After Liberty Media took over F1 in 2017, it achieved the unfinished mission of former F1 boss Bernie after nearly seven decades of struggle, conquering the United States.
This can be seen from the changes in the calendar over the past decade. The number of races in the United States has increased significantly. From 2012 to 2019, the only connection between F1 and the United States was the Austin Grand Prix, but now there are Miami and Las Vegas. Liberty Media has signed a 10-year F1 cooperation agreement with Las Vegas.
2024 F1 United States Grand Prix, Austin, USA, October 20, 2024, local time.
This European motorsport, which originated in Silverstone, England, could not even recover its costs by selling tickets when it first crossed the Atlantic to the United States in the 1950s. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Formula One was always traveling between cities in the United States, but it never won the hearts of Americans. Phoenix, Arizona was the eighth American city to try to host Formula One races. However, Formula One was far less popular here than the ostrich races held there. According to the Arizona Republic (1990), the largest newspaper in Arizona, "People would rather watch flightless birds race each other than watch Formula One cars. The number of spectators at Formula One races ranged from 10,000 to 15,000, while the number of people attending the Ostrich Festival was as high as 75,000." Since then, Phoenix has never appeared on the Formula One calendar again.
Las Vegas, which had a brief encounter with F1 in the 1980s, has now become an important driving force for F1's growth in the United States.
In 2023, Las Vegas will return to the F1 calendar, with a much larger venue and scale than the Caesars Palace Grand Prix held there 40 years ago. "Not to be confused with the Las Vegas Grand Prix." If you click on the Wikipedia page of the Caesars Palace Grand Prix, this sentence will come into view.
Unlike the Caesars Palace Grand Prix, which only used a parking lot as the track, the Las Vegas Grand Prix track runs directly through the main road of the city. Because of this, the race was forced to start at 10 o'clock in the evening and last until after midnight. Due to the time difference, Asian and European fans were almost unaffected, which saved the ratings of the Las Vegas station. However, it is difficult to say what attracted people. The Liberty Media, which is good at creating momentum, almost leveraged half of Hollywood. When Verstappen crossed the finish line first, the person waving the checkered flag was Justin Bieber. At this station, F1's ratings hit a new high of the season.
2024 F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, November 23, 2024, local time, United States.
Among all the blunt and barbed words Verstappen has said, one was about the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which he said was "full of hype and very little about the actual racing". "We have to remember what the core of this sport is and why people love it."
That said, Liberty Media doesn't care. In terms of ratings and financial contribution, Las Vegas is already recognized as one of the most successful racetracks. How to revitalize a sport that has already reached a deadlock is impossible to achieve with the support of die-hard regulars alone.
In order to break the circle, Liberty Media used all possible means, such as placing cameras in every corner of the paddock, shooting the documentary "The Drive"; changing the way the live broadcast is presented, such as adding team radio; and finding the composer who composed the music for "The Fast and the Furious" to redesign the theme song, etc. In order to truly enter the US market, Liberty Media signed a free broadcasting agreement with ESPN, the largest cable TV station in the United States, in the first year of taking over F1. As the influence of F1 gradually increased, Liberty Media was able to re-sign the broadcasting rights with ESPN, and the current offer is close to 100 million US dollars per year. By the way, media copyright is also the main source of F1's current revenue.
F1 and the sport's governing body the FIA have officially approved Cadillac to compete starting in 2026.
Liberty Media is still adding more "American elements" to F1. Cadillac, a subsidiary of General Motors, will enter F1 next season and will be the 11th participating team in the paddock. Another American auto giant, Ford, will return to F1 as an engine supplier for the Red Bull team. Since Mario Andretti, no American driver has won a Grand Prix in nearly 50 years. Sargent, a young man from Florida, tried to fill this gap, but he eventually lost his F1 driver seat due to his poor performance in two consecutive seasons.
Who will be the driver for the Cadillac team? There are many different opinions. Of the two undecided driver seats, people seem to assume that one will be reserved for an American. If this is true, and if he happens to stand on the podium in Las Vegas, F1's influence in the United States will undoubtedly reach an unprecedented height.
The F1 series ends here. If you are interested in F1, please check out the previous F1-related articles in the Q&A column:
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