- Last year, Circuit of Americas officials said the F1 United States Grand Prix drew an event-record 440,000 fans for the three-day race weekend.
- That record will likely be broken this weekend.
- Apparently, there’s no such thing as an over-saturated U.S. market for F1 racing.
- Putting another U.S. or even North American city on the menu, as crazy at it sounds, could happen with some creativity.
The Formula 1 racing series is in Austin, Texas, this weekend for the 11th United States Grand Prix.
Last year, Circuit of Americas officials said the F1 United States Grand Prix drew an event-record 440,000 fans for the three-day race weekend. Since then, the series has returned to Miami for a second time, and next month it heads to an already much ballyhooed race circuit being built on the Las Vegas Strip.
Ask anyone in Austin this weekend, and the word on the street is that not even his weekend’s temperatures in the high-90s will keep the Texas circuit from eclipsing that record attendance mark.
Apparently, there’s no such thing as an over-saturated U.S. market for F1 racing. Not yet anyway.
“No, I think Formula 1 is going to continue to grow,” said American Zak Brown, who is the chief executive of the McLaren F1 program with an expertise in marketing. “There’s a lot of room for growth. We haven’t even had Las Vegas yet. That will obviously work great for the sport globally.
“And in North America, our TV ratings, we have a new television partner. There’s, of course, the Brad Pitt movie coming out next year which will be global, but will no doubt have big impact here in North America.”
Paramount + is coming on board, and reports are coming more frequent that Apple is putting together a bid for F1 TV rights that will be large enough to get a lot of folks’ attention—even those outside the world of Formula 1.
As it is now, F1 is still working to gain a TV foothold in the U.S.
Viewership in the series stateside has flattened out at about 1.3 million viewers, on average, for F1 race broadcasts this year on the ABC/ESPN platform. That’s not significantly different from 2022 and is less than half the viewership of just about any NASCAR Cup race this side of the Daytona 500.
“I don’t see any reasons why the sport can’t just go from strength to strength,” Brown said. “And if you look at the size of our TV ratings compared to the major sports in North America, there’s a lot of room for growth. So, I’m quite bullish on Formula 1 globally and specifically in North America.”
That bullishness stops short, however, of any talk of yet ANOTHER Formula 1 race in the United States. Team bosses agree that three is plenty.
One of the problems with even dreaming about a fourth F1 race in the States is simply the big picture. The series is already at 24 races for 2024. The current Concorde Agreement—the basic bylaws of the sport—caps any season at 25 races. The teams, however, are finding 24 races are taxing enough for teams and crews asked to travel the world over course of 10 months.
Some teams have even begun resorting to sending different teams of engineers and crew members to different races in an effort to build in a little more time off.
Guenther Steiner is living it up at his team’s home race this week in Austin.
“I think the U.S. could (hold another F1 race), but I don’t think the Formula 1 calendar can,” Brown said. “You wouldn’t want to add a fourth race to the detriment of another part of the world.
“I still would love to see us in India, in South Africa and another race in Asia, etc., so I don’t think we need a fourth race here. And that would, I think, compromise some other territory where Formula 1 can continue to grow. So I think if we look at Americas—Canada, Mexico, Brazil, here—I think we’re in great shape.”
Haas F1 team principal and American citizen Guenther Steiner is a rock star of sorts at Circuit of the Americas this week as head of the American team. But he, too, is quick to at least pump the brakes on any talk of another race on this side of the Atlantic.
That doesn’t mean different cities within a region could not find a way to get in on the action. Alternating, or rotating, races within a region could work. The German Grand Prix worked out a deal between 2008 and 2014 where the Nurburgring and Hockenheim circuits alternated hosting that country’s F1 race—Hockenheim took the even-numbered years, and the Nurburgring the odd-numbered ones.
Could something like that happen if, say, New York or a growing racing Mecca like Nashville ever wanted to get in on the F1 act?
“I think that’s a question for FOM (Formula 1 Management) to decide if they (would ever) alternate,” Steiner said. “What the contracts are doing, we’re not involved in that one. I think it would be a good idea.
“In the end, I think it could work that you get more countries on the calendar and expose our sport in more countries. Going to 25 races? In the moment, there is no real talk yet. I mean, it’s in the contract agreement, or what you say, I haven’t seen it. But in the end, if they put it in there, for sure we will be asked. I think 24, for the time being, is a little bit the limit.”
Alternating between sites in a particular region would get Brown’s attention.
“I think 24 races is the max for people’s well-being,” Brown said. “But we need to continue to expand the sport. So I’d like to see a scenario where you maybe have 20 fixed Grands Prix and, say, eight that rotate every other year.
“So you have a 24-race calendar, but you expand the sport by going into other regions and other countries. That being said, I don’t know the economics inside out of how it works as a track promoter. So whether an alternating calendar is economically viable for the promoter, but I think that would be the ideal scenario.
“But, easy for me to scratch that out, more difficult for Formula 1 to put that scenario together. But I think that would be most ideal.”
Mike Pryson covered auto racing for the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and MLive Media Group from 1991 until joining Autoweek in 2011. He won several Michigan Associated Press and national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for auto racing coverage and was named the 2000 Michigan Auto Racing Fan Club’s Michigan Motorsports Writer of the Year. A Michigan native, Mike spent three years after college working in southwest Florida before realizing that the land of Disney and endless summer was no match for the challenge of freezing rain, potholes and long, cold winters in the Motor City.
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