We were at COTA both Saturday and Sunday and about 9 hours both days. I thought the traffic management was really good considering the number of people. We were in Lot A and I thought the time spent creeping along was reasonable. After the race on Sunday there were more people trying to cut in line, but I'm guessing the Brostang crowd was just a little too wound up.
We did the pit lane walk both days and that was a lot of fun. We learned some lessons from the first day and being down there before the race on Sunday was really cool and we knew the best route to take. I was a little taken aback when Danny Ric ran by on the way for the driver's parade, but it was pretty funny. Our seats were above the Merc garage so we had great views of the Red Bull and Merc pit stops. I wasn't sure how I was going to like just seeing the cars coming out of the final turn and through turn 1, but it ended up being pretty good. Never tried to see what was going on elsewhere on the track. Doing the mental math when 33 was behind 44 and then the other way around was not a bad way to keep track and the Merc garage had the time difference between the two readily viewable.
Also had a few away from the track encounters. My daughter literally ran into Latifi Friday evening before he was heading out for his sponsor obligations. Saw Kimi have an interesting encounter on Saturday evening. He was on his way up to his hotel room when he spotted the young boy next to us wearing an Alfa Romeo jersey so he walked over to surprise the kid and that worked. The kid was over the moon and you could tell Kimi really enjoyed it. Then we saw the tax he had to pay for his good gesture when a bunch of grown-ass men surrounded him so they could take a selfie. You could tell he was bothered and he was finally able to make his escape. We saw GR twice and not once did anyone go up to him. Lance Stroll did have an encounter with a selfie taker, but he hardly had to break stride. Was around Lawrence Stroll a couple of times and he seems to be enjoying life. And people certainly left him alone. We saw Lewis at the track twice and he was really cool with the fans, and there were many, who wanted a wave and he seemed genuinely happy to oblige. I'm sure knowing there was an insurmountable distance really helps someone of his fame level. Zak Brown was also genuinely nice around people while Toto Wolff was the one who did the most to try and disguise himself and thus not be discovered. It was pretty interesting watching Toto try and avoid people. And he was pretty successful from what I saw - hug the wall, look down, walk incredibly fast. One of my favorite pictures I took that's not car-related was Christian Horner and Helmut Marko sitting down together having a deep conversation. Right after I took the picture Mattia Binotto stopped by to say something to the two.
Seeing all the cars up close was amazing when they were doing their pit stop practices. After watching FP3 and quali my daughter and I could tell the difference in sound between the cars. The Red Bull/Alpha Tauri cars, the Alpines, the two Merc cars, and all the Ferrari-engined cars sound really good. The Williams sound is just awful and the McLaren is somewhere between the two, but closer to the two Mercs. The Alpines had the most unique sound when they came out of the last turn and started hauling ass down the straight. The Mercs and Red Bulls/Alpha Tauris were the most similar, but the Merc sound was just a little higher on the tone register. And all of them sounded terrible when at the slow speed through pit lane.
Fans wearing Ferrari gear are in a pretty tough spot as there's really no way to not look like a total tool. The only way is probably to go way overboard. There was the half tool look - hat and shirt - and full tool look - hat, shirt, pants, and shoes. If you added a flag and some other things then maybe it was okay.
