Formula One has hit this road before.
In the 1970s and ’80s, the world’s most popular form of auto racing looked like the next big thing in the United States.
Mario Andretti won the world championship. Three Grand Prix races were held in the same year on American asphalt.
Those were tough times, but they didn’t last.
Now, F1 and its US-based owner, Liberty Media, are making another big push to build a red, white and blue stronghold in a country where it has long been overshadowed by other ways of moving forward. Has happened.
From the popularity of Netflix’s documentary series Drive to Survive to a second race in Miami next year to a new American team and driver’s rumble centered around the famous Andretti name, there’s plenty of reason for optimism.
I want to see the fan base here awaken, Andretti, 81, said Friday when he arrived at his office in Pennsylvania. This is the Olympics of our sport.”
His son Michael, who had a brief, unhappy stint as a Formula One driver in 1993 and now owns a massive racing operation with cars spread across the globe, is leading one of the most exciting events ever.
Michael is reportedly closing in on a deal to buy the Alfa Romeo F1 team and put American IndyCar star Colton Huerta in one of the cars.
The series hasn’t had a full-time American driver since Scott Speed in 2007.
Mario Andretti said it is important to bring domestic drivers into Formula One to truly awaken the potential American fan base. He believes 21-year-old Herta has the talent, background and passion to achieve great success on the biggest racing stage in the world.
Andretti said that nothing would be more helpful than an American driver carrying not only an American team but an American driver taking our colours. I would bet my reputation on Colton. I see a lot in this young lad. Such talent does not come along everyday.
Formula One appeared to be on the verge of a major breakthrough in America when Andretti became only the second American to capture the world championship in 1978, winning six races in his iconic black-and-gold Lotus.
Even though his unparalleled resume includes victories at the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500, the Formula One title remains a significant milestone in Andretti’s career.
I fell in love with motor racing because of Formula One, said Andretti, who was born in Italy and immigrated to America as a teenager. I will always be indebted to the opportunities I have been given in this country… but Formula One was always the ultimate ambition.
Riding the Andretti wave, Formula One hastened to set up shop across America.
They ran on the streets of Long Beach. They ran into the dusty parking lot of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. He ran around the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. They ran along the riverfront in Detroit.
Then, in the blink of an eye, Formula One went from America.
Andretti went back to IndyCar racing. The Long Beach and Detroit races also moved to the American open-wheel series. The widely banned Caesars Palace Grand Prix lasted just two years. The Dallas Grand Prix was gone after a year, primarily remembered for a track that disintegrated in the blistering Texas heat.
Andretti isn’t sure what would have happened if I had known, I would have bottled it and sold it to you first, he jokes but he adds that it was probably too temporary. Hastily assembled road races, especially Las Vegas and Dallas, looked like night-flying races with little staying power.
The last storm was a foggy road race through downtown Phoenix that drew embarrassingly sparse crowds. When it quietly disappeared in 1991 after a three-year run, there’s no evidence anyone noticed.
As NASCAR’s popularity skyrocketed and some American drivers considered pursuing a career in Formula One, America did not have a single event on the Grand Prix schedule for nine long years.
The US Grand Prix returned in 2000 to the new roadway through the iconic grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But an initial explosion of popularity quickly faded, and one of the biggest defeats in the sport’s history was a tire dispute in 2005 that saw only six cars ply the track, essentially burning all bridges at Indy.
Since its revival at the Circuit of the Americas outside Austin in 2012, the US Grand Prix has featured strong crowds and some nifty racing on a state-of-the-art, 3.4-mile road course.
But Liberty Media wants Formula One to have more of a presence in the United States than a weekend blip on the calendar coming in the center of Texas.
They were so eager to get the second American race on the calendar that they settled for a parking lot race around Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL Dolphins, stopping at every turn to hold a street race on the glamorous Miami waterfront.
While racing purists were met with groans, Andretti said the Miami event, scheduled for next May, is a far cry from the Caesars Palace and Dallas races all those years ago.
I know a lot of preparation and investment has really gone into Miami. It’s huge, he said. They really have ambitions to make it one of the biggest races in the world.”
If done properly, there is nothing to stop the two races from succeeding in the United States.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton said it’s such a big country, having just one race here isn’t enough to really tap into the sporting culture here and bring fans on the journey with them. With Max Verstappen in a tight fight for this year’s championship.
For that matter, Liberty is already vying for a third American race. A return to Las Vegas this time properly is at the top of its wish list.
Naturally, drivers are concerned about Liberty adding too many races to an already crowded schedule.
The 2022 season will see a record 23 events on five continents, and series owners have their sights set on growing that to 25 races per year.
Obviously, the biggest goal of Formula One is to conquer America.
This time it just might.
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Paul Newbery is a national sports columnist for the Associated Press. Write to her at pnewberry(at)ap.org or https://twitter.com/pnewberry1963 and see her work at https://apnews.com/search/paulnewberry.
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Disclaimer: This post has been self-published from the agency feed without modification and has not been reviewed by an editor
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