“Thursday afternoon the Miami City Commission approved Resolution No.22 to “bring the Formula 1 Racing Circuit to the City of Miami for the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix from 2019 to 2028.” A U.S. expansion of the famed European racing league has been variously attempted for years; it’s a top priority for Liberty Media Corp., the new F1 owner. Las Vegas and New York (technically, New Jersey) have also been discussed.”
“F1 presents a serious economic opportunity to host locations, given its 500 million global fans and 21 races across five continents, broadcast to 1.8 billion viewers and 15 million followers on social media. Currently, the only U.S. race takes place in Austin. It delivered $2.8 billion of benefits from 2012–2015 and generated over 200,000 visitors over race weekends, according to data provided to the Commission by F1. In Miami, those numbers should only grow.”
Best case scenario we get another boring ass circuit where no one can pass, and the racing is boring as watching paint dry. Auto racing in F1 and pretty much every other popular franchise is broken. Just a bunch of sanitized corporate bullshit with 1000% more rules than needed that end up choking any innovation or actual interesting competition.
More races in the US could be a good thing if they were road courses. We do have 3 in North America: Canada, Mexico and US. I used to love going the F1 races at Mosport, Ontario, and Watkins Glen, NY, back in the 70’s. Both road courses. I really don’t like the street courses much except for Albert Park, AUS, and Monaco.
We also have Road America, Road Atlanta, Laguna Seca and many more. I know it will cost a billion or so dollars to bring them up to F1 standards, but it can be done if the will is there. The profits certainly will be.