Atlantic City approves ‘F1-spec’ track development in New Jersey

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In the round-up: The mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey has officially signed off on a development project that includes plans for a 2.4 mile racing circuit

In brief

Atlantic City signs off on ‘F1-spec’ track development in New Jersey

The disused airfield at Bader Park is being transformed with a $3 billion dollar development package including living areas, retail space and a circuit reportedly designed to ‘Formula 1 specifications’.

Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Snr signed off on the development proposed by Deem Enterprises yesterday. The project is estimated to take six to nine years to complete.

New Jersey was originally announced to host a Formula 1 street race at Port Imperial from 2013 back in 2011. The race was later cancelled.

Tsunoda not expecting too much from AlphaTauri upgrades

Yuki Tsunoda says he does not expect a lot from AlphaTauri’s upgrades coming at the Australian Grand Prix.

Tsunoda missed out on his team’s first point in 11th place in Saudi Arabia, overtaken by Kevin Magnussen in the closing laps. With the team one of only two yet to score in 2023 along with McLaren, Tsunoda warns that the batch of upgrades coming for Melbourne will not dramatically change their standing in the field.

“I wouldn’t expect too high [from that update],” he said. “Obviously I’ve just got to do the same job as the last two races, and even hopefully more. And if the car is good, just score points.”

Wheldon brothers gain Gainbridge support at Andretti

Andretti junior drivers Sebastian and Oliver Wheldon, will be sponsored by Gainbridge through their 2023 campaigns, Andretti has announced.

The two brothers, sons of late two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon, will have Gainbridge branding for their racing programmes this season.

“We announced in 2021 that we’d be helping Sebastian and Oliver to climb the ranks and develop their careers, and I’m very happy to welcome Gainbridge as a supporter in their growth,” said Michael Andretti.

“Both boys have continued to impress us through their karting competition, and Sebastian recently completed a successful test day in an F4 car. They are on the right track and we have no doubt they will continue to positively build the legacy set by Dan.”

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Comment of the day

With McLaren parting ways with technical director James Key, @shimks believes he still has something to offer F1 teams…

I am shocked. But not. I suppose.

I believe that James Key was a fantastic technical director for Sauber (when I became I fan of his) during the two years he was with them (April 2010 – February 2012) before being poached by Toro Rosso. Sauber finished seventh in the world constructors’ championship in 2011 and sixth in 2012.

I think Key did a good for Toro Rosso too, helping them finish seventh in the WCC in all but the final year where he had a major influence on the car. However, Toro Rosso finished ninth in 2018, the final year Key was with them, a sign that something had gone wrong.

Maybe McLaren will prove to be his bump in the road on an otherwise upwards trajectory. I believe (or perhaps I am just hopeful that) he is a great talent and will shine again at the next team he joins. Hopefully lessons have been learnt that needed to be learnt and he will come out stronger from this.
Shimks

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Gman, Sam and Harvey Pizey!

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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28 comments on “Atlantic City approves ‘F1-spec’ track development in New Jersey”

  1. Great photo “On this day in motorsport”!

    I guess NJ wants to add to Liberty US-F1…

  2. Let’s go! I won’t be satisfied until we have half a dozen races in USA … 30 race season let’s gooooo /s

    1. Seems that’s the direction. Let’s just hope it will be done on proper race tracks.

    2. This is a European sport. I really hate to see the direction this is heading. The rule used to be that any country could have ONLY 1 race. Before we know it there will be only 1 race left in Europe. Spa Francorchamps soon to be gone so we can race in Yankee World. Unbelievable.

      1. No Europe was asleep at the wheel & lost it. Welcome to the new reality.

  3. London is a more likely option than AC. That Port Imperial would have been something else tho. Drove it once, too good to be true.

    1. some racing fan
      24th March 2023, 3:39

      That was a really good circuit in an absolutely fantastic location. I don’t think people quite understood how good that circuit would have been (and how much of a pipe dream it turned out to be).

  4. Trump Grand Prix anyone?

    1. Springsteen GP

  5. some racing fan
    24th March 2023, 3:35

    OH PLEASE GOD NO. NO! NO!!!!!! (That scene with Steve Carell from the US version of The Office)

    Oh my God. Atlantic City is quite possibly the worst place in the developed world. If you think Vegas is bad, you have seen NOTHING yet. Atlantic City is Las Vegas trashiness x 10. It is so awful, it is honestly beyond comprehension.

    1. Beat me to it!

    2. Is Atlantic City still even a thing?

      I thought it died long ago around 1980, around the time the movie “Atlantic City” was released with Burt Lancaster.

    3. Also way too flat we would like to see 50m-150m height difference in new circuits. a other street no thanks!

    4. I hear it’s absolutely god awful all the time. But weirdly that makes me want to go and see it. Just out of curiosity, and I like Bruce’s song. Rather than Trump casinos to attract visitors (dunno if he still has them), maybe the tourism board should just focus advertising on ‘come see the worst place in the world’.

      1. some racing fan
        24th March 2023, 18:33

        Trump’s casinos are long gone. He bankrupted 3 of them there. Trump could not negotiate himself out of a wet paper bag. That being said Atlantic City, which is about 50 miles east of Philadelphia and 100 miles south of New York and the same north of Washington DC is the anal rectum of the American east coast. It is an abomination on almost every conceivable level- it is honestly difficult to comprehend how awful and unpleasant a place it is.

        1. Well-spoken and too-true.

    5. That’s great, we’ll put it with all the other overwhelmingly positive feedback.

  6. In the round-up: The mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey has officially signed off on a development project that includes plans for a 2.4 mile racing circuit.

    Why do you put these obviously ridiculous PR blurbs up as news? I’d guess hits. Ain’t never goin’ to happen.

  7. Designed to F1-specs doesn’t mean the planned track development would join F1 someday, but if that ever happened, it’d happened no sooner than this decade’s last year at the very earliest.

    I like the savage mug in the Madrid exhibition. I wouldn’t mind having one.

    Relating to the infamous Multi 21 case from ten years ago, I’d be unsurprised if a similar situation occurred once this season, like Multi 111.

  8. It’s strange that a person of Keith’s caliber appears to consider that there was no fight between the Redbulls because there was never a gap closer than 4 seconds. I personally enjoy lap after lap with the RB’s driver n. 1 trying to catch RB’s no. 2 and being unable to do so. For me, every lap was interesting just by looking at the gap between the two. It started with 5.8 seconds. It went down lap after lap till some 4.3 seconds. Then PER asked for authorization to push and the gap increased to over 6 seconds which coincided with VER slowing down. PER’s last lap was slow while VER’s was the fastest one thus bringing the gap down to just over 5 seconds. To me this was a good fight between the two. It also left me with interesting conclusions. Just like in Bahrein, the race pace of VER and PER is very similar and if this continues like this, the next races should normally be decided on the basis of who makes it first at turn 1 of the first lap. It also showed me that in the track in which the slightest mistake means crashing such as Jeddah, PER could cope with VER pressure for over 25 laps.

    1. Whatever floats your boat.

  9. As one aussie teached: “My dad always says you shouldn’t hit boys.”

  10. Great amusing video on the buying of an F1 car, the guy shows a lot of passion and knowledge.

    1. That was fascinating. I was really intrigued by all of the legal hoops he had to jump through just to get started.

  11. This has “failed Indycar venue” written all over it

    1. some racing fan
      24th March 2023, 18:35

      Let’s hope

    2. If IndyCar can race in Baltimore and Detroit, they probably wouldn’t mind Atlantic City either.

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