10 years ago today, in a small bar in North Beach, a group of F1 fans got together and started watching Grand Prix racing in San Francisco. Back then, a full season in 2005 wasn’t the easiest course to map out trying to put together people, bars, lofts and any venue that would host wayward F1 fans to watch the races together, but the first season was a success. From these humble beginnings, and more than one opinion on how and where to watch the races, the San Francisco Formula 1 has grown and now celebrates it’s second decade bringing together hundreds of F1 fans every season around the Bay Area with an estimated 1,500 members staying in touch with the latest news, events, and gatherings held by the group.
Having organized events in years past, the group’s been able to enjoy some great experiences together. We’ve toured Tesla Motors in their early days on the San Francisco peninsula, Canepa Design’s museum and shop in Scotts Valley, Vijay Mallya’s car collection in Sausalito, Historics in Monterey, and several USGPs.
In addition to events like these we also welcomed SENNA director Asif Kapadia to San Francisco in 2011, where he held a special pre-release screening and held a lengthy Q&A with members and signed movie posters until late into the evening.
With much work behind the scenes, some recognition has come to grassroots F1 communities like ours, and recently the Red Bulletin joined us for the Monaco GP in 2012 and spoke to several members about the American F1 fan experience (p.70):
We look forward to bringing more experiences to our members in the future as we get ready to celebrate our 200th Grand Prix later this season, and thank F1 fans everywhere for making the San Francisco Formula 1 Group what it’s become today across the Bay Area.
-Peter Habicht (@habicht)
