The first Miami GP, which takes place this weekend, has generated great expectation and interest, taking advantage of the boom in fans of the championship in the United States.
But with other countries looking to clinch a race and Las Vegas already confirmed for 2023, it’s becoming more and more likely that some of the current events will have to say goodbye to their slot in the Grand Circus calendar.
Miami is expected to be a spectacular race, and the amount of sponsor interest surrounding the Florida event has already led some to suggest it could now be a bigger corporate success for Formula 1 than the Monaco Grand Prix.
Asked by Motorsport.com if events like Miami threaten other major events of interest such as Monaco and Singapore, McLaren F1 team boss Zak Brown said: “No. They have different geographies, they are different races.”
“People ask me all the time, what’s the best grand prix? And it’s like, ‘I can’t boil it down to one.’ There are actually quite a few that are,” he continued. “I think Miami is going to raise the bar for everyone. Singapore is an amazing event, just like Monaco, Silverstone or Abu Dhabi, even Australia was sold out this year.”
“People recognize the Super Bowl as the biggest sporting event in the world, but Abu Dhabi had a bigger audience. Maybe the World Cup final is still the biggest overall, but it’s one day every four years, and here we have 23 races, so there are 23 Super Bowls,” said the head of the Woking team.
As Formula 1 bosses try to juggle the introduction of new races with an already packed calendar, there’s a good chance some events will alternate in the coming years.
One recent suggestion, for example, has been that France could lose its permanent place on the calendar to be combined with the return of the German GP as part of a new deal.
Brown believes this slot-sharing racing scenario could be perfect for F1 in the future: “I think there are requests from places like South Africa, and we can’t do more than 23 grands prix.”
“At what point is it too much? Everybody right now feels like this is the ultimate. So if you do 17, and then you have five that rotate every year, you’re still on a 23 schedule and we’re keeping our economy going, which is important,” he said.
“We don’t increase the frequency, but we do increase the markets. There are a lot of sports where you play every two years or every four years. You wouldn’t want to have a grand prix every four years, but I think every two years works.” McLaren.
