Will F1 ever return to the USA?
After a nine-year run at Indianapolis, we are once again without a United States Grand Prix. As we all know, the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal this weekend will be Formula One’s closest brush with the USA this year. Indianapolis Motor Speedway boss Tony George is committed to attempting to revive the race at his track but given the uncompromising refusal by the American Automobile Association’s president Robert Darbelnet to do business with the FIA as long as Max Mosley remains at its helm, it’s possible there may be no future at all for Formula 1 in America.
Meanwhile, with the help of Just Marketing, George and the IMS are looking for a title sponsor and a network TV deal to bring F1 back to Indianapolis. Title sponsorship and a strong TV package are essential to helping pay for the race and also to promote and market F1 in the United States. But as the past has proven, these hoped-for sales are an uphill push in a country where F1 is so irrelevant. Let’s not forget that it will be thirty years this August since Mario Andretti scored the last Grand Prix win by an American driver and given the lack of American racers on today’s international scene the chances of that ever happening again seem exceedingly slim.
Still, George wants F1 back at his track and the IMS is the only place in the United States that can afford to pay for an F1 race. Equally important is George’s desire to establish the Speedway over the next few years as the unchallenged ‘world centre of racing’ with four major races – the Indy 500, Brickyard 400 NASCAR race and MotoGP and F1 Grand Prix races. MotoGP comes to Indianapolis for the first time this September and George wants to bring F1 back in the next few years to add panache to the IMS’s 100th birthday.
Next year is the hundredth anniversary of the Speedway’s opening in 1909. The hundredth anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 takes place two years later in 2011 and the celebrations will extend through 2016 when the 100th running of the 500 takes place.
So while it may not be the ideal venue aesthetically to either drivers or fans the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the only likely and future home of the United States Grand Prix. In the end, of course, it will all depend on Max Mosley and the FIA’s ability to do business in America.
Filed under: Blogs, Events, Formula 1, Personalities
Tags: Indy 500
He’s been there and seen it all, but GK’s finger is still very much on the pulse of modern US racing. After over 30 years as the American editor of Autosport, he remains one of the most outspoken and authoritative voices on the US scene. Gordon is now Motor Sport’s US editor and monthly columnist, shedding light on everything that is happening on the other side of the Atlantic. 
Aleš Norský:
June 6th, 2008 2:11pm
Hopefully it could happen, but somehow I feel that Mr. Bernard Ecclestone would have a say in it as well.
Bill:
June 7th, 2008 6:38am
I for one sincerely hope it does come back. I think the IMS has done a tremendous job courting fans, uniquely in the sport. I can't speak for all circuits, but the ones I have attended do not allow you to walk the circuit prior to race day whereas IMS allows you to any grandstand seat, reserved or not, until race day. This fan friendly approach kept me coming back all 7 years, constantly entertained at the many viewing points I could get throughout the weekend.
While Indy is not Spa, Silverstone or Suzuka, it is a historic place, full of charm, and the fri/sat access is second to none.
Bernie/FIA please bring it back! The American fans who follow you love coming to a home GP to see our heroes!
Steve Selasky:
June 7th, 2008 1:10pm
I have attended many a grand prix (USA, Canada, Mexico, & Belgium). At this point it would be "nice" to have the "show" return to "IMS".
However, as time goes on I care less about seeing future GP since the formula is so contrived, sanitary, and at time very boring. Accessability to the paddock is next to impossible.
My prediction. Look for an economic downturn in F1 as well……….
Pat O'Brien:
June 10th, 2008 4:37pm
It's an interesting conflict between the interests of the car manufacturers, whom Mr. Ecclestone has courted for the past 25 years, and Mr. Ecclestone's own interests. Daimler, BMW and Ferrari sell about as many cars in the US as they do everywhere else in the world and have expressed their desire for a USGP but there's no way that any government in the US is going to pay $30 mm to line Bernie's pockets (okay, he's willing to do it in the US for less than list price, but if it's a newly rich third world despotism that wants the rest of the world to know they've arrived, $30mm it is). How does Ferrari, the lynchpin in the dissolution of the threatened manufacturers breakaway, figure their interests are being served?
Scott:
June 15th, 2008 3:35pm
I've wondered why, aside from the dreadful precedent for them, the automakers don't subsidize the USGP through their own sponsorship of it. It's the biggest market for MB, BMW, Toyota, Honda, and Ferrari. Similarly, the teams need to be there for their commercial sponsors.
But that would be the ultimate for FOM, no? Charge the TV broadcasters, then make net income from the teams, too.
Charles Pastori:
June 15th, 2008 10:01pm
You wanna check the math on that? 100th running of the indy 500? I just got back to my arctic home (Baffin Island) from Indy and Montreal and I though I'd been to the 92nd running of the 500. Unfortunately I left the programme in my Montreal abode so I can't check but I don't think the old timers' disease has got to me that much. I do know it was the 30th (my 21st) Montreal GP though!
Bill Neapole:
July 3rd, 2008 11:28am
What makes the Canadian GP work so well is the proximity to a great city that really gets into the GP. To get a similar result in the U.S., you'd have to stage it near New York, LA, or Las Vegas, with lots of accommodation and other attractions…
Indianapolis doesn't cut it..!!
Nick:
July 21st, 2008 9:39pm
I really hope F1 returns to the US soon and I really hope its at Indy. I've only ever watched the race on tv but it just seems to have so much more atmosphere than some of the bland venues the Circus visits these days.
After all, what other 'new' (ish) F1 circuit comes with 90 odd years of instant history…
Nick.