How F1 finally cracked America

The United States hosts two Formula 1 races this year, expanding to three in 2023, and has become a keystone of F1 owner Liberty’s strategy – thanks to a certain fly-on-the-wall docuseries and avoiding the mistakes of the past

Matt Kew May 6, 2022, 10:37 AM

A quarter of a million people pre-registered to buy the 80,000 available tickets for this weekend’s inaugural Miami Grand Prix. Little wonder they have since been trading for over $2000 – that’s 150% more than a grandstand seat at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas, which attracted 400,000 spectators last year for the US GP. They are selling for nearly seven times the cost of entry to the Indianapolis 500, and eight times the fee to see the Daytona 500 – the blue-riband IndyCar and NASCAR events that, last century, went a long way to capping Formula 1’s US appeal.

It’s the first time since Dallas and Detroit in 1984 that two American rounds have featured in a single F1 season. A night race on the iconic Las Vegas Strip will then join the calendar in 2023. For that, in an extraordinary move, F1 and its owner Liberty Media will promote the race rather than hand responsibility to a local organiser.

Share Or Save This Story

Author Matt Kew

Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.