Formula One: Encouraging Signs in U.S. Grand Prix's Second Year

AUSTIN, Tex. — Before the U.S. Grand Prix, the biggest question was whether Sebastian Vettel could make history and become the first driver in Formula One to win eight straight races in a single season.

He answered that easily Sunday, leading from start to finish and winning without a challenge in yet another walkover.

But the secondary question floating over the weekend was whether Austin would succeed as a venue after nine other locations in the United States in the past half century had failed to give the series a permanent home and national recognition in the world’s biggest economy.

While “two in a row” is a far more modest figure than Vettel’s winning streak, it appears after the second race here that Austin has veered away from the feared pattern of a new race’s succeeding in the first year, only to peter out thereafter.

As a whole, the event was well attended. The announced crowd of 113,162 on Sunday was just 4,000 fewer than last year, and the race was better organized, too, though it still has progress to make in a few areas.

Ross Pringle, an Austin resident who was attending his first grand prix, pointed out that the race had faced tough competition for fans, including a vast festival linked to the race and the biggest show in town: college football with the Texas Longhorns.

“It came on a very busy weekend,” he said. “You had to pick what you wanted to do. I didn’t go to the football game because I came here.”

Nearly 79,000 people attended Saturday’s qualifying session alone. That is more than double the 30,000 people who attended race day at some of the failed races, such as the Turkish Grand Prix outside Istanbul, which increasingly lost popularity after its successful debut in 2005 before it was dropped after the 2011 season.

And while the Austin race suffered again from traffic jams leading to the venue on Sunday, organizers made improvements nearly everywhere else, especially when it came to the fan experience at the circuit. The V.I.P. list was as good as any race outside of Monaco, while local media attention remained healthy.

The series has always understood that the key to succeeding in the United States is to provide a spectacle on and off the track, to allow close access to the drivers and the teams and to get the crowd participating, even though organizers in the past never followed through on that, until now.

Spectators said that the 2013 U.S. Grand Prix was better than last year’s, even with the race being less exciting because of Vettel’s dominance.

“I enjoyed this one better, because I think the organization was better at the race track. They were ready now,” said Arturo Sanchez, a Mexico City resident. Thousands of Mexican fans were in the stands, cheering on the two Mexican drivers on the circuit, Sergio Pérez of the McLaren Mercedes team and Esteban Gutiérrez of the Sauber team.

Michael Schumacher held the previous record of seven consecutive victories in the same season, set in 2004. At the Brazilian Grand Prix next Sunday, the last race of the year, Vettel will attempt to equal the record of nine consecutive victories over all. Alberto Ascari set that mark over two seasons, 1952 and 1953. But Vettel, who grabbed his 12th victory of the year Sunday, played down the achievement, as usual.

“What makes me jump into the car is not a certain number,” he said. “But certainly today, when you realize that you’ve done it, it makes you very proud in that moment and, yeah, I think it’s very difficult for all of us to realize what it actually means.”

While Vettel’s race may have been yet another walkover, there was action up and down the pack behind him, with one high point being when Pérez and Gutiérrez fought a wheel-to-wheel battle for seventh position on Lap 31 of the 56-lap race. Pérez finished seventh and Gutiérrez finished 14th.

It was not without interest just behind the leader, either. Mark Webber, Vettel’s teammate on Red Bull, tried to grab second-place late in the race by attacking Romain Grosjean. But Webber, who started second on the grid, never could get by the Lotus driver.

A year ago, Grosjean was in disgrace after he caused several accidents during the season.

On Sunday, he stood on the podium for the sixth time this year, with his first second-place finish.

Besides the traffic jams, the race had a few other problems. Some fans who ordered tickets months in advance and made travel plans around the weekend did not get their tickets until just days before the race. The first practice session was delayed twice on Friday morning.

But it is now clear that Formula One has made a foothold in Austin in a way that few could have imagined a year ago, when the race looked compromised after the project did not finish on time. And the Austin community is quickly becoming aware of the value of the event.

“I know there are people around the world who may not have ever heard of Austin who now know it exists,” said Mike Rollins, the president of the Austin Chamber of Commerce, on NBCSports.com. “We never could have paid for that kind of media attention.”

Formula One, too, appreciates the southern hospitality.

“It’s unbelievable. It’s only our second race here and we’ve got more than 100,000 people coming on Sunday,” said Vettel. “I think this is one of the best races we have all season. The whole city is going crazy, so it’s phenomenal to race here in front of the crowd.”