Well that might not be so bad, right?

Here’s the link to the Ticketmaster page for the United States Grand Prix.

UPDATE: After I posted this, Ticketmaster removed the pricing information. As of about 4:20pm, it has been confirmed that General Admission will be $159, and Grandstand seating will be between $269 and $499. Tickets will be on sale June 10 at 10am Eastern on the site above.

For now, that price range makes me feel a lot better after the options COTA included in a survey to gauge the interest in various price points. I was worried it was going to make Monaco look like a bargain.

The Ticketmaster page also says COTA will mail out the tickets in October, so that’s good to know you won’t be stuck with some paper ticket printed from your computer to commemorate the first GP there. I may just be bitter about having paper tickets for hockey games all the time, but really, a Grand Prix deserves some real tickets!

Aerial view over the Circuit of the Americas, February 9 (photo credit: COTA's Facebook page)

Coolest bit of news for the day: All race distances for the season were announced by the FIA. Clearly this is most interesting in the case of the United States Grand Prix. The race will be 56 laps, for a total distance of roughly 309 kilometers. In American, that’s 192 miles.

The full list of race distances, as well as schedules for Grands Prix weekends can be found here.

Work on the Circuit of the Americas has been hampered a bit by rain, but everything is still on schedule. Here is a link to last week’s construction picture update.

The seat licensing waitlist closed on Monday, and actual ticket sales should start this summer. (Well, with a race in November, you would hope for that, wouldn’t you?)

Also happening today, Pirelli announced the tire compounds for the first three races of the season.

The first round race in Australia along with the third round in China will feature Pirelli’s soft and medium compounds.

At the second race in Malaysia, the medium and hard rubber will be in use.

Teams get six sets of the harder compound and five sets of the softer compound each race weekend.

There seems to be a high level of confusion going on now that the Circuit of the Americas website is back up…that is, if you can access it.

The “premium seating” mentioned if you received an email from the track is a deposit towards a seat license, and not a ticket. Tickets will not go on sale until this summer.

The seat license is not a common practice in Formula 1, but found in other professional sports complexes in Texas. For $1,000 to $5,000 you can obtain a license for the next 15 years to all events at COTA. It does NOT include the price of any tickets.

License holders will get priority ticket sales (duh) and in the case of the main grandstand, a number of amenities. The license requires a $100 deposit, which can be paid up until February 13.

Personally, I really don’t like this idea, but if it works for them, then that works for me. It’s a surefire way to revenue now, but as a consumer it feels like far too huge of a gamble.

Pit building construction (credit: Circuit of the Americas on Facebook)

Good news out of Austin!

With construction at full speed, the Circuit of the Americas is set for a mid-August completion date. To state the obvious, this is FAR ahead of the mid-November race date. To also state the obvious, how many new tracks lately have pulled this one off?

Work is underway on the main grandstand, as well as on buildings. Mid-August is when the track itself should be completed, leaving plenty of time for an inspection and fixing anything that may be wrong.

The COTA website has been down for a couple of days now while undergoing a makeover.

Meanwhile, the New Jersey race has named Tom Cotter as the Grand Prix of America’s president. Cotter previously owned a sports marketing group. Dennis Robinson, a former president of the New Jersey Sports and Expositions group, will be the race’s chief operating officer.

Slow. Slow slow slow times. It’s getting desperate out there. I mean people are resorting to asking so much out of Fernando Alonso. See below:

- Some genius decided to ask Fernando Alonso how he feels about Alguersuari losing his seat. The two aren’t even friends. Protip: not everyone from Spain knows each other, isn’t that shocking?

- Alonso believes Ferrari will have a dominant car next season. I’ll believe it when I see it.

- He also welcomes the return of Kimi Raikkonen. See, you can get a decent answer out of him if it’s someone relevant to his interests like a fellow world champion coming back.

- In case you haven’t seen Senna, and you happen to be a Netflix instant subscriber, you can watch it on there right now. And you really should watch it right now. It’s also available on video on demand services, not sure on the cost. The DVD/Blu-Ray version is due out March 6, 2012.

- There is a massive effort underway on Facebook of Bruno Senna fans petitioning Williams to sign Bruno. When I say massive, I mean their Facebook page has more fans than Bruno Senna’s official page. Some Italian site claims Senna is going to look at his options in NASCAR if he doesn’t find a place in F1. I found said article and using my poor understanding of anything but present tense Italian verbs, I think it’s THEIR idea and his.

- Construction at Circuit of the Americas is full speed ahead. Still no info on tickets.

- The constructors of a track in Argentina hope it will attract Formula 1 interest. The track should be completed in 2014. Formula 1 last held a grand prix in Argentina in 1998.

- Allegedly (never gets old) Ferrari is showing some interest in Adrian Sutil. Right.

- Renault is nearly ready to test one of the 2014 spec V6 engines next year.

Photo from Flickr user formula1wolf.

At first it looked like it wasn’t happening today. And then it happened. After weeks of speculation, Force India finally confirmed that Nico Hulkenberg will replace Adrian Sutil. Paul di Resta was also confirmed for his second season with the team.

No word on who replaces Hulkenberg as reserve driver.

This leaves just two obviously open spots: one at Williams and one at HRT.

In other news:

- In the United States, we’re all a bunch of idiots who will not be able to comprehend cars turning left and right all the time at high speeds.

Oh no wait, sorry, Bernie Ecclestone is using the excuse that “the US wants to see profits before anything else” regarding US races. So despite approving not one, but two, American grands prix he thinks the sport will not be big in America.

Just shut up.

Ecclestone also said the US Grand Prix is not guaranteed for 10 years. Of course, there’s never been any mention of the specifics of the new contract between Ecclestone and Circuit of the Americas. Neither seem to want to comment on the length, which possibly could have changed.

- Caterham announced their car has passed the required FIA crash tests. They have not announced when they will reveal their 2012 car.

- Sauber will unveil their car on February 6, the day before pre-season testing starts.

- I’ve been considering adding a bit of GP2 coverage in here, since many drivers come from the series.

The 2012 calendar for GP2 includes 12 events. Each event is made up of two races: one Saturday race with a format similar to an F1 race, and one Sunday shorter sprint race, where the top 8 finishers reversed. So, if you finish 8th on Saturday, you start first on Sunday.
March 23-25 – Sepang, Malaysia
April 20-22 – Sakhir, Bahrain
April 26-28 – Sakhir, Bahrain
May 11-13 – Barcelona, Spain
May 24-26 – Monte Carlo, Monaco
June 22-24 – Valencia, Spain
July 6-8 – Silverstone, Great Britain
July 20-22 – Hockenheim, Germany
July 27-29 – Budapest, Hungary
August 31-Sept 2 – Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
September 7-9 – Monza, Italy
September 21-23 – Marina Bay, Singapore

A summary of all the feelings.

More information! And a glittery eagle of patriotism! Glittery eagle of patriotism is so proud that the United States Grand Prix is back on the calendar for the first time in five years, and believes nothing can stop it now.

Bernie Ecclestone confirmed to the Statesman newspaper in Austin that a deal was reached and hopefully the race will be on for the next ten years.

The negotiations came down to the wire before the World Motorsports Council meeting today in India.

Nobody has commented on the cost of the sanctioning fee, but supposedly it had been increased from $25 million to $35 million in the new contract.

Work will be up to speed within the next two weeks on the track. No word yet on ticket sales, but now would be the time to look into hotel reservations. This is a good site to check out all your options.

The official F1 site also has a story up on the COTA and the confirmation. No story on why Bahrain is still on the calendar in the midst of more political issues, but that’s something else entirely, right?

I fell asleep sometime after 4am waiting for this news, woke up at about the time it was finally news, and could not be bothered to get out of bed at that point. Two hours later…

The World Motorsports Council did not make any changes to the 2012 F1 calendar, meaning races are on in Bahrain and Austin. There are, of course, issues with both that still remain.

Of course, the only thing to go on is a press release filled with other information. There’s not much else to go on, other than the calendar remains unchanged, and it was officially confirmed. Here is the super official press release statement.
The 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship calendar was confirmed as previously published.

That’s all.

The Circuit of the Americas has released a statement, which basically just says a deal was reached, Bernie Ecclestone has his money, thanks for supporting us. Work will be back on at the track immediately.

Hopefully everything goes to plan, and hopefully more info comes out as the day goes on, considering it’s early.

A number of new rules were also confirmed for next year, one of the most interesting being a four hour time limit on a race. No more races like Montreal this past summer then.

Also approved rule changes:

• All cars must pass a crash test in order to participate in winter testing.
• A 3 day in season test was approved.
• Lapped cars can pass the safety car in order to go to the back of the field without getting in the way at a restart.
• Drivers cannot move back to the racing line if they move away to defend position.
• Cars in the pitlane when a race is suspended are allowed to rejoin in the position they were in when the race was stopped.
• Teams can use as many tires as they’d like at the Friday practice sessions.
• No cutting chicanes or gaining an advantage to save time/fuel allowed without a justifiable reason (how is this new?)
• The regulations are now more organized regarding stewards’ decisions.

The World Motorsports Council is currently meeting in India, and word has been spreading for the past couple of hours that the US Grand Prix is back on.

Tavo Hellmund is gone from the Circuit of the Americas’ founding partners on their website, for a start. Perhaps he accepted a buy out after all. No official word yet.

Really the only reliable word so far is this Autoweek article.

Basically, last minute deal made, sanctioning fee paid, promise made to make it work for ten years made.

Now to see if this is actually true. Expect news within the next 3 hours!

This is seriously something not to take for granted. After setting a deadline for today, Bernie Ecclestone says the Circuit of the America and US Grand Prix organizers have until the World Motorsport Council meets next Wednesday.

The WMSC ratifies next year’s calendar at their meeting. This is the last chance of all last chances, and hopefully something is finally made of it.

Ecclestone again used the phrase “they need money and a pen” regarding the situation, like he did to Will Buxton on Sunday.

Circuit of the Americas is supposedly making a statement at some point this afternoon, no indications if this was actually the news or what.

This is clearly an indication of how F1 really wants US exposure, and if COTA screws this up, then they don’t deserve it. Martin Whitmarsh today told Autosport that it would be damaging to the sport’s image if this falls through, but he believes things will work out and that there is an appetite for the sport here.