This past Saturday, something cool happened here in Chicago: Formula 1 came to our backyard.
I’ve been following F1 for over about have a decade now and have been to three different races in three different countries to experience F1 in person, an event unlike anything else in the world. Never before have I been able to get out of bed, bike down the lakeshore path, and have live, running Formula 1 cars right in front of me at Soldier Field.
I first heard about this through twitter, hearing the event was being planned a couple of months ago and was pretty psyched then. Fast forward about a month and a half, and on my morning walk to work down Wacker Dr. I spotted this just sitting in the driveway of the Renaissance Hotel.
Pretty neat, eh? Not every day you see a Sauber C30 casually sitting in downtown Chicago.
The big draw of the festival of course was the running of the cars on a section of road behind Soldier Field, but in the meantime there was plenty to do including testing your skills at a pitstop challenge and seeing how fast of a laptime you could set in a driving simulator.
And of course, plenty of classic F1 cars to drool over. On display were a 1985 Toleman TG185, 1998 Minardi M198, a 2002(?) BAR 004, the Sauber C30 (with a halo) outfitted in a Chicago livery, and the F1 Experiences 2 seater.
Side note: I’m still awestruck at the fact that Robert Kubica is racing full-time in F1 again. Being Polish myself with family in the same city he is from (Krakow) makes it an even bigger win, here’s to hoping we see him in a more competitive car sooner rather than later.
The festival was held on the same Saturday as qualifying for the Canadian GP, and it was shown on a bunch of huge screens all around the park. We all collectively celebrated finally seeing a Ferrari back where it belongs on top of the time sheets. Before this, the F1 Netflix documentary Drive to Survive was on. No better place to watch it than being among thousands of other fans and a handful of F1 cars.
Before the cars came out, Managing Director of Commercial Operations Sean Bratches came out to say a few words about how the festival came to be in front of the huge crowd that gathered.
A bunch of non-F1 cars got to run the track including a McLaren 720s, Lamborghini Aventador, and a Ferrari 488 Spider carrying Chicago’s beloved Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky.
By far the highlight of the day was seeing the F1 cars make their passes up and down the street. Of course, being high-strung racecars with the finest of tolerances, there were some breakdowns here and there but each got in a good amount of time. The Toleman was an amazing sight into a prior period, like seeing a past era come to life once again. The other-worldly gutteual wail of the V10 in the Minardi brought out some DEEP nostalgia in me, as the last time I heard a Formula 1 V10 in person was in Indianapolis at the 2004 USGP when I saw/heard/felt Michael Schumacher fly past me at 200+ mph during the year of his last championship in the sport. The intricate aero of the Sauber was fantastic to see in person especially in the colors of our city, and I my jaw dropped after hearing the V8 in the F1 Experiences two seater. I never got to attend a V8 race in person, so that was definitely a bucket list item checked off for me.
The festival series kicked off in Shanghai this year to mark the 1000th F1 Grand Prix, with Chicago being the second one of the year. Two more are planned to take place later in the year in LA and Brazil. If you’re in either location and have an interest in F1, do yourslef a favor and make sure you get to one of these. Thanks to F1 for putting together a great event for those of us who have been longing to see something like this finally in the US.