Red Bull, Miami Fan Festival, 2018

Miami Grand Prix decision delayed again

2020 F1 season

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The Miami City Commission has deferred a decision on approving a Formula 1 race in the city until late next month.

The championship has been striving to add a second round of the world championship in the United States, with a street race in Miami its preferred option. However efforts to add the race to this year’s schedule were postponed following objections from locals.

The race promoters are now seeking a place on the 2020 F1 calendar. However the city’s commission has decided not to discuss a resolution to approve the race until May 23rd.

The proposed resolution would “authorise the city manager to execute the host city agreement and the park use agreement, in a form acceptable to the city attorney, by and between the city of Miami, the Bayfront Park Management Trust, South Florida Racing, LLC and Formula One World Championship limited.”

F1 has offered Miami a 10-year deal to hold a street race with an option for a further 10 years. The proposed circuit would run through the Bayfront area and cross the bay into and out of PortMiami.

Miami hosted an F1 Fan Festival last year during the United States Grand Prix weekend.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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22 comments on “Miami Grand Prix decision delayed again”

  1. The championship has been striving to add a second round of the world championship in the United States

    Wrong.
    It is just Liberty and those, who are focused on getting more money from race fees, who want another boring track added to the calendar.

    Championship and fans don’t want or need it.

    1. I’m a fan and do favourably look at a second race in the USofA.

      You seem to be more upset about the proposed track though. Not really made up my mind yet.

    2. Boring track, I remember that being said about Baku. The Miami track isn’t to bad, and I know by having driven it personally.

      1. Baku didn’t look well on paper first and I have to agree, it’s a circuit with spirit. But regarding Miami (which isn’t going to get realized, as it seems, fortunalety) and Vietnam, is the influx of a mammoth double straights glued to some obligatory turns something that the F1 calendar needs? I quite appreciated the Copenhagen street circuit proposal, but these two are terribly out of proportion with their surreal straights and a terrible need of current management to show they are giving the sport the right direction.

        To end it on a more positive note, bring the F1 to the Nevada desert and I’m all for it.

    3. Guess they didn’t ask your opinion on the subject… that’s too bad….

      Love it or hate it, you guys sound like a spoiled step son… “LIBERTY YOUR NOT MY REAL DAD!!!”
      At some point you are going to have to realize f1 isn’t “yours” to control as you choose. That right is reserved for the owners.

      1. BlackJackFan
        10th April 2019, 2:48

        “Liberty YOU’RE not my real dad!!!”

  2. The more the proposed 2nd US race in Miami and or the decisions on it get postponed the more likely it’s starting to look that it won’t ever happen after all just like with the NJ race at Port Imperial early this decade.

  3. Really good news. That proposed track should never see the light of day.

    1. @huhhii A lot of people took against the first version of the track. But the latest proposal has changed a lot since then and, apart from the ‘bus stop’ chicane, I thought it looked pretty good.

      1. @keithcollantine It is a bit better, true, but I’d still give it a pass. I long the days when Monaco was the only street circuit on the calendar. Made it feel truly special occasion. Now it all feels a bit lame when every other race is held on street circuit. F1 definitely don’t need any more of those. And Vietnamese GP is just around the corner… Sigh.

        USA definitely should have 2 GP’s though, especially if/when Mexican GP will be dropped from the calendar in the near future. I just wish F1 could visit a proper American race track which won’t need to be Tilke’d too much. A return to Indianapolis perhaps?

        1. @huhhii, in the 1980s and the start of the 1990s, there used to be multiple street circuits on the calendar each season.

          Three street circuits per season was pretty common in the 1980s, with 1982 seeing four street races – three of those races were all in the United States as well, with races held in Las Vegas, Detroit and Long Beach. The 1982 season had 25% of all of its races on street circuits (4 out of 16), and proportionally having 4 races out of 21 in a season is actually fairly similar to the trend in the 1980s of 3 out of 16 (about 19%).

          1. I know that, but I wasn’t even born in the 80’s so I don’t feel any nostalgia for those seasons.

          2. I long the days when Monaco was the only street circuit on the calendar. Made it feel truly special occasion.

            I wasn’t even born in the 80’s

            Then you’re probably too young to realise that Adelaide/Melbourne are street circuits as well and either has been on the calendar ever since you were born :P
            Or what about Montreal (since the 70’s), Singapore and others.

            Still ‘feel truly special’, @huhhii?

          3. @coldfly Albert Park and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve are more like hybrids. I don’t count them as proper street circuits. Too much run-off areas and their layouts are generally closer to permanent circuits than street circuits.

            As soon as we get rid of Singapore, the better. Never cared about that one.

        2. BlackJackFan
          10th April 2019, 2:52

          HUHHII – aren’t you too young to be so negative and/or pessimistic… Such views are usually the prerogative of ‘old codgers’… So, I agree with you about street circuits… ;-)

  4. Are there any existing USA tracks that could accommodate F1 without major expensive upgrading?

    1. *Cough* Indy *Cough*

      1. @ahxshades The version of the road course IndyCar uses is better than the one F1 used. But it’s always going to pale compared to the oval.

        1. Indeed @keithcollantine, I was fortunate enough to be living in Chicago and managed to attend all the US Indy F1 races (including THAT one) and a few of the oval races there. WOW. Huge difference, but they are different classes of racing.

          I live in Wigan now – looking forward to rumors of a Wigan F1 road circuit in the daily roundup (past the old mills – over the canal – round the big Asda etc.) . . . nothing yet though.

          One can but dream.

    2. Edwin Coogan
      10th April 2019, 8:29

      We do have road america, and f1 did run on road america if i am not mistaken, along with can-am series, and Watkins glen for 2, which could with some improvement be very good race venues. There is also the track in Utah, flat, but has had some good races with the imsa/weathertech series. I really would not like to see anymore street races, just not a fan of those,my opinion.

  5. I’d love to see an F1 race in Nevada desert, just around the corner to be able to see Las Vegas from the track. Such an event would be something, an amazing closing stage instead of Abu Dhabi. Moreover, it would surely pose a challenge with it’s scorching weather.

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