Evolving Austin: How our City and Formula One are the Right Match

A lot of attention has been paid to all of the people who are opposing Formula One's presence in Austin, but I am one of the many really excited about it. I really don't have a dog in the fight and little to gain other than that I like Formula One, am thrilled that we have been honored to have been chosen as the location for such a prestigious event and track, and I think that this is a very good opportunity for Austin's economy, both in the way of the immediate benefits and in the way of the more lasting benefits of business relocation. I have attended Formula One races all over the world, and I have seen firsthand what the effects on the hosting city are. Based on my experiences, I think this is a very good opportunity for Austin and not nearly the economic horror and environmental abomination that some believe it to be.

When I attended the inaugural race in Shanghai in 2004, I noticed many similarities to the proposed track and the related Formula 1 event here in Austin. The track was situated away from the city, much like it will be in Austin, so everyone stayed in the city and went out to the track for the race events. A Formula One race is not just the race itself, it's a collection of events, much like South by Southwest (SXSW): parties, concerts, and other events related to the race. But for the reason why everyone was present, it closely resembled SXSW in both scope and attendance numbers. I anticipate that the audience size and impact of the Formula One race in Austin will closely resemble that of SXSW and that it will have something to offer for everyone, much like SXSW does.

Because (much like the plan for Austin) the track was situated away from the city center, Shanghai residents were largely unaffected by traffic or noise. While a Formula One race is noisy, it is for a finite period of time, much like the Republic of Texas motorcycle rally (ROT), but in many ways less so: the F1 cars will be on track practicing for several hours on Friday, qualifying is for an even shorter period of time on Saturday, and the race itself is generally a little over two hours on Sunday. All in all, the noise of the F1 cars, confined to a very largely unpopulated area, will be limited to about 10-12 hours over the course of several days. While there are accompanying races at the track during that weekend, including examples like the celebrity showcase race involving celebrities racing VW Golfs for charity and Ferrari Challenge, a race series involving all Ferraris, those are quiet subevents which can't even be heard from beyond the facility. Furthermore, this track will be located near the airport, which creates noise far louder and more invasive to local residents than Formula One and the other events taking place at the track will ever generate, and far, far more often.

In Indianapolis, the track was in the middle of a neighborhood, but residents there seemed to embrace it being there, taking the opportunity to sell parking space on their property, sell drinks, or conduct other similar activities with the public that benefited them directly. The first year we drove to Indianapolis (in a carpool, every seat belt in the car filled), we parked on a resident's lawn who gave the parking money to the local animal shelter; we made a special point to go to her every year following to park with her, and she came to remember me as the girl who rescues Boxers and greeted me my last year there with gifts for my dogs. We also rented a local teacher's home every year as well, which added to the bottom line of her modest income in a way that made a meaningful impact for her: she made $600/night for 3 nights by staying with a friend for the weekend and letting us stay in her home. I could see similar things happening here, much as they do for SXSW. For those who would argue that residents in Indianapolis didn't want the race there anymore, the people I personally know in Indy would disagree, including our housing and parking hosts. That Tony George (the owner of the Brickyard) and Indianapolis government officials have been quoted as being open to the F1 race coming back speaks loudly to the positive impact the race's presence in that city made.

Much like the Brickyard in Indy and Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, the lasting economic benefits of having such a facility in Austin span beyond the one annual F1 race weekend itself. To have a track of that caliber located here, where the climate makes usage 12 months per year viable, we will also likely reap many other economic benefits. Like any other business, they will not want this track to sit idle the other 51 weeks of the year, so it will likely be leased for such events as concerts, bicycle races, driver education schools, and usage as a test facility for tire manufacturers and other auto industry businesses who need access to testing grounds year round (and will likely open branches of their businesses here in order to do so). We also have the potential for other motorsports events such as MotoGP and the American LeMans series (ALMS), and since the track design will include an oval, perhaps even a NASCAR event.

Having also lived in Florida prior to my permanent settlement in Austin nine and a half years ago, I have seen the positive effects of tourism for residents, and I think this is a good thing for Austin. With rising property taxes straining the budget of every Austin property owner, replacing rising tax bills with tourism dollars is a viable option with few downsides for Austin property owners. The benefits of such an event here goes far beyond that of just tax ramifications; any infrastructure put into place which improves mass transit to the track, which will be within 10 miles of the airport, also benefits Austin area residents with additional options for transportation.  All of this is in addition to the very tangible impact an event like this would have for local retailers, restaurants, and hotels.

Those opposing F1's arrival cite concern for the environment as one of their talking points against Formula One, and I fail to see the degree of damage inherent to this event that they do. While it will bring about additional emissions and fuel usage in the Austin area during the event, the effects are not at all different, given the number of attendees from that of SXSW or even the ROT Rally. In fact, the combined carbon footprint of travel by those attending University of Texas football games in a year will far exceed that of the F1 weekend, and ALL of that is concentrated directly in the downtown Austin area. Furthermore, while the F1 event will bring people into Austin by vehicles and plane, ROT brings its attendees in largely by motorcycle and by trucks towing attendees' motorcycles; motorcycles, unless built to be sold in California, do not have catalytic converters or other such pollution control measures, and trucks must only conform to a minimal CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel economy) standard in comparison to cars, in addition to the relaxed emissions standards required of trucks. There will be an increase in emissions in Austin to any event that takes place here, because none of the attendees to ANY event here arrive on foot or by bicycle. To target Formula 1 and its audience as the largest or most offensive offender of emission contribution to Austin's environment is both disingenious and factually incorrect.

Opponents are also against the track coming to Austin based on its supposed glorification of petroleum products for enthusiast purposes, but this fails to recognize that Formula 1 is a hotbed of very expensive engine and emission control development, unachievable to normal car development due to budget constraints, for green, energy efficient, and safety technologies which trickle down to the most pedestrian automobiles that we all drive. Such fuel saving technologies, developed by F1, currently present in production cars, include overhead cams, variable valve timing, antilock brakes, stability control, and disc brakes. Technology appearing in the cars of the general public in the coming years includes regenerative braking, known in F1 as KERS (kinetic energy recovery system), which harnesses power generated by braking and stores it for use in acceleration, eliminating the need for additional fuel to propel the vehicle forward at a faster rate. Such energy efficiency measures developed in Formula 1 which directly affect the environment can be quantified easily. Ferrari, a long standing team in Formula 1, is owned by Fiat Auto Group, the 6th largest car manufacturer in the world, which manufactured and sold 2.5 million cars worldwide in 2008 alone. If each of those cars is driven 10,000 miles a year on average, those 2.5 million automobiles are driven 25,243,250,000 miles. If they get 35 miles per gallon on average, they consume approximately 721,235,714 gallons of fuel. If Fiat's investment in Formula One through Ferrari means that the fuel mileage of all 2.5 million cars increases by just one mile per gallon, the cars built by Fiat group would only consume 701,201,388 gallons of fuel, thus resulting in a savings of over 20 million gallons of gasoline. If the Corporate Average Fuel Economy is 25mpg and it goes to 26mpg, the amount of fuel saved swells to almost 39 million gallons saved. That's the result of saving just ONE mile per gallon in ONE year’s production of ONE manufacturer’s vehicles. In a statement released on June 30, Formula 1 has mandated that its participating racecars must achieve an emissions reduction of at least 15%, certified by an independent source, by 2013. To achieve this goal will require those developing engines for these cars to investigate new ways to reach that goal, resulting in technology that will doubtlessly debut in production cars in no time at all, thus improving the efficiency and emissions across the American fleet.

The argument has also been made that Austin is not a good fit for this race because it has no enthusiast base for motorsports events, but that, too, would be factually incorrect. In the last 10 years, two private racetracks have been built and operate successfully in the Austin area: Harris Hill Road, a members-only, country club style track, and the Driveway, a privately owned and operated track and driver training facility. Texas Spokes Sports Car Club, an Austin-area autocross club focused on motorsports, boasts a paid member roster of 150, a mailing list of over 400, and a history dating back to 1951. Other very successful and popular make or model specific clubs in the Austin area include Hill Country Drives, the Hill Country Region PCA (Porsche), Tejas Miata Club, the Longhorn Corvette Club, the Kontinentals (hot rods and custom cars), and the Mustang Owners Club of Austin. Many of these clubs host events in Austin regularly, including the Lone Star Roundup, which is a large custom and rat rod show taking place in Austin every April, and Cars and Coffee, which hosts a car show every last Sunday of the month in Leander, both which draw hundreds of car owners and enthusiasts. Austin is also a popular destination for car clubs and enthusiasts all over the state, who choose Austin over other cities for access to the scenic drives within an hour of Austin, the nightlife, music, and central location to every other city in the state. While the motorsports and car enthusiast community may be invisible to those not involved in it, it is a thriving, growing community.

Austin's environmental movement argues that Austin is known for its focus on green living and that this race and track is ill-suited to Austin for that reason, but in becoming so myopically focused on their own concerns, they miss the point of Austin being known for many other things, including technology, education, music, government, open-minded diversity, and an overriding, very Texan sense of survival and achievement. We are a city accustomed to sharing the beauty and culture of our area with visitors; what the opposition suggests is that we selectively offer that to people whose interests are only congruent with their interests, which definitely do NOT include motorsports. We have the opportunity as an evolved, technologically advanced, environmentally interested city to influence an already efficiency-driven sport to even greater goals of efficiency and environmental sensitivity. To drive this event and all of the people involved with it to another part of the country or out of the US entirely eliminates the ability of Austin's environmental activists to make a worldwide impact with their message of sensitivity and efficiency, all while benefitting and rewarding the citizens of Austin with reduced tax burden, recognition as a world class tourist destination, an influx of businesses and jobs to the metro area, and increased mass transit infrastructure. To eschew this opportunity and run it out of Austin will rob our city of very desired jobs, responsible growth, and the ability to make a difference at an international level.

I support Formula One's arrival in Austin, and I'm very much looking forward to all of the positive growth that will come with it for our beautiful city. Bring on 2012 already!

Sondra Sondregger
President, Velocity Adventures Texas