The announcement of track plans of the forthcoming Austin circuit has brough a lot of excitements around the F1 world. Tavo Hellmund looks confident than ever that his project will be successful and with the financial back of McCombs is really looking forward to ensuring a long term contract with Bernie Ecclestone's FOTA even for the next 40 years! But the main question that arises after the selection of Austin as the hosting US Grand Prix city is whether Texas and America really needed an extra circuit under F1 specifications? 
Under the current situation of the deep financial crisis, the recent USF1 fiasco has well shown that American motorsports is really suffering to maintain a profit at its both top racing series the open-wheel Indycars series and popular stock cars NASCAR events. As a matter of fact, empty seats during the races has constantly becoming a usual phenomenon in the American circuits as the "empty seats syndorme" -usual issue in the huge Californian Speedways- has shifted also to more popular tracks such as Bristol in Tenessee or Atlanta, Georgia, tracks that were used to be fully crowded the previous years cheering up the NASCAR competition.
The open-wheel series racing has no better luck than NASCAR racing, struggling for sponsoring although the re-unification of the 2 separate series, the champcars series and the Indycars series. But yet teams and drivers are struggling to find the necessary sponsors to race all over across America. Reductions have been made, in terms of a chassis and engine specifications or even tyre usage to limit costs and overseas races in Australia and Europe has been removed with only the Japanese race at Twin Ring Motegi to remain on schedule due to its marketing bonds with Honda as the engine provider.
And here comes F1 again and IZOD Indycars Series is already getting afraid of future major contender of their limited US market. But when Ecclestone decided that F1 should return in United States territory after the Indianapolis fiasco nobody can ever stop him. And talking about the Indianapolis fiasco, everyone's comes into mind the 2005 United States Grand Prix where only 3 teams have been actually competing due to the unsuitability of Michelin tyres in an oval track. In fact the main issue was the fees that Tony George had to pay in order to continue to have the race held in his Speedway.
Its all about the money and the Canadians are fully aware of it as they lost their Grand Prix du Canada in Montreal the previous years due to the impossibility of the sponsor to cover the annual Grand Prix fees that Ecclestone keeps to increase in order to keep a race in the official F1 calendar.
So far so good for Hellmund and his 10 year deal for the Austin project which is also supported by McCombs.
But is it possible a $200m Austin circuit to be constructed for only one annual high-costly event in order America to have the honor to host an F1 Grand Prix race again? More races are needed to support the circuit either it's a NASCAR race or an Indycar race.
But either of America's top racing series might be willing to add another Texan event in their schedule when the nearby Texas International Speedway struggles itself to support its races.
For the case of NASCAR, there is already too many roadcourses available on schedule both for the Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup races. Infineon Speedway, Road America, Watkins Glen and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve have a already a valuable place on schedule taken from oval speedways.
For the case of struggling IZOD Indycar series the problem is more complex. One of the main agreements for the re-unification of open-wheel series was that in the unified schedule there will be equal number of races in roadcourse and oval speedways. Thus the addition of Austin circuit on schedule would demand an extra oval race somewhere doubling the running costs for the teams in order to race to these events. The series committee has already agreed to add a Baltimore street race and one other in the nearby New Hampshire Speedway, but what can be arranged for a potential IndyCars race in Austin when again Texas oval Indy race struggles already. Recently, Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage announced the establishment of 2 short 275-kilometer races races in 2011 the Firestone Twin 275s in place of Firestone 550k event, in an attempt to enhance the entertainment value and add variety for its fans. And if there is available another speedway that could host an extra oval race, are teams prepared to find enough sponsoring to back both of these events? Or Indycars will have to sacrifice one more roadcourse race added with the ones at Laguna Seca and Las Vegas Streets?
And for the case of United States Grand Prix, what would happen if Bernie Ecclestone decides to double its Grand Prix fees? Can Hellmunbd Tavo find enough sponsorship or tickets sales to support that fee when time difference with Europe prime time might demands the race to be held early in the morning or late in the night?
