LAS VEGAS (1981-82)
Cher was in residency at Caesars Palace in the famous Colosseum venue in October 1981. At the same time, similarly glamorous F1 was nestled in the casino’s car park. For the drivers and few fans who did rock up for the two season finales, oh how they wished they could turn back time…
The significance of the race gained momentum when it became clear that a replacement was needed for Watkins Glen to bolster F1’s footing in the US. Las Vegas seemed like a premier location but, rather than making use of the Strip, the GP paddock was virtually hidden from view around the back of the famous hotel.
Car parks have seldom been renowned for their dramatic landscape, and so what resulted was a flat layout defined by repetitive switchbacks to fit into the designated space. That said, this was a ‘street’ circuit wide enough for overtaking.
Despite its status as the title decider, the prospect of Nelson Piquet (1981) and then Keke Rosberg (1982) sewing up their first F1 crowns failed to attract enough spectators through the gates for Caesars Palace to recoup its costs. Despite the success Rosberg achieved there, it was his least favourite track. Then came a move to Michigan…
dawn of the second ground-effect era, the Saudi Arabian
Grand Prix surpassed it.
ESPN’S audience peaked at 1.82million viewers for the
Jeddah event. That was 54% greater than the maiden 2020
Saudi contest, despite this time it not being at the business end of a title fight for the ages or a contest in which the two main championship protagonists collided. Only the 1995
Brazilian GP has garnered a bigger audience, when people then turned over to see how the life of Ayrton Senna would be celebrated in a race won by Michael Schumacher.
As the mass oversubscription for tickets for Miami and COTA – the Texan track has increased its capacity with larger grandstands in the final sector – also reveals, the TV attention is being converted to bums on seats. One of the many impacts of the pandemic is that, while lockdowns have forced people to remain indoors and resort to Netflix, as restrictions ease there has been an insatiable appetite to attend live events. The 420,000-strong weekend attendance at the Australian GP last month, the first F1 race in the country since 2019, is testament to that.
F1 has come an incredibly long way since it quietly departed
“WE FEEL THE VIBES, WE FEEL IT’S SOMETHING THAT NEEDS TO BELONG TO THIS COUNTRY”
the Indianapolis road course for the final time in 2007. Hamilton, winner of that Indy swansong, says:“growing up knowing how amazing this sport is and seeing there was still quite a disconnect between the US and the rest of the world in terms of the passion for this sport, it’s really amazing to see that finally we’ve cracked it.”
The Briton, who has the biggest social media following of his contemporaries and is reportedly in talks with Brad Pitt to produce an F1-based movie, continues:“there’s a growing love in the States. There are massive sporting fans out there.
“Miami is going to be an experience for all of us, for the racing community, for the fans out there that are watching, the fans that are going to be flying in that maybe have never been there before.
The US has a lot to offer in that space. It’s super-exciting.”
Cynics might argue that F1’s time as a Stateside sensation is finite. The bubble might burst, given the poor critical reception copped by the‘poetic licence’in the fourth season of Drive to Survive. Netflix’s stock price also fell 35% in April when it projected a loss of 2 million subscribers, the abatement of the pandemic cited as a factor.
But Stefano Domenicali, not unexpectedly, disagrees. Summing up the US growth, the F1 CEO says:“if you think where we were three years ago, it was difficult to have one [US] grand prix full of people. Now we are heading to a situation where this year we are going to have two events totally sold out. It’s giving you the magnitude of what the US will represent for Formula 1. We feel the vibes, we feel it is really something that needs to belong to this country. This is a huge opportunity.
“To think that next year we’re going to have three races in the
US, if you think again back a couple of years, you would say you are crazy. We are focused on making sure this would be one of the most important markets for F1, not forgetting of course that we were born in Europe, and we are a worldwide sport.”
With Michael Andretti and his investors sniffing around to buy a team, and the consistent links that Indycar race winner Colton Herta has to an F1 race seat, the interest has plenty of potential to remain. That could help write another chapter in America’s hate-love story with F1.