The 2023 campaign will be just the third Formula 1 season in history to have three stop-offs in the same country, with the United States enjoying the honor for the first time since 1982.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix, which will take place on a street circuit incorporating the city’s infamous Strip, will be the penultimate race of the term, following the now traditional outings in Miami and Texas.
The fans want it
The rapid rise in popularity of F1 in the United States has been powered, to some extent, by the popularity of the Netflix series Drive to Survive, which has accounted (according to Nielsen) for a 10% increase in fan growth in America since 2019.
The new Las Vegas jaunt, which will be the first time that the Nevada city has hosted a Grand Prix in more than 40 years, is likely to be one of the most eye-catching spectacles of the season, with the drivers roaring past landmarks such as Caesars Palace and the fountains of the Bellagio. Held on a Saturday night, it could make for an extraordinary addition to the F1 calendar.
The hope is that races like the Las Vegas GP will draw in a more casual audience that, in turn, improves viewership numbers across the U.S. – although astronomical ticket prices and the cost of hospitality, which have been estimated at around $7,000 per person as hotels in Sin City up their prices accordingly, could dampen interest somewhat.
Tickets for the Bellagio Fountain Club at the Las Vegas Grand Prix are now on sale.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) March 1, 2023
A three-day ticket comes in at $11,247. pic.twitter.com/ouQfgElQbx
The demands of the F1 schedule mean that for now at least, only 24 races per season can take place. With three American jaunts on the itinerary already, it seems unlikely that a fourth will be added any time soon.
However, rumors continue to persist about the possibility of a Grand Prix in New York – a street circuit in the Big Apple would certainly rival the track that will be laid in Las Vegas later this year.
But will it actually happen?
Big Apple Takes a Bite
Of course, the naysayers may decree that the F1 calendar faces an over-saturation of action in North America.
With the three Grand Prix races in the United States joined by counterparts in Canada and Mexico, it means that roughly 25% of the schedule is now hosted on the continent.
It’s no coincidence that Liberty Media, the American firm that completed the takeover of F1 in 2016, have been keen to enhance the sport’s footprint on home soil, where ‘rival’ motorsports franchises such as NASCAR continue to draw in mammoth attendances as high as 100,000 per race.
Stefano Domenicali himself has admitted that the United States ‘is a massive focus for us, there is no doubt about it’, and New York would seem the most likely destination if a fourth American Grand Prix – or at least if a new track is selected to host a GP on a biannual, rotational basis Stateside – is added to the docket.
Red Bull head honcho Christian Horner has spoken of his hope that the Big Apple is given a shot at hosting an F1 race, with the manufacturer even choosing to launch their RB19 car in New York ahead of the 2023 season.
“Racing in big cities in the US is really exciting,” Horner said. “A race here in the Big Apple, for example, what a spectacle that would be.”
There are other perks, too. Sports betting, and wagering on F1 specifically, continues to grow in popularity, and in that north-eastern corner New York – which lifted the prohibition on sports betting in 2022 – is neighboured by other states that have similarly relaxed laws on sports bets, including New Jersey, Philadelphia and Massachusetts.
So there’s no doubt that being able to bet on F1 in New Jersey and the surrounding states is another reason why NYC is a popular location for a potential Grand Prix – that’s one of the attractions of holding the street race in Las Vegas, too, with gambling firms queuing up to secure sponsorship agreements for the inaugural race in Sin City.
There’s a problem, however. New York mayor, Eric Adams, has previously applied to bring an F1 race to the city, however, Liberty Media outright rejected the proposal after Randall’s Island was identified as a possible host.
F1 chiefs would instead want Central Park to be the location, but that would present significant logistical issues, while Liberty Media boss Greg Maffei described the organizational requirements of hosting a street race in New York as ‘very, very, very hard’.
These things can, and tend to often be, overcome, but maybe we’ll have to wait a while longer yet before we see Max Verstappen and co zip past the Empire State Building or across Brooklyn Bridge…
Local Hero
Perhaps one of the reasons that F1 hasn’t previously taken off in the United States is the relative lack of representation on the grid of a country so steeped in motor racing tradition.
Mario Andretti and Phil Hill, two of the 58 American drivers to compete in Formula One, are both former world champions but their 1960s-70s heyday has been left in the dust – never forgotten in the annals of the sport, but totally out-of-sight and out-of-mind of the modern audience.
There’s Haas, of course, who continually gamely on as an F1 franchise, but their inability to make inroads – they failed to secure a single podium finish during the 2022 season – suggests American fans will find it hard to pin their hopes upon Gene Haas’ operation.
Michael Andretti, the son of Mario and a former motor racing professional himself, has been keen to bring a quality F1 outfit to the States for a number of years. His proposed takeover of Sauber collapsed in 2021, and he’s been eyeing a way onto the track ever since. Perhaps a partnership with General Motors and Cadillac will finally seal the deal.
Domenicali himself has stated that it would be ‘very good from a commercial point of view’ if an American driver becomes a mainstay of the grid, and in 2023 he may just get his wish…
Sargeant Calling the Shots
It’s been nearly a decade since an American driver competed in an F1 Grand Prix.
But the long wait finally came to an end in March when Logan Sargeant made his Williams Racing debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
P12 on debut. Loved every second of it. Big thank you and so proud of this whole team! A day I’ll never forget 💙 @WilliamsRacing pic.twitter.com/DHrVlJimR6
— Logan Sargeant (@LoganSargeant) March 5, 2023
The F2 Rookie of the Year has earned his place in the hot seat after dazzling in Formula One’s sister competitions, and has admitted that his own ‘high expectations’ mean that he isn’t feeling the heat in a maiden season in which he will make three outings on American soil.
“Hopefully I can represent well and make them proud. I don’t think it’s any extra pressure, to be honest,” Sargeant has said.
By 2024 and beyond, he could have a compatriot or two on the grid for the company. Colton Herta and Josef Newgarden continue to catch the eye in IndyCar racing – the former (who drives for Andretti Autosport, no less) has now signed a development contract with McLaren, while Jak Crawford, who won an F3 race at the Red Bull Ring last season, has since been promoted to the Hitech F2 outfit for the 2023 campaign.
How long will it be before America is celebrating its first F1 world champion in five decades, you wonder?
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