Austin and its booming crowds an F1 favourite for drivers

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Fernando Alonso remembers the quiet times in Austin.

Back when the two-time Formula One champion could jog the city streets without being noticed, move through a hotel lobby with ease and drive to the Circuit of the Americas for the United States Grand Prix without planning for traffic well ahead of time.

No more. If anything demonstrates the explosive growth of F1 in the U.S., it's the projections of more than 400,000 fans expected to pack the city and the circuit this weekend for the 10th anniversary of the Texas race that put the series' glamorous footprint back on American soil.

“In the last four years or three years, there’s a lot of fans. It has changed everything. It changed the traffic, it changed the hotel," Alonso said this week. "I ran this morning in the city and everyone recognized us now."

The U.S. Grand Prix has been the foothold for F1 in the U.S. since the first surprise announcement that a $300 million track was being cut through the rocky soil and scrub land a dozen miles from the state Capitol. The series' growth in America has led to an additional race in Miami that started this season, and another coming in Las Vegas next year.

The track's original 10-year contract saw only nine races because the pandemic canceled the race in 2020. A five-year extension through 2026 was signed last year.

“I spent most of my adult life putting the pieces together for F1 to come to my hometown,” said Tavo Hellmund, the founder of the Texas race and its initial promoter. “My vision was for F1 to be the success it was the inaugural year in 2012 and last year in 2021. My wife used to say to me, 'Gosh, when Americans get to see F1 the way you do, they'll be hooked.'”

The Texas race has had its share