Mid-Season F1 Break - What Else To Do?

So, it is the mid-season F1 break and for those of us who spend our weekends glued to the television watching the world’s best drivers do battle around the world this is a bit of a shock.

Of course, there is the London Olympics going on in my back garden so I probably should not complain about the lack of sport, but we are focused on cars here at Autoviva, so I think there ought to be some car related suggestions for what to do with August’s weekends.

On Autoviva we have already featured a number of road trip ideas including the famous Route 1 along the west coast of America, but we cannot expect everyone reading this to travel out to California to enjoy the scenic drive down the coast to Los Angeles. That does not stop you going on a road trip of your own though. Why not take a week off and head to a landmark that you have never been before? And make sure not just to travel the most beaten path down the motorways, but instead take in some of the backroads and picturesque routes that abound in Europe.

As Europeans it is easy to look down one’s nose at NASCAR and Indycar, but in fact they have an awful lot to offer. Like many sports they become all the more enjoyable once you understand them and there is plenty to understand. Unlike the (I dread to say it) slightly processional Hungarian Grand Prix the Americans, with their ovals, don’t even always want to be leading as they take the white flag and pass onto the final lap.

The summer break is a good chance to look beyond F1 for other exciting motorsports like NASCAR

© photo by Nascar, licence: Attribution

If you like your racing a bit more in your face than on SKY Sports and a few thousand miles away my next suggestion could suit quite well. As someone who frequents and races in series and meetings that don’t have the support of the top championships I know the value of heading out and seeing a smattering of spectators in the grandstands. What is nice about these small meetings is the access to all areas that anyone can get at a small cost. It really is ‘access all areas’. You will also see some really good racing, the standard of driving can be pretty high and because the guys racing aren’t the very best in the world they do make mistakes, very rarely do you get the aforementioned procession.

If you like driving yourself why not go and do a track day? Take it seriously though, because it can be dangerous and you can also learn an awful lot. Put quite simply we all like to think that we are better drivers than we really are, so if some advice is offered by a more experienced track day goer or better still an instructor make sure you take it. And remember, the best performance modification you can make is very often to yourself – and when you sell the car you don’t lose it either!

Personally, I’ll be doing a good number of these things before we dive back into Formula 1 at Spa at the beginning of September, but I’d love to hear some more ideas or maybe some examples of what you have got up to…