True, it was an engineering problem with the tires in an era of tire competition. But first and foremost, racing has to be a show for the fans in attendance and watching worldwide. This is the kind of debacle that F1 is known for. I am a fan of F1, but I sometimes wonder why.

Take for instance the debacle at Monaco just a few days ago. The safety car pulled in on the last lap of the race and the track officials showed green flags, so Schumacher overtook Alonso on the short drag from pit in up to the start/finish line. Problem is, there are conflicting rules in the FIA's rulebook. One rule says on the final lap there is no overtaking after the safety car pulls in. Another new rule for this year says that overtaking is allowed after the safety car pulls in (used to be overtaking was only allowed after the start/finish line had been crossed). Garbage! It was clear the teams and race control had no idea how to manage this situation. Ferrari was directing Alonso that there was no overtaking on the final lap, while everyone else seemed to think there was. Race control showed green flags as soon as the SC pulled in. Then the stewards had to figure out what to do.....

For the pinnacle of modern motorsport, they sure could learn a few things from track officials and race promoters in Indiana.

That said, the only people I cheered for from stand J at the tire debacle GP were the track workers.... sad.

I had great seats going into turn 1 on the F1 course. supported every race. To all the pompas F1 drivers who would not stay in Indy, Bernie and the F1

I wouldn't be holding my breath that this will ever materialize. With this economy, nobody in their right mind would throw that type of coin around for F-1. More news media garbage that Little Lord Fontleroy is putting out. In my opinion, if it won't work at Indy, it won't happen successfully any place else in the USA.

Just a few notes from a hardcore F1 fan.

I think Austin would be a great city to host an F1 race. Plenty to do there, a beautiful city and friendly people.

Cost of a new F1 "purpose built" facility? Considering that Hermann Tilke is designing the track/facility, look for a budget of around $300,000,000.

The promoter has purchased 800 acres East of the Austin airport. This is "hill country", so the track should have some good elevation changes, which is a good thing.

One of my older brothers works for Dell in Austin. He says that the "town is excited" and there is talk at Dell that they may jump on board in some capacity. Also, there are some very big corporations in Austin too.

Eco-Nazis? We're talking about Texas.

I too would love to see F1 return to Indy. The last two races were better than half the races "across the pond". But don't forget, The Troll (Bernie) wan't two races in the USA, so all is not lost for Indy as of now...

Hopefully the track design is way different from any other track on the Formula 1 circuit.

A GOOD TRACK MIGHT INCLUDE:
good seating for the fans to possibly see the hole track from evey seat
make the track fan friendly
make track technically challenging for drivers
long straits
high speed corners
slow speed corners
good elevation changes
sharp corners
long corners