Formula 1 Hits Texas This Week!

Formula 1 racing officially started way back in the 1950s in a little country we Americans like to call Europe-World, and F1 has always had an image of glamor, speed, excitement, danger, and a whole lot of European guys driving incredibly fast around "tracks" that aren't oval shaped! Well, mostly Europeans anyway, and mostly guys but there have been some women drive in F1 events. And it's not just European, because we have our own Americans like former World Champion Mario Andretti we can claim, or Dan Gurney who won a few races and even in his own car! Yes sir, nothing is more American than still seeing our own Mario Andretti today, although he was born and grew up in Europe himself!

Now to the important part of this post, the F1 race this weekend will be at the Circuit of the Americas just outside of Austin Texas, and if there's anything the F1 folks love it's BBQ and cowboy hats, so it's going to be epic! This track is now in it's third year, so we've seen both Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel win, and maybe someone like Nico Rosberg will win this year. At the end of F1 races, the top three drivers come out and celebrate on the podium like in the Olympics, typically with a baseball hat, but in Austin two years ago, winner Lewis Hamilton was wearing a winner's COWBOY hats! USA, USA, USA!  You can see Lewis on the NBC Today show, Wednesday morning some time between 8-9AM EST, so I'm looking forward to seeing his Mercedes F1 car parked at Rockefeller Center!

For those of us that won't be there live and in person, the friendly folk at NBC and NBC Sports Network will crank up their coverage to include all three practice sessions starting Friday, qualifying on Saturday, and of course the live race on NBC Sunday afternoon. Going head to head with the NFL should prove to be interesting as far as who garners the most viewers, and I can only predict that the NFL will have more, just not at my house!

As NBC promotes their F1 coverage, they are also throwing everything but the kitchen sink on the air this week to get the F1 blood pumping, so let's take a look at what they are planning below. You can find this info at:    F1 on NBC

Date	Coverage	Network	Time (ET)
Thurs., October 30	Off The Grid (Encore)	NBCSN	7 p.m.
	“1” – F1 Documentary	NBCSN	7:30 p.m.
	Road To Mercedes (Premiere)	NBCSN	10 p.m.
	Road to Ferrari (Encore)	NBCSN	11 p.m.
Fri., October 31	/DRIVE on NBCSN (Encore)	NBCSN	12 a.m.
	/DRIVE on NBCSN (Encore)	NBCSN	12:30 a.m.
	Road To Mercedes (Encore)	NBCSN	1 a.m.
	Off The Grid (Encore)	NBCSN	12 p.m.
	F1 United States Grand Prix – Practice 1	NBCSN	12:30 p.m.
	Road To Mercedes (Encore)	NBCSN	2 p.m.
	F1 United States Grand Prix – Practice 2	NBCSN	3 p.m.
	F1 Countdown	NBCSN	4:30 p.m.
	F1 United States Grand Prix – Practice 2 (Encore)	NBCSN	10:30 p.m.
Sat., November 1	F1 United States Grand Prix – Practice 3 & Qualifying	NBC	1 p.m.
Sun., November 2	F1 United States Grand Prix – Qualifying (Encore)	NBCSN	12:30 a.m.
	F1 Countdown	NBCSN	2 p.m.
	F1 Countdown	NBC	2:30 p.m.
	F1 United States Grand Prix	NBC	3 p.m.
	F1 Extra	NBC	5 p.m.