(Las Vegas) Three American races will be on the F1 calendar next year: with the arrival of the Las Vegas Grand Prix in 2023, the premier category of motorsport continues its journey in the United States, giving a little more l American accent at the championship.
Updated yesterday at 10:50 p.m.
Another highlight for the announcement of this Grand Prix scheduled for November: the race will take place on a Saturday night.
“It’s an incredible moment for Formula 1 that demonstrates the huge appeal and growth of our sport with a third race in the United States. Las Vegas is a destination known worldwide for its excitement, hospitality, thrills, and of course, the famous Strip’, the city’s most famous street which has already hosted two F1 Grands Prix in 1981 and 1982, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said in a statement from Formula 1, the promoter of the F1 championship.
The circuit, 6.12 km long, will feature 14 turns and three straights, with top speeds estimated at over 342 km / h, according to the organizers.
The United States has already hosted a GP in Austin, Texas since 2012. On May 8, a second GP on American lands will see the light of day in Miami, Florida.
The arrival of this new race “underlines the enormous enthusiasm and excitement of the United States for Formula 1”, at a time when the discipline “continues to develop its global fan base”, Formula 1 said.
Las Vegas had already hosted two F1 Grands Prix in 1981 and 1982.
New record ?
The announcement of this new race comes at a time when the calendar for the 2022 season includes a record total of 23 Grands Prix.
If several of the races contested this year are not yet guaranteed to be on the calendar next year – in particular the GP of France-Stefano Domenicali had assured earlier in March that there is “potential to go up to 24 » Grands Prix in a season.
With the growing interest of local organizers to host F1, Domenicali had even assured during an interview for the Sky Sport channel “that there is potential to go up to 30” races.
And to add: “in addition to America, in addition to China, I think there is also a potential to be in Africa soon”, where the last GP on the continent dates back to 1993 in South Africa. .
At the expense of European races? The Concorde Accords governing F1’s governance and revenue distribution currently limit the number of races per season to 24.
Audience boom
Along with Asia and the Middle East, the United States currently represents one of the priority markets for the single-seater world championship, itself being controlled by the American group Liberty Media, which acquired the commercial rights to F1 in 2017, ending 40 years of reign of Briton Bernie Ecclestone.
The arrival of a third American GP in 2023 therefore further marks F1’s desire to establish itself in the land of IndyCar and NASCAR, where the series produced by Netflix “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” is enjoying great success since its launch in 2019.
The races broadcast in the land of Uncle Sam today testify to the growing interest of the public: the hotly contested 2021 season between the Briton Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) gathered an average of 934,000 viewers per race… i.e. 54% more than in 2020-and well above the previous audience record set at an average of 748,000 in 1995.
On the circuits, if F1 already has an American team with Haas since 2016, its compatriot Andretti Autosport would now also like to join the grid from 2024.
Michael Andretti, owner of the eponymous team evolving in IndyCar in the United States, would have according to his entourage made a request at the beginning of 2022 to the International Automobile Federation (FIA) to join the championship.