Spring Break fever has overtaken Formula 1. In it, Charles Leclerc plays a catch with Jazz Chisalm Jr. at Marlins, Louis Hamilton runs with Tom Brady and Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris chasing James Cordon through the paddock in the cut-off paddocks. This can only happen in Miami. And it’s strange that it hasn’t happened before.
This weekend, F1 will hold its first race in Miami, as the United States is hosting a pair of Grand Prix races for the first time since 1984, when the series landed in Detroit and Dallas. But this time, instead of returning to Motown or Moo Town, F1 has parked its huge traveling circus here in the land of white sand beaches, neon lights and fading heat. And the local noise is not just a product of daiquiri and mojitos in the city.
This is another breakthrough moment for a sport that has long struggled to break into the American market. And while F1’s embrace on social media, Netflix’s Drive to Survive and Sky Sports’ cracking TV coverage (via ESPN) have played a big part in gaining viewers across the lake, many of whom wouldn’t be interested in motor sports to get started. It is interesting that the American seduction of Formula 1 did not start in Miami – America’s exotic flight abroad.
Instead, he bounced off the coast, stayed in Central America, and blew himself up in Indianapolis – and not in a good way. (Austin, however, is cool, weird, and managed to consolidate Formula One in the United States.) Closest to Miami that the series has ever reached is Sebring, Florida, a legendary three-hour north race venue that served as a backdrop for the one-off 1959 US Grand Prix
But, of course, that was before the Americans from Liberty Media took over Formula 1 in 2017 in order to make the global hippopotamus nationally relevant. While Long Beach, Watkins Glen and other long-time US Grand Prix venues have their charm, Miami has always been the closest thing America has to a real Formula One city. – Last but not least, Hamilton. There is a culture of pathetic excesses, screaming cars and racing between the stop lights. The glittering coast of Miami has all the intoxicating attributes: large yachts, tanned bodies, colorful deco architecture and water that is literally permeated with prescription drugs.
IndyCar raced here in the ’80s and’ 90s, Nascar hosted the season finale at nearby Homestead for nearly two decades, and Formula E raced around Biscayne Bay in 2015. Indeed, you’ll be hard-pressed to find more. perfect place for a postcard for an F1 race. With Las Vegas on schedule next year, this is clearly just the tip of the American expansion of Formula One.
And yet Miami wouldn’t be Miami if it weren’t for the trafficking of illusions. Although Formula One is battling to race in the center of the city’s iconic coastline, it spins half an hour north of downtown Miami Gardens, the dormitory that is home to Miami Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium; after all, an influential neighborhood association might not like this new Miami sound machine with noise pollution and traffic difficulties. (Formula E cars, with their almost silent electric motors, at least bypassed the first concern.)
The race itself will be followed by a makeshift 5.4-kilometer street circuit around the stadium, under an overpass on the highway, which will certainly stop once things turn green. In an attempt to bring more of this taste to Tubbs and Crockett in the race – appropriately sponsored by a cryptocurrency firm as Miami seeks to become a blockchain Wall Street – organizers added a pool area, two cabin floors and a fake marina. which looks like something from Minecraft. But it’s not just the Normos who embrace the artificiality typical of Miami. Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Farrell are also expected to perform.
A replica of the Miami marina on the runway. Photo: Ricardo Arduengo / Reuters
Seven years ago, at the US Grand Prix in Austin, Hamilton was openly puzzled about how to get Americans into Formula One at a pre-race press conference. Entering the stage here at a sponsorship event earlier this week, he called the Miami Grand Prix a “dream.”
But not everyone is passionate about the fun. Miami Gardens, Florida’s largest city with a majority of blacks, has feared the arrival of this motorsport superbowl since their attempts to send the race elsewhere thwarted three years ago. In 2020, a group of residents led by former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Betty Ferguson sued Formula One, Hard Rock Stadium, the Dolphins and former Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Jimenez for racial discrimination. “This is environmental racism,” Ferguson said, “pure and simple.”
Last May, a recall election was called for the removal of council members who had voted to postpone the race to Miami Gardens. (In the end, the withdrawal effort failed to gather the required number of signatures to start voting.) Worse than those lawmakers who went to bed with Formula One, residents felt as if they had agreed to a bad deal – one that promises only $ 5 million in public aid and 5% of the city’s revenue. So a total of about $ 25 million. Moreover, Miami Gardens have been locked in the deal for a decade, with Formula One President Stefano Domenicali promising to leave a “positive and lasting contribution to the people of the local community.” It does not matter that the injured residents swore to fight.
This is a hidden contradiction that puts Miami right in the league with Sochi, Saudi Arabia and other suspicious F1 crashes. So it is believed that the Grand Prix will finally end here. Hamilton’s neon dream is now more than a stormy carnival of serious Formula 1 escapes. It’s a proper return home.
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