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ormula One has long yearned for acceptance in the United States, a market where it usually struggled to crack anything thrown at it.
Just last year – the 10th US Grand Prix of Lewis Hamilton’s F1 career – he believed he and the sport had finally found that sense of belonging to the States.
With 400,000 racegoers, it attracted the largest audience on the entire calendar, while more than a million more watched from the comfort of their homes in the United States.
Hamilton narrowly missed out on winning the race against Max Verstappen, but still left Texas buoyed by the overall picture. “I think that’s definitely our admission to the US,” he said.
Suggestions it might just be an anomaly for returning sports fans previously denied live attendance in the Covid-era appear to have been dispelled with a sell-out of 240,000 fans for this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.
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After all, F1 is trending in the US. Celebrities who have made their way into the inner circle in Miami include David Beckham, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, the Williams sisters, The Rock and Pharrell Williams. And interest is expected to escalate.
This is the first season since 1984 to feature two American races on the calendar. A third will be added next year with a Saturday night race in Las Vegas.
The last time Formula 1 raced in Vegas, it was in the Caesars Palace parking lot. This time, Hamilton, Verstappen and the rest of the grid will tear down the Strip, a bold concept unthinkable just a few years ago.
F1 as an organization is so keen on the US that they have even signed on to co-host the Vegas night race, while manufacturers looking to sell cars in the country are enjoying the growing American reach.
TV viewership is also increasing. Last year, viewership grew 58 percent, this season to date it’s up 35 percent, with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix proving the largest F1 audience on US television since 1995, at more than 1.5 million viewers .
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The sport’s bosses are optimistic about the American invasion, attempts at which until recently have been endless head-scratching.
In one of his last interviews before quitting the sport, Bernie Ecclestone spoke about why the US was such a tough nut to crack. He suggested it was too fast and furious and not lengthy enough for the average American. He also said the sport’s future lies in Asian markets rather than across the pond.
When Liberty Media bought the sport in 2017, it made its No. 1 ambition blatantly successful in entrenching itself in the psyche of the American sports fan.
Key to that success was the March 2018 launch of the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive, which many believed was doomed as that year’s titular protagonists Mercedes and Ferrari chose not to sign on at first.
But the series created the kind of theater — often invented but immensely watchable — that US audiences simply licked. F1 CEO Stefano Domencali said of its impact: “Netflix has played a very important role in reaching new fans and showing the emotion and drama behind the sport.” Such was the apparent success that other sports have signed up to make their own versions.
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And yet it is still early. ESPN viewership still accounts for a fraction of the American market — unsurprising to most Americans for a burgeoning sport — but bidding for the rights for 2023 and beyond has reportedly attracted interest from NBC, Fox and Amazon aroused, with F1 bosses looking for a reported £60million a year.
There is still a lot to be done in other areas. Formula 1 has at least one American team in Haas, which is at the center of Drive to Survive’s storylines thanks to the team’s volatile Italian boss Guenther Steiner, but still no driver. And Michael Andretti is pushing for a second American team.
But the last world champion from the States was Andretti’s father Mario in 1978, and the last full-time rider was Scott Speed in 2007.
It was the same year that a US race was scrapped from the calendar until its return in 2012, caused by the PR disaster of the 2005 edition at Indianapolis, which saw just six cars on Michelin tires over the race for safety reasons rest of the field rest .
If this was F1’s rock bottom in the US, last year was the polar opposite and the signs are that this is sure to be the most watched season in US F1 history.
For so long, F1 struggled to find a home on America’s shores from Indianapolis to Sebring, from Riverside to Watkins Glen. In 2023 there will be three, and the sport argues that this is just the beginning.
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