Tavo Hellmund, the managing partner of Full Throttle Productions, the company behind the new United States grand prix reckons Austin is more open to F1, which is why it’ll succeed.
“Austin is more of an F1 crowd than a NASCAR crowd,” Hellmund explained. “The geography, the tech money, the nightlife, the music. It all just fits with what Formula One is all about,” he told the Statesman newspaper.
Hellmund also revealed that three sites within Austin were being considered to host the race, with local experts putting the construction figure at between $250-$300 million.
He stressed that no city or state money would be used to build the track, but also declined to reveal the investment group behind the projects.
The city mayor, Lee Leffingwell expressed his delight in such a high profile event visiting his city.
“This will be a game-changer for Austin. … We expect every hotel from San Antonio to Temple will be full.
“This will solidify our standing as an international city. Hundreds of millions of people also see the broadcast, and those who don’t know about Austin, will,” he claimed.
Hellmund is hoping the locals will be proud to host an event of such magnitude after revealing he received 18,000 emails after the announcement was made.
“I got 18,000 e-mails in three minutes [after the announcement],” said Hellmund.
“Texas has never had an annual global sporting event, I think everyone is going to be really proud of it.”
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