2021 US GP - wondering if it will happen.

Austin is currently in a stage 5 level of pandemic of COVID; 83% of which seems to be Delta. Hospitals are full (3 ICU beds available as of this morning) thousands of new infection per day, hundreds of hospital admissions per day. The curve is still on the up swing, school starts next week, and delta seems to infect kids unlike the earlier variants.

I will be surprised if we get into stage 4 by the scheduled time of the event.
I won't even go to a local (nearly empty) bar until we get under stage 3.

Its bad...........

 

I wouldn't count on it being held. I don't think the Japan GP will be held either.

 

Discussing COVID is ok but discussing the politics around it are not.

3 day ban for Spirot and Mitch for P&R in F1.

 

There's no way, medically, to tell Delta apart from any other variant. It's just Covid. Doesn't diminish from the tragedy of Covid in general.

 

I'd plan on not going. You won't get the great F1 experience even if they do. Miami 2022 will hopefully be ok. I'm banking on writing off 2021/2022 however and hoping Covid burns itself out by end of 2022. Maybe wishful thinking but, what else can we do? I hate swimming against the tide with this stuff and going places hoping to have a great time only to be let down. I went to COTA for the Nascar race this year as a guest of Joe Gibbs racing. The actual race day was fine, but Austin was pretty dreadful. Stayed at the fairmont. Nice hotel, understaffed (no turndown service!), half open. Subpar experience. We LOVED Red Ash for dinner, but Austin itself felt like a dystopian version of the town I visited a couple years prior.

 

I'm confident that there will be a race, but 50/50 on spectators.

 

There is no way I am going to see another Max cult event.

F1 needs to really start to promote racing and racing teams and not celebrities.

 

It won't be the state that nixes spectators.

 

Baseball Stadiums are being sold to capacity nationwide. So far football stadiums have sold tickets to capacity for the upcoming season as well, including the University of Texas in their 100k+ stadium in downtown Austin. UT has 4 home games prior to F1, I'd keep an eye on that as a bellwether for other outdoor events (ie F1). Staying away from the political, but the Texas governor is unlikely to direct cancellations and would likely push back on any local government attempts to cancel F1.

My real question will be regarding COTA hiring enough staff for the event. It's hard enough to find a coffee or get fast service at restaurants in town. There's a real entry level labor shortage.

 

I cancelled my hotel yesterday. Won't be using my grandstand ticket. Oh well.

That said, not so long ago there was speculation that we might see two Austin GPs in back to back weekends with the Rolling Stones on Saturday. Who knows?

 

Please keep P&R in P&R - kind regards.

 

I'm not going to repost what you said. That would defeat the purpose. But here are some words from your post. "Republican" "RINO" "Tea Party" "Far Left"