Liberty Media wants “high-profile US team” to join Formula 1

2019 F1 season

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Liberty Media wants to see another American team join Formula 1 as part of its plan to raise the popularity of the sport in the USA.

Speaking in a conference call today F1 CEO Chase Carey said the championship has been “talking to new team entrants” as it plans its overhaul of the sport’s business model when it introduces a cost cap in 2021.

“We have Haas as a US team, we’d love to add to that with a high-profile US team,” he said. “Down the road you’d love to have a US driver, that probably takes longer.”

However Carey still believes the immediate priority for F1 in America is adding a second race alongside the current round at the Circuit of the Americas. “Probably the first step would be adding that race in a city like Miami or Las Vegas,” said.

Plans to add a race on a street track in Miami have been repeatedly frustrated. The championship originally intended to include the race on the 2019 F1 calendar but has now postponed its plans indefinitely as the project is yet to come together.

Carey said progress is still being made on the race. “We’ve been engaged the last year there,” he said. “I think we’ve made good headway.

Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen, Haas, Hungaroring, 2019
F1 already has one American team
“We’re continuing with it: I have meetings next week with parties there, I had meetings a month ago there. So I think we feel it’s important, we feel we’re making steps down the road.”

He stressed the US market remains “important” for F1’s future.

“We’ve been quite public about our goal to pursue the opportunity in the US. Our television audience has grown well here this year. When you look at digital it actually has been a positive surprise because a few years ago we weren’t doing anything in digital so we started to measure the engagement we had in the US digitally.

“There are a lot more fans here than people believe there are. We are excited about those opportunities.”

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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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49 comments on “Liberty Media wants “high-profile US team” to join Formula 1”

  1. Then organise more Races in the US..

    1. However Carey still believes the immediate priority for F1 in America is adding a second race alongside the current round at the Circuit of the Americas. “Probably the first step would be adding that race in a city like Miami or Las Vegas,” said.

  2. Stephen Higgins
    8th August 2019, 18:40

    Andretti Autosport perhaps ?? Then again Penske did compete (and win !!) in F1 back the 70’s, so they’d have some heritage and still would have financial and engineering might to make a go of it.

  3. Haas: “We’re right here!!!!!”

    1. But don’t they understand that Americans are no fan of this cause it is not American sports. Just like soccer.

  4. I would be better that F1 team join Indycar (McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes..).

  5. Shouldn’t they say “add ANOTHER high-profile team”?

    1. Just re-brand (Sauber) Alfa Romeo as Jeep F1 Racing.

      1. I think Kimi is more a ford fiesta wrc kind of guy. Don’t see him in off-road stuff at the moment

  6. I don’t think a street circuit would work in major US cities.
    What other circuits are up to F1 grade? Indy?

    1. @Ipsom Indianapolis at least, yes.

      1. Most of the other high profile ones (VIR, Laguna Seca, Road America, etc.) aren’t, though.

    2. That’s the only ones. I thought Road America was Grade 1, but it apparently isn’t.

    3. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      8th August 2019, 22:51

      I would love to see a return to the streets of Long Beach

    4. Next they’ll be suggesting they should have an F1 race on an oval. Just to get the fans in the US interested because as we all know it’s the most important market in the word.

      1. Exactly my thought. Americans have never considered driving clock wise around an oval. Las Vegas would be the place as there is plenty of land to build a circuit and the weather is dry.

      2. See USGP 2005….

        1. That wasn’t oval racing, the old Indy F1 track only used part of the banked track. I’m surprised Liberty hasn’t tried to have a F1 race on the Indy Oval only.

          1. I actually really like the idea of a single oval round; its a different skillset, tech challenge, strategy.
            They could techpro every turn if it meant it was possible.

  7. On the place of Haas I would have given Liberty the finger for such comments…. it is as if Liberty doesn’t consider Haas high-profile enough!
    And what do they want? Some entourage of idiotic pseudo-celebrities showing off, taking drugs, firing guns and tweeting some moronic tweets?!

  8. That’s fine but I’d prefer an American driver to another US team.

  9. Don’t bother. How about an F1 team joining IndyCar? McLaren showed this is much harder than it looks.

  10. Although I would love to see another american team, with atleast 1 american driver, I can’t see this happening until the overal field has become more competitive and most teams have a reasonable chance of getting podiums.

  11. Why would they bother wasting millions on such a complicated sport when they are already part of Indycar?

    Indycar is better than F1 in every single way – and that comes from an F1 fan! The only claim to fame F1 has, at a push, is historic tracks (but these are getting less and less every few years) and faster speeds. Both of which don’t make for better racing and in alot of cases go directly against it.

    F1 will never get teams like that interested unless they make a serious effort to tighten up the rules and allow teams to become competitive from hard work and not money.

    1. You’ve got a point; IndyCar is certainly cheaper.

      F1 is such a challenging format, but I can’t imagine that there’s only room for one US team. It’s a test of manufacturing, design, logistics, training, and driver talent. IndyCar doesn’t come close.

      F1: Faster laps, faster cornering, blistering pitstops, much better-looking cars (well, that’s my opinion), tech differentiation, to name a few.

      IndyCar: Yeah, there’s more passing and close racing, but it plods along visibly slower, and sometimes the passing just doesn’t seem meaningful. When someone passes in F1, it’s special. IndyCar and NASCAR it happens so often I don’t even care anymore.

      1. I know right? I mean, there is so much good, hard racing in Indycar it just gets boring having so much of a good thing! Now F1, those are some special passes. I remember jumping out of my seat as a slot opened up in the rear wing and one car whizzed past another on the straight. I remember the leader lapping the field up to 4th place, man that was exciting! It’s ok though, the cars look cool.

    2. I would write basically this.
      And add to that the Renault experiment: milllions of dollars and no podiums.
      Plus, as for American driver the question is: why to leave the biggest consumer/sponsor market in which he would travel 3-4 times zones and have a chance to win/podium every other weekend, instead of going to F1, maybe never get a podium, maybe be paid a little more, and travel essentially all times zones every month.

      1. True. The best drivers in the world want to have a chance to win, which they can in Indy.

        But spending much of their junior years winning championships to end up in F1 and only having a chance of podiums in a top three team? Nope, I can’t see the appeal!

    1. And a circuit at Mar a Lago lol

    2. Caddilac-Trump US Postal Race Force F1 Team

  12. high-profile right away…? they gonna need to talk NASA into this one – we can’t already wait!

    1. I was thinking on similar lines. Either as a team or “partner”. NASA, Lockheed Martin, Space X, Boeing (although they may want to outsource a provider for sensors.)

  13. It is easier said than done to have another good F1 team. But then again I doubted that Alfa Romeo would be back. Everything is possible, especially in 2021 with new regulations. Here in this poll:
    https://www.racefans.net/2019/07/21/how-many-teams-should-formula-1-have/
    I voted for 11 teams. Mainly because points are now awarded to top 10 drivers and not just 6 and then 8 as long time ago.

  14. Just what F1 needs, another kit car clone team. Who’ll donate the parts this time?

  15. I think John Deere or Caterpillar could make a great F1 race car. They just need to think outside the box.

  16. Laguna Seca

  17. I want Watkins Glen back, but alas the money to make it a Grade 1 Circuit will never happen.

  18. While I’m in favour of the likes of Andretti or Penske to join F1, the immediate question would be…why would they bother?

    The cost of entering the sport is prohibitive, unless you have a billionaire backer that is looking to sell some of his kit.

    If F1 want new teams (or manufacturers), they have to offer some short term incentives. Fixed minimum payments for the first 3 years for example, which will independent to the their finishing position. Probably allow them to do more testing in their first 3 years (reduced on a year on year basis).

    There has got to be something…why would anyone bother otherwise?

  19. The indy teams are racing teams, not car designers. Its hell of a mountain to climb, even if you are doing it the HAAS way and buy most of the parts. This is the problem, almost all high spec racing like GP2, indy etc are spec cars, F1 is one of very few series where the teams actually design the cars. So stepping up to F1 is a monumental task, even if you are a successful racing team.

    1. I think we’ll be seeing “customer cars” in the near future, along with a push to standardize many components ( wings, suspension, brake, ERS) to the point where you’ll be hard pressed to name any real differences between F1 & a spec. racecar. Liberty Media acquiring F1 virtually sealed the fate of the sport.

  20. The main reason I’m an F1 fan started with going to the USGP at Watkins Glen in New York. I was hooked back then, now with these corporate buffoons owning F1, all I can see is a keen interest in dumbing it down to appeal to masses of Americans. For me this does not bode well for the F1 that I’ve known & loved since 1970. I prefer the Euro-centric flavor of the sport & can only envision all of Liberty’s moves to increase its popularity here in the American market will diminish my attraction to the sport, as it becomes more & more like Indycar.
    Ah well, at least it lasted this long, I’m probably getting to where I’ll be senile in the not to distant future, so I guess I won’t miss it all that much when it is finally morphed into Chase’s warped vision of what F1 should be, to maximize the profits enough to satisfy their corporate greed. I’ll have to be satisfied with one weekend a year at The Glen to take in the vintage races :(

  21. RocketTankski
    9th August 2019, 9:16

    Tesla F1. They have the money, the tech, the Musk.

    1. Well he has the boring company,so why not The F*1ng team?

  22. Clever picture choice there Keith. I’m sure either Penske, Ganassi or Andretti would suit Carey nicely

  23. Maybe they could wean kids off automatic weapons and get them into karting?

  24. Forrest Rivers
    10th August 2019, 15:30

    Keith, why is the featured picture that of NTT IndyCar when the article is about Formula 1 ?

  25. the only team that is willing to become the 2nd US team is Andretti Autosport. They already have Rossi. But if the price is right, Andretti could do it. We hope Red Bull and Toro Rosso do not mind a 3rd Honda team.

    Then they have to look at the US talent overseas who can possibly make the cut as development drivers. Newgarden is already committed with Penske and Indy Car all the way, so do not bother asking Josef to change teams.

    But also: Michael may have to make a big investment into forming a Formula 2 team and acquire former feeder series talent who can coach them to become top drivers.

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