TIL Housekeeping 2024
Pardon The Interruption
The Installation Lap is a weekly Substack column dedicated to helping Americans develop a deeper appreciation for Formula 1.
Happy New Year, Formula 1 fans!
First off, I wanted to extend a big thank you to all of you who’ve subscribed to The Installation Lap. Thank you! You’re interest in F1 and your engagement with TIL made the 2023 season particularly enjoyable and memorable for me. I’m so happy to (finally) see a groundswell of interest in this wild sport that’s been a part of my life for so many years.
Let’s get the biggest item of housekeeping out of the way:
Going Quiet:
TIL will be going quiet for a few months.
While we are all eagerly awaiting the start of the 2024 season, TIL columns will be pausing for a large chunk of it. I know this is a bummer, but it can’t be helped.
Beginning in March, I am setting out on a long walk. Somewhere around March 15th, I’ll be setting out on foot from Sintra, Portugal, and will spend the next five or so months walking to Palermo, Sicily. My route will take me through Spain, through France, and down the entire length of Italy. All told, the journey will be in excess of 2000 miles. Or it could be 25 miles, depending on how my knees hold up. That’s why they call it an adventure.
I’ve had it in my head since at least 2017, if not longer, that I wanted to walk the length or width of a country. Through a few fortuitous events and a Captain Hook-like ability to hear the ticking clock of life, I decided that it was now or never for this particular journey.
During this time, I will be relatively unreachable. This is by design.
Fear not! Upon my return, TIL will resume its normal schedule, and I will do my utmost to catch up on and dig into the goings-on of the 2024 Formula 1 season. I will also continue to write TIL columns covering 2024 car launches and pre-season testing right up until I leave.
*Paid subscribers have already had their subscriptions extended for free to compensate for this pause.
Audio Columns:
One of your favorite bits of TIL over the last 38 weeks has been the audio columns, say the tell-tale stats provided by Substack. I can’t say I was expecting that, but cheers to you. Thank you for listening.
Before setting out on my trip, I will be recording and scheduling the remainder of our audio columns. As you’ve no doubt noticed, the audio columns lag about 12 episodes behind our written content. You can expect those audio columns to trickle out every Thursday until they catch up.
My Other Life:
As some of you know, my primary work is as a Photojournalist and Documentary Photographer. On this front, 2024 will be a big year. I have recently submitted a draft of my third photobook to my publisher, Clawfoot Press! The gang at Clawfoot is going to run a Kickstarter for my book, which is yet to be named, and from there, the book will be available for sale via Clawfoot’s Patreon. You can read a bit about Clawfoot’s understanding of the book here.
We are all very excited about this. The Clawfoot boys have never produced a photobook before, but I’ve thrown in with them due to their exquisite taste, passion for making things, and general élan.
The book itself is a collection of photos from 2020 Los Angeles. During the pandemic and subsequent lockdown, I was covering the George Floyd protests all over LA. I was also spending a few days per week babysitting my godson and his little sister (ages 5 and 3 at the time), who couldn’t go to school, couldn’t go to daycare, and couldn’t stay home as Mom and Dad were working remotely, full-time, from a one-bedroom West Hollywood apartment.
Upon combing my photos from the year, the protests, and the isolated children playing and scootering in vacant LA cityscapes, a very interesting narrative began to emerge. I hadn’t considered them as one story before, yet they are so obviously connected.
We are all very excited about the book as well as the exhibitions and talks that will inevitably accompany its release.
I don’t know what the Venn diagram is for American F1 fans and Photobook collectors; as far as I can tell, it is just me. But if you’re in here with me, then you’ll be able to keep up with the book and its promotion via Clawfoot Press and my Instagram account, as well as my website.
Once again, I want to thank you for subscribing to The Installation Lap. It’s been a pleasure working to help foster a greater appreciation of Formula 1 this past season. I love the sport so much, but it can be deeply inscrutable for newcomers. I’m very happy that so many of you have found value in TIL, and I look forward to many more seasons of delving into the details of this wonderful but wildly complicated sport with you.
Hang in there, F1 fans; we will be back in no time.
Sincerely,
Aaron Guy Leroux
Thanks for the awesome write ups Aaron! Good luck on the walk through Porto, can't wait to see the photos from that trip!