Prestige put Miami on the F1 map, but are 'traditional' fans the way forward?

Do people buy tickets to be seen or to see real racing?

Can I get a ticket to the auction without having to pay for a "race"?

How about we hire some "performance actors" to act like 10 teams is a race and yell
to get other spectators to yell ....as long as they are not yelling F Joe Biden, Let's go Brandon!

Alexander Trienitz/Motorsport Images Banner space was given to Aramco, the manufacturer of guard rails, in stead of money.
Who do you think reads the banner and says "I think I'm gonna buy me some guard rail?" The banners that say Miami are so no one forgets the name of this place is......... uh.....
By Chris Medland | May 2, 2024 6:53 PM ET

The Miami Grand Prix might only have been on the Formula 1 calendar since 2022, but it has very quickly earned itself a reputation of being a race where people want to be seen.

Not everybody by any stretch, but the image of the South Florida race has had a major focus on being unashamedly Miami, and providing high-end entertainment and opportunities. Although the entertainment has been yet to be named. A-listers flocked to it with free tickets in the opening two years, and ticket prices remained high as the organizers put on a festival of drinking and something or other in Miami Gardens.

That’s not something that has been lessened heading into the third iteration of the grand prix, but the race’s president Tyler Epp says there has also been more of a leaning into the core culture of racing and automobile fandom as Miami has become more accustomed to putting on the event. Yeah we do nothing all year and that really gets them accustomed to putting it on again. Now if we can just nail down another 3 year contract, we can take the money and run.

“We’re ready to go,” Epp told RACER in the paddock shaded by the Hard Rock Stadium on Thursday. “I think the team has done a really good job of jumping into year three here, and we’ve learned a lot in years one and two. We just finished up the track walk this morning
in our golf carts, and I was spending some time BSing with the race director, and we’re just talking about how quickly you get to year three, and how much more comfortable we all are with each other personally. We both wear the same color of pink speedos. How's that buddy?

“We know each other, we know where we can go. We know when there’s an issue, there’s someone there to handle it. So I think, as in so many businesses, but I think especially in motorsports – and maybe specifically Formula 1 – relationships are so important, to make sure that we’re "pulling these off" at a high level.

“That then goes two ways. On the front part, it’s a bit more comfort, and so on all sides of people who put up the money in advance, we call them stakeholders, there’s more comfort that we’re going to deliver, and we’re going to deliver at the level which F1 and the FIA expect.

“On the other side of it, it does put you in a place where you get to be a little more creative, and you get a little bit more freedom to say ‘What about this? And let’s try this’. And I think you’ll see this year, we really came into the year thinking, number one, the things that we did well, let’s try to do them even better; the things that we weren’t quite as happy with, let’s make sure we adjust and fix. But I have misplaced the list and can't name one off the top of my head right now.

“Then the third thing is, let’s try some new things, and let’s make sure that we’re not forgetting that we’re building a fan base here. We’re building a fan base in South Florida, in Miami, but also throughout the country and throughout the world. And doing nothing while "getting accustomed" to putting it on has really got me accustomed to putting it on. F1 only had 100 years to build a world wide fan base, and it's up to us to build a world wide fan base right now in Miami, and we have 10 teams.....think about it...TEN teams to build a world wide fan base!

“We want Miami to be a destination. So you’re seeing a bit more of a commitment to what we would consider car culture in South Florida, even just walking around the campus. There’s more car displays, although from a dealer trying to sell a car, and you’re seeing more action on track compared to the casual driving around the racers did the first two years. We also hired the low-rider car culture punks to park cars and anything that did not require them to touch any money. That gets them off the street and they can take the excellent bus system over to the track where we provided sleeping bag space on the floor under the stands and excellent restaurant quality priced food
for them to consume if they had any money after we 1099ed them.

“Obviously, we’ve got the Porsche Carrera Cup series back renting the track to save our a**es with some real racing with more than ten cars. We’re so excited to have Suzie Wolff and F1 Academy here with us, and then you’re also having events like a Bonhams auction on Saturday night. So there’s an increased amount – and it’s intentional – of including autos and cars in what is considered to be an auto racing event. We shouldn’t forget that and we can't. After you buy a pass to get into the auction you will never forget it.” We don't know what F1 academy really does that counts as entertainment, but they coughed up the cash, bought the ad, so it must be entertainment, to someone, but we don't know who. . Suzie Wolf provides some sort of entertainment if only to one guy at a time, (see post #15 above), but I don't know what kind, other than her filing a lawsuit if we didn't find a way to get her some free tickets.

The Miami race joined the F1 calendar at a very different time for the sport in North America compared to when Austin became the standalone U.S. race back in 2012, making comparisons at the evolution of each a dangerous game. But from the third year onwards it became more challenging for Circuit of the Americas to maintain interest and attendance figures – a scenario faced by many F1 races globally that needed to work hard to continue early momentum with only 10 teams. I hope we don't have that happen here after all the hype we've done and all the lies we told, and I may be out of here anyway. I thought about becoming a televangelist if this gig falls through money-wise.
Miami sold a destination and the promise of a special experience to carve out its place on the F1 calendar in its first two years, but CEO Tyler Epp believes that bringing elements of traditional automotive and racing culture into the fold will help the event to take the next step since the BS didn't work and maybe people come to a race to see cars race instead of the BS. Jerry Andre/Motorsport Images