Words by Gillian Annis. Photos by Abigail Annis
Growing up as a woman in the age of social media, where everyone’s opinions are at my fingertips, I’ve noticed that some online tend to shun women (predominantly young women) for loving the things they enjoy. This happens especially when it comes to things that typically have predominantly male audiences. Long before Taylor Swift brought a new demographic into American Football, the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive triggered a rise of F1 and motorsports fans in the United States and with that rise, a significant influx of female fans, previously never really reached before.
Social media is a place to find community, and I was lucky enough to find several, women-run motorsport communities where I could meet other female fans, coordinate watch parties, and coordinate meetups at different races. I found Girls Across the Grid (boasting18,000 members) and West Coast Formula 1 (8000 followers) through TikTok, and have been able to join WhatsApp group chats to plan trips to different races and enjoy uniquely female fan activities, like the exchanging of racing-themed friendship bracelets at the track.
After barely surviving the heat and crowds of the USGP at COTA, last October, I never expected myself to be back at The Circuit of the Americas, let alone on Labor Day weekend. But I recently became interested in the FIA WEC (thank you Jenson Button). The chance to see some of my favorite ex-F1 drivers (and having a sister living in Austin) made attending the Lone Star Le Mans suddenly a good idea. Through the good fortune of being something of a “nepo baby” in motorsport journalism (and proud of it 💪) my sister and I had the amazing opportunity to attend this year’s event as credentialed media.
While most motorsport journalists can write about what happened in the race, who crashed over the course of six hours (!!), or how the race was the decider for the constructor’s championship, I wanted to cover something uniquely important to this burgeoning young, female demographic, the overall social experience as a spectator. Or as we call it… the vibes.
Despite being a California girl who is an absolute baby regarding weather extremities, I had an amazing time at both of my COTA experiences. Having now been to both races at COTA, some other women from Girls Across the Grid and I agree that the Lone Star Le Mans is the race that gives you the best bang for your buck regarding overall race weekend experience in some key ways.
Number One: The Price
For non-European, European motorsport fans, loving F1 or WEC can turn into a VERY expensive hobby once travel is added to the mix. Races are cheaper in countries across Europe or Asia, but it’s super expensive to get to those countries, not including the added accommodation fees to the mix. With the newer addition of the Las Vegas GP and Miami GP, the most expensive F1 races overall are the three in America. Yay, said unenthusiastically.
For the USGP last year, I spent approximately US$1400 for two tickets in Grandstand 15, which is a great spot at COTA for watching on-track action since the cars come out the back straight and into some quick turns. We were able to hitch a ride into the track every day with someone there in the support race, but generally parking that weekend in an official COTA lot was between $275 and $375, with options to either shuttle into the track or park on a farm outside of the track and walk in.
For WEC, tickets are substantially cheaper. Single-day tickets were around $30, and multi-day passes with paddock access were below $200. Likewise, 3-day parking passes were available at $30, or day of for $20 a day. Nicole, a frequenter of COTA races in multiple series, told me “I loved the cost of access of WEC compared to F1, I think a 3-day true Paddock Pass at COTA for F1 is around $30,000. To only pay $100 for the same level of access at WEC was awesome. I got to meet a ton of drivers and team members for very little cost.”
For those more careful with their financial investments, fellow female motorsport fan Caín offered this advice: “If you’re an F1 fan thinking about going to COTA in October but are unsure, going to a more accessible race like WEC might give you a better idea if the more expensive F1 race is for you. It’s a good way to scope out the heat and all the spots around the track. It might help you decide to do just a race day ticket, as opposed to all three days, or convince you that GA is going to be too much walking and you want to spend a little more for a grandstand seat.”
Number Two: The Access
One of the major things that sets Lone Star Le Mans apart from the USGP is the paddock access and the pit walk, which is just an add-on to your GA ticket. While the add-ons sell out early, they are only an additional $40-$99 dollars to the $65 3-day ticket. About 20-30 minutes before the pit walk opened, lines were forming in the paddock area to enter the pit lane for the Pit Walk and Autograph Session. Outside of that time, those with paddock access were able to walk across the main paddock straight and hang out near the pit garage entrances to see if they could get a glimpse of a driver or watch crewmembers do their hard work, like hand-scraping rubber off of scrubbed-in tires.
The Pit Walk, one of my personal highlights for the race weekend, gives you the ability to spend a little under an hour, both days, walking the pit lane, getting a look inside of the garages, and the ability to line up to meet the drivers and get autographed driver cards. Some tables were also having drivers sign any personal items fans brought as well. Since the paddock access was limited to those who had the add on, most of the lines for more popular drivers like Jenson Button, Mick Schumacher, or the #51 Ferrari team were long but steadily moving.
The pit lane and paddock access are a big draw for casual fans to the weekend, especially for San Antonio native Ayesha. “I haven’t had any kind of paddock pass access or even main grandstand experience with F1 before, so it was great to experience it for the first time with WEC. I knew a bit about the series, but definitely not as much as F1. I bought the ticket last year, so I had enough time to follow along with the 2024 season.”
While it’s not Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, or Charles Leclerc you can line up to meet, even with VIP or Paddock access for a F1 race, there are rarely if ever any opportunities to meet F1 drivers during an F1 weekend, unless you are there as a guest of a team or manage to catch them in the paddock between sessions. While a benefit of attending the USGP is that the drivers do Fanzones and other events to get a glimpse of the driver, the closest you realistically get to them is seeing them in the driver’s parade or in their car during sessions.
During the USGP, seating is heavily monitored and assigned, but the Lone Star Le Mans offers open seating, which is another great selling point. Caín, who grew up following endurance cars and an uncle who raced, added “WEC really reminded me of our sports car racing days: super casual, rough and ready racing. I really enjoyed being able to go almost anywhere. Not only was the paddock accessible, but we were also able to sit in seats that we couldn’t afford for F1 throughout the weekend. Also, there’s no arguing that the WEC ticket was great bang for your buck. A lot of on-track action and almost always competitive racing happened.”
Number Three: The Crowds
The 2023 USGP had a whopping 423,000 people in attendance, which was less than the previous year, which came in at 440,000. The WEC reported that only 65,000 were in attendance, which is about 15% of the entire F1 race attendees. With the general admission seating, ticket holders could roam the entire track and sit in a variety of grandstands, or camp out and sit on different grassy areas around the track.
To get a spot on the hill at the start of the circuit, to get the best view of the cars speeding into Turn 1, fans have to arrive at the track at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning to stake out their spot on race day for the USGP. For the Lone Star Le Mans, the hill was almost empty. There was a wide range of spots to choose from to watch the start of the race, and these stayed open throughout the 6 hours of running. The most crowded grandstand was the main grandstand across the paddock, mainly because that’s the one viewing area that has a covering and complete shade. Even then, there seemed to be open spaces and about halfway through the race the grandstand had less people, whether spectators left early or found a new viewing spot elsewhere on the track.
Ayesha told me, “Despite both races being at the same circuit, they produce completely different fan experiences. I loved the relaxed nature of WEC regarding the seating/admission type. As well as the fact that you could walk around and maintain a bubble. Parking and waiting in lines for things were like a day/night difference for both races. I drove to F1 in 2022 and said never again. I shuttled last year and it was definitely a better experience than driving, but still so chaotic.”
Another great aspect of having fewer people during the weekend is that one key track that became a breeze: finding bathrooms. Most bathroom lines I saw during the F1 weekend were long, for both indoor and portable options. At the Lone Star Le Mans, many different indoor (and even air-conditioned) options were available for spectators without the long waits.
A track-wide benefit of less attendees is also that there were shuttles constantly running between certain key areas across the track. A shuttle pick-up from the main grandstand took you to the “fueling station”, which was a gas station next to the support paddock, most food stands, and the bridge over the track that took you to the Fan zone area and COTA observation tower. I never saw the main bridge crowded in the three days I was at the track. In other F1 races I’ve attended, crossing the bridge involved a long, slow-moving line across the bridge, but here spectators could stand on the edge of the steps and watch the track action and still stay out of the way of people moving by.
As a newcomer to WEC, I truly did not appreciate how long a six-hour race would be until about hour three of the race when I realized… damn, they still have a long way to go! But whether it’s a Friday practice day or Saturday qualifying, the entire weekend contains a lot of on track action.
To me, there seemed to be two ways of looking at the weekend, which is similar in the way I see a lot of my friends enjoy a more popular American pastime: baseball. At any given baseball game, you will have hardcore fans who are there for the love of the game and stay for all the innings. Also in attendance are fans who are there to drink beer and eat some food while enjoying a sport running in the background of their catching up and conversations. Both the WEC and F1 races at COTA can accommodate either enthusiast, but the WEC weekend is at a much easier price point.
On the social side, I connected to these lovely ladies that I interviewed through a USGP specific WhatsApp group from Girls Across the Grid. Caín decided to go to the race because of the group: “I was really influenced to buy WEC at COTA tickets by girls in the group. We liked the series enough, it was relatively close, and super affordable, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity for us to finally meet up at an actual race!”
Ayesha added: “Even not being the most knowledgeable about WEC in comparison to F1, I still had an amazing time. I think it also made me realize why so many people like going to F1 even if they don’t watch the races normally or aren’t super knowledgeable about the sport. Going to a race is fun, even if you don’t know everything about what’s happening. I didn’t feel like I was missing too much by not knowing what’s going on every second or walking around the track while the race was happening. I would definitely do WEC again or another series that draws in a smaller crowd than F1.”
Verdict
The Lone Star Le Mans passes the vibe check.
Ayesha sums it up the best when she told me, “I found myself making a lot of comparisons between aspects of both races throughout the weekend, such as food options and Fanzone experiences. But that’s just something that naturally happens after having attended multiple events at COTA throughout the years and wasn’t necessarily a negative thing. I think for the size and scope of this race, everything was appropriate.”
Whether it’s just for Sunday or the entire weekend, there’s enough to do and see that makes the ticket and parking pricing feel like a steal. Now, the drinks and food at the track are a bit overpriced, but the track did a good job of supplying different options in different price ranges and having water bottle refill stations across the track.
For some longtime fans like Nicole, the idea of F1 being such a popular race that people are now turning to other series to experience a more relaxed race weekend is a strange concept. “I remember when I had to explain that, no, I was not going to an Indycar race because that is what people knew about. And no, Michael Schumacher does not do the Indy 500… F1 is a totally different sport. And now it feels like the opposite. People know F1 and don’t know Indycar.”
The USGP is an F1 race, and with that comes the good (seeing the F1 cars and drivers compete), and the bad (expensive tickets and large crowds). But if you can handle the heat and love to watch the depth and variety of cars that the FIA WEC has to offer, the Lone Star Le Mans and WEC is definitely worth a try.
