfortunately the Fox producers seems to confine his role to episodic set-up pieces with members of the Formula One fraternity rather than substantive coverage of the race. I decided this year to find out for myself what I was missing and, by dint of coincidence and design, I have now gone to the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, Canada, the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg, Austria, and the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Germany. (After this Formula One Odyssey, I watched the Grand Prix of Hungary, the Grand Prix of Belgium and the Grand Prix of Italy back in my living room, which was more comfortable but less fun.) Here is my report from the hinterlands, hopefully with answers to some of the questions you too have wondered about as armchair race fans. What happens on a race weekend that we do not see on TV? 1. Location, Location, Location To begin with, Grand Prix races are usually set in spectacularly beautiful parts of the World that you owe it to yourself to visit anyway and what better way to do so than through Formula One. To be sure, the television coverage gives us a glimpse of the setting of a particular venue - a cute little village and church steeple here, a primeval forest there - but until you have actually seen (and driven) the narrow and chaotic streets of Monaco that make up the track, you have no idea how improbable it is that we have a race there at all. And it's fun to drive around the Station Hairpin (now the Loew's Hotel Hairpin) at Monaco where Alexander Wurz will go down in history as the man who Schumachered Schumacher and where Fangio, the Hills, Clark and Senna have turned in. As another example, unless you actually go and see for yourself the former Osterrichring (now the so-called A-1 Ring, which is, by the way, named after the Austrian Telephone Company - get it? - A-1 "ring") in Austria, you would never get a sense for the fact that it seems scooped out of the lower half of the side of a mountain with severe changes in elevation throughout the course that you cannot possibly perceive on a flat TV set. As an added attraction, driving in to the A-1 Ring from whatever direction takes you through truly picturesque countryside right out of "The Sound of Music" (or "Heidi"). On a less cultural note, there is also a tremendous go-kart track across the highway from the A-1 Ring (my son and I met some Sauber team technicians there who let us join their group race) with powerful karts and a challenging course that is a cut above go-kart tracks seen in the States. Another benefit of "being there" are the places to go while en route to the race track. In between Austria and Germany, my son and I made our pilgrimage to Maranello in Italy, where there is a fantastic Ferrari Museum as well as the factories that produce the production Ferrari's and the F1 cars. Maranello also has an inexhaustible supply of Ferrari memorabilia shops. The Fiorano test track is also there, adjacent to the factory and we were told that the F1 cars would actually be testing there the next day. Unfortunately, I was not able to convince the security guards at the Ferrari factory gate to show us around on the grounds that I was Michael Schumacher's consiglieri, just passing through. My rented Fiat plainly undermined any vestige of credibility! At Hockenheim, the experimentalists amongst us seek out the famous "stadium" area where the cars come into a kind of Coliseum, teeming with Schumacher fans and their flags, fireworks and flashbulbs. The stadium is often alluded to in the television coverage but being there among the troops is to be among thoroughbred race fans. I doubt that the "world feed" showed Shuey going out of his way this year to acknowledge the Hockenheim fans in the most rabid sections of the stadium with a graceful wave from the cockpit when he was returning to the pits after a practice session. I know from a prior visit there that the same arguments for a site visit can be made for going to Silverstone in the English Midlands, which is Damon Hill real estate, festooned with Damon Hill-cum-British flags at Luffield Corner, and which has the same atmosphere as the stadium at Hockenheim, except you understand the language. And where else these days but Silverstone can a fan actually walk practically the whole track instead of simply being pigeonholed into a particular section. By the way, as an added benefit to the long-suffering spouse that may be accompanying you, the countryside surrounding Silverstone is right out of Masterpiece Theater. Finally, for a city, Montreal is quite a nice place for a Grand Prix, somehow managing to be an old City, a modern City, a French City and a Canadian City simultaneously. The people at the Radisson really catered to the race fans, with race information on the bulletin boards and going the extra mile to let guests leave their luggage in storage on race day after check-out. 2. Fun things happen that do not get reported on TV Because the "world feed" coverage is so pressed for time, viewers at home do not usually see the on-track entertainment that is provided everyday throughout the weekend to keep the natives from getting too restless while waiting for the Big Show. The most popular feature of the current program is the McLaren-Mercedes two-seater, which you have doubtless heard about and perhaps read about. Twice a race weekend during the European races, ex-Formula One driver Martin Brundle drives various celebrities (e.g. Sylvester Stallone, Murray Walker, Max Moseley) around in an ingeniously designed McLaren that looks like a 2+2 version of the Hakkinen/Coulthard car, where the passenger is tucked in behind the driver toboggan-style. A hush falls over the crowd when Brundle takes to the track and reverential music over the loudspeaker accompanies the three or four laps he runs at impressive speed, the lone car on the track, serenely winding its way around the course. Plainly, the magic in all this is that person sitting behind Brundle is Everyman and all of us ride with the lucky him or her, as the case may be (In Austria, a non-celebrity woman who won her ride in a lottery was the first Everywoman in the 2+2.) It helps that Brundle is quite a showman at all this and drives the 2+2 with great verve, particularly in the slightly wet conditions at Hockenheim, letting the tail hang out on certain corners and smoking the Bridgestones with great flourish on the main straight when beginning his run. Brundle (now an ITV commentator) clearly is enjoying his role; he proudly announced at Hockenheim that the 2+2's time was only a few seconds off the cars at the back of the grid, mostly because it is slower on the straights and is not particularly set up for Hockenheim. The other regular feature of the F1 race weekend that television fans catch only a glimpse of is the so-called "Silver Arrows" display, which is a race among three of the most famous Mercedes race cars that have ever been built: the 1938-39 W154 that Hitler built to vanquish the competition, the post-war 1954 Mille Miglia Mercedes sports car that Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson drove and the 1955 W196 Mercedes Grand Prix car driven to victory by Juan Manuel Fangio. These three cars go from track to track as part of the Formula One circus and are driven by various notables like John Surtees with the cars actually racing one another at each venue. In Austria, the 1954 Mille Miglia car won. At Hockenheim, the GP car that Hitler built won. (By the way, at the German GP Nicki Lauda drove the Safety Car that follows the three vintage Mercedes GP cars in case anything goes wrong. You get the impression from listening to Lauda's interview after the race that he was champing at the bit to let the 1998 Mercedes Safety Car he was driving have its head and that he could easily have dusted off the whole group!) A final example of fun things not seen in the television coverage is the "Formula One Driver's Parade" which takes place after morning warm-up on race day. (Incidently, you also do not get to see morning "warm-up" on TV; the blat! blat! blat! sound of 20 revving Formula One engines at 9:30 on a Sunday morning is a religious experience all its own). At the German Grand Prix, the Driver's Parade was preceded by the German National Anthem and Beethoven's Ninth (Chorale). After the Music, we had the incongruous specter of the twenty fastest and wealthiest young sportsmen in the world shepherded like schoolboys onto the back of a flat bed trailer track for one-lap around the track to wave at the fans. (At Indianapolis, the 33 drivers each get their own convertible, but these are hard financial times in F1, with Bernie Ecclestone making only $30,000 a day!) The Drivers Parade, like the McLaren 2+2, is wildly popular with the crowd but some of drivers seem to be going through the motions and the body language is telling. The Schumacher brothers stood together on the flatbed in warm-up jackets with unofficial family member Eddie Irvine nearby and waived to the home crowd with great gusto. Jean Alesi looked like a wallflower at a Sweet Sixteen Dance, Jacques Villeneuve was out-of-uniform (grunge dresser par excellence) and happily joked with Johnny Herbert; Damon Hill arrived last on the truck, looked uncomfortable and as if he would rather be back in the motorhome. The McLaren team members stood side by side in their drivers uniforms, as if joined at the hip. Ralf Schumacher and Damon, Jean and Johnny, Jacques and Heinz-Harald were already showing their intent to go separate ways at the end of the season and chose not to stand with one another. Interestingly, the teammates at the back of the grid (Arrows, Stewart and Tyrrell) tended to be side by side: Misery Loves Company. Logistics: Where to Go, How to Get There and At What Cost Inevitably, going to a race is expensive, particularly if you are an American or Canadian going to Europe. In my European travels, I found a 5-day Europass well worth the cost ($386.00), particularly if you intend to go to more than one race; it also helps to have frequent flyer miles to use for the trip to Europe. In terms of being user-friendly, Austria's A-1 Ring is the track where you can see the most from any given seat; unfortunately it is located about two hours from Vienna and an hour from Graz, a large regional city. Next time, I would avoid the cities and would try to stay closer to Spielberg, the actual site of the track. While in the middle of nowhere, the Zeltweg/Spielberg area where the A-1 Ring is located is a drop-dead gorgeous setting and the somewhat strenuous walk from the parking lot (in a farmers green field) uphill to the track is probably exercise you really needed anyway from watching all those races on TV! And don't forget that go-kart track nearby the circuit. Hockenheim, on the other hand, is extremely accessible to the public by the vaunted German railway system. Hockenheim also has a kart track and a museum on the grounds of the racetrack. It is a good Formula One museum that doubles as a shrine to Michael Schumacher and seemingly has a copy of everything he has ever driven except his tricycle! Where to stay at Hockenheim? Most tour groups stay in Heidelberg, an hour away. I stayed in Mannheim and took the 20 minute train ride to and from Hockenheim as I would take the train from Manhattan to Queens to see the U.S. Open or the New York Mets. It does help to have a Eurail Pass or Europass if you plan to see more than one grand prix in Europe. As an example, I left Hockenheim late Sunday afternoon after the race and, with easy railway connections, I was in Brussels later on the same evening to make airline connections back to the States on Monday morning. Canada is also relatively user friendly with the track being located on the Isle de Notre Dame, an island in the middle of the river that runs next to Montreal. Bob Varsha is always telling us on TV that you can take the subway to the circuit, an embellishment of the truth, in my view. There is a subway but it is crowded for obvious reasons and it is still a hike to the circuit once you get off the subway. The other way to the track is to walk over a bridge from Montreal which connects the city to the Isle de Notre Dame, which is about a 20 minute forced march unless the Montreal cabs happen to be running. (This year the cabbies went on strike because of a dispute with the Montreal police which prohibited the taxis from coming over the bridge to pick up passengers. Be prepared to walk next year or suffer the slings and arrows of the subway.) The Montreal track is famous for its interesting configuration (the Senna Curve, the Casino hairpin, etc.) the good racing it has produced over the years and the sense of closeness the fan feels to the track. You want a ticket on the Senna Curve, if possible, in grandstands called Silver #11 or #12 (U.S. $235.00.) Every American or Canadian Formula One fan should go to the Canadian Grand Prix on accessibility grounds alone: the track and its facilities are great, the town is great and the race is usually great. As in Hockenheim, connections at the end of the race can go smoothly, unlike most race tracks. I left the Montreal circuit before the drivers press conference and caught a late bus from Montreal back to Manhattan where I was tucked in by midnight. And for an additional thrill, who can forget the customs search of our Greyhound Bus by sniffer dogs at the Canadian border. Should you go to the race on your own or with a specialist tour group such as Grand Prix Tours, whose television ads appear during races shown in the U.S., or Page & Moy, their British counterpart? I have done it both ways and there are pros and cons to both approaches; in the end, going with Grand Prix Tours may not be much more expensive than Doing Your Own Thing. Grand Prix Tours charges $895.00 for the Austria Grand Prix and $795.00 for the German Grand Prix for 3-day race weekends, airfare and race tickets not included; I am sure a careful traveler or someone who knows the ins and outs of the travel business might improve on these numbers but probably not enough to warrant the hassle. Where Grand Prix Tours really shines is on its tours specialized for True Blue F1 fans in the few days leading up to a Grand Prix that go beyond providing bed, board and tickets. My wife and I went on Grand Prix Tour's British Extravaganza to Silverstone with Phil Hill back in 1996 ($1,495.00) and I don't think I have had a better vacation Ever. Phil Hill and Grand Prix Tours tour director Trevor Cook had entree to the Benetton and Tyrrell factories that no normal human being enjoys; witness my pathetic attempt this year to storm the ramparts at Maranello. By contrast to that humiliating episode, the now-lamented Ken Tyrrell came to greet us when we visited the Tyrrell factory with Phil Hill, regaling us with jokes and tall talill treasure my Tyrrell-Yamaha hat, given to us by Uncle Ken. es of how he once attempted to "manage" Phil Hill, pinch hitting for John Cooper in the early 60's. I st As part of Grand Prix Tour's program, we also visited the Louvre of Automobile Museums with Phil Hill - The Donnington Collection near Derby, England - where Tom Wheatcroft, the owner and impresario of the museum and the Donnington racetrack welcomed Phil, and through him, us, and personally escorted us around his exquisite and rare collection of F1 cars, from the Golden Age of Stirling Moss and Jimmy Clark down to last year's McLaren Mercedes and most other significant Grand Prix cars in between. (The Donnington collection and the Ferrari Museum have one car in common -- the fabulous 1935 Bimotore Alfa Romero, a two-engine behemoth created under Enzo Ferrari when he managed Alfa's racing program. Each museum has one Bimotore; no others exist.) We also visited the Aston-Martin factory with Phil, which is still making cars the old-fashioned way: in a scrumptiously dilapidated group of red-brick factory buildings where we saw workers hand beating the body panels of future Aston-Martins and assembling engine blocks piece by piece with the chief mechanic's name inscribed on the finished piece of art, as it should be. Hopefully, the Ford executives in Dearborn who now own this wonderful old place will never find out about it. By the way, all of this activity with Grand Prix Tours takes place before Silverstone, and even my wife (not an enthusiast) loved traipsing around the English countryside on a great bus with 20 or so other enthusiasts with PHD's in Formula One. Since Formula One is largely a British industry, the Grand Prix Tours British Extravaganza is hard to beat and is highly recommended. People I met on that tour say that Grand Prix Tour's 1999 Italian Extravaganza to Monza, also to be led by Phil Hill, will be a unique experience. (The Grand Prix Tours 1998 Italian Extravaganza ($1,895.00) is reportedly sold out but I am still itching to get past those security guards at Maranello and might try to sign up. In the case of either the British or Italian Extravaganza, you have to look at it as two separate tours: $1,500.00 - $1,900.00 or so for the pre-race Extravaganza part and another $995.00 or so for the 3-day race weekend portion. The more typical race weekend, worldwide, seems to be in the $995.00 range, airfare and tickets not included.) As to ticket costs, there is no question that tickets to a Grand Prix are pricey and variable, track to track: a three-day ticket in Montreal at the Senna Curve (hereinafter the Alexander Wurtz Memorial Curve) on race weekend was $250.00, as quoted in Grand Prix Tour's catalogue; scalpers prices in Canada were somewhat more exorbitant because official tickets were scarce on race weekend this year and doubtless will be again next year. Grand Prix Tour's catalogue indicates that for most races, weekend ticket prices for good seats at hairpins or on the main straight range from $225.00 to $410.00, depending on the circuit, with a high of $595.00 for a one-day Sunday ticket at the Hotel de Paris in Monaco! (By comparison, a box seat for the World Series is said to be in the $145.00 range and you still have to buy the hot dogs and beer.) Seats across from the pits at Hockenheim cost $461.00 through Page & Moy (Grand Prix Tours quotes this seat at $425.00 in its catalogue); tickets for the Austrian Grand Prix on the first turn cost $364.00 (Grand Prix Tours quotes this seat in the $385.00 range). A seat opposite the pits or on a corner at Spa near where the carbon-fibre melee occurred would cost in the $360 - $485 range, according to the Grand Prix Tours catalogue. (In this article I have been remiss in not mentioning the select preserve of the power elite at each track known as The Paddock Club, which is invariably located on top of the Formula One garage area, and populated by sponsors and such. Grand Prix Tours priced a ticket at the Paddock Club at Montreal at $2,600.00, plainly a ticket designed for lottery winners, millionaires and those who know that they will be dying of terminal cancer in the next year!) Whether you buy tickets yourself directly from the track (at Hockenheim the track announcer stated on Saturday that race tickets were still available and at Austria there were many seats open on the main straight), from less savory sources (the scalpers) or if the ticket costs are absorbed as part of the tour package, there is no way to avoid the awful truth: going to a Formula One race is admittedly an expensive enterprise and not for the lumpen proletariat. On the other hand, its not that much more expensive than a Broadway Show and dinner and I guarantee you that you'll enjoy Monza more than Cats! So roust yourself up from the couch and the meager offerings served up by the likes of Rupert Murdoch: you only live once and you should see Formula One now while it is relatively interesting, before Bernie Ecclestone does his public offering of stock and before the tobacco sponsors disappear and with it the financial wherewithal that allows the Formula One circus to cavort across the globe with such reckless abandon. It's Now or Never. One final point of advice: along with money (especially your VISA card), your passport, and a spirit of adventure, bring earplugs, sunscreen and rain gear if you are going to a three-day weekend, particularly in Europe, where you are bound to experience all kinds of weather. Regardless of what happens, you will be sunny inside. Bon Voyage!

Thomas C. O'Keefe, Esq.	© 1998 Atlas Formula One Journal.
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Thomas C. O'Keefe is a lawyer who practices law in the U.S. Virgin Islands and in New York. He became captivated with Formula One and visiting race-tracks after watching Jimmy Clark cross the finish line to win the Indianapolis 500 in 1965 and following his F1 career thereafter.