It is as clear as day, the image captured on video during the closing stages of the American Grand Prix in Texas, dropping jaws of people everywhere who are getting a gander at this video. The cars were racing and it looked like a traditional lap under the Texas sun when suddenly this shadow is cast of a gigantic bird with a full wingspread as it flies over the Grand Prix track. What makes this image rather eerie is the size of the shadow. It is bigger than the cars in this race, which you can see in the video below.
The American Grand Prix was held in Austin, Texas, this Sunday and the many traditions that go along with a Grand Prix were present. The forever contest between Mercedes and Ferrari was going strong through this race, but it was “the former who reigned supreme ,” according to Give Me Sports . The 56-lap race demonstrated some fantastic maneuvers between the various drivers from the different countries represented in this race.
The cars rounded the curves and took off on the straightaways as the race played out in Texas. Then as the laps were winding down, this huge, almost prehistoric size shadow was cast over the race track. The shadow glided within the scope of cameras that folks had fixated on the Grand Prix track attempting to catch all the race action.
The image has left folks baffled over what type of bird would cast such a huge shadow over the crowd. According to Give Me Sports , it was during Turn 1 of lap 48 when that shadow figure, which was “distinctly visible,” made its way over the track. The report also stated that it was “enormous” compared to the Formula One car that it flew over.
The crowd was honed in on the race at the time, so there wasn’t a lot of looking up. The bizarre fly-over remains a mystery still today as the species of bird is still unknown because it made such a brief appearance in shadow-form only. Give Me Sports suggested that the public might be able to shed some light on what appears to be a very large species of bird, “if it’s even a bird at all.”
Was this an elaborate hoax or possibly an optical illusion of a smaller bird casting a giant shadow due to the angle of the sun? As far as the majority of social media comments, it appears they believed it occurred, with a few of them seeing this before the video was released.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYsgoqJi6mA
Social media got right on this mystery, with many chiming in how they saw this and now they have validation that it really did happen. Here are some of the suggestions from Twitter users today:
“Anyone else notice the Pterodactyl circling around COTA?”
“Massive eagle crosses over #F1 track! #USGP”
“So I wasn’t the only one who noticed, nice! Thanks for the footage.”
“I noticed the bird shadow & thought wtf has my missus slipped something in my tea again, well done.”
“Did @F1 just superimpose a shadow of a bald eagle onto turn 1 or have I had one too many beers?”
“Giant bird shadow is from a Californian Condor # F1 # USGP # AustinGP # Formula1 # CalifornianCondor.”
Some folks had a sense of humor about the bird shadow across the social media sites, like the Twitter user below.
What was with the giant bird shadow over T1 there? More Liberty excitement? pic.twitter.com/molOgXrdOl
— Grand Prix Diary (@GrandPrixDiary) October 22, 2017
[Featured Image by Eric Gay/AP Images]