Liberty Media Still Gunning for More American Venues in F1

In terms of their priorities, Liberty Media believe that adding another American Grand Prix is high on the F1 list. The owners are of the opinion that cities like Miami or Las Vegas are venues that should be explored.

Liberty CEO Chase Carey has made it explicitly clear that he is targeting at least 24 or 25 races on the Formula One calendar. For a long time, Miami was considered a front-running contender, as talks reached an advanced stage last year. Unfortunately, that was all put on ice when local residents put up a serious fight, with regard to the route of the street circuit.

However, Carey confirmed that the US is still one of the highest priorities on their F1 agenda. He also revealed that he has made ‘good headway’ in those discussions.

He said, “We’ve been quite public about our goals to pursue the opportunity in the US. There are a lot more fans here than people believe there are, so I think we’re excited about those opportunities.”

“We’ve talked about adding races in what we call ‘destination cities’ like Las Vegas or Miami. We’ve been engaged for the last year there, I think we’ve made good headway.”

“We continue to, I have meetings next week with parties there, I had meetings a month ago there. We feel it’s important, we feel we’re making steps.”

“We recognise that there are multiple elements in continuing to grow and build the sport, engage the fan base here. We’re making good headway on it. Probably the first step would be adding that race in a city like Miami, or Las Vegas.”

As mentioned before, talks for a Miami F1 race had reached advanced stages, to a point where a circuit layout was created. However, when the plans do resume, that layout will most likely be altered. This is because, promoter RSE Ventures shifted their focus to an area near the home of the Miami Dolphins, the Hard Rock Stadium.

F1 have also been linked to a host of other prospective sites, including Argentina, Morocco, South Africa and, recently and controversially, Saudi Arabia.