During the third Miami Grand Prix at the Hard Rock Stadium last weekend, Epp, a spokesperson, talked to the media about how having a third Grand Prix in America, like the one in Las Vegas last November, helps each race stand out. He said this allows them to attract different types of fans and make more money in a big sports market.
Epp mentioned that they had dinner with the Las Vegas team and exchanged a lot of information. Formula 1 encourages each Grand Prix to be unique and represent the cities they’re in. The experience in Austin is different from Miami, which is different from Vegas. Epp thinks this freedom helps them work together to satisfy the growing US F1 fan base.
Miami tried a sprint weekend format for the first time in 2024, like Austin did last season. However, it didn’t bring more people to Saturday’s events as expected, according to Circuit of the Americas chairman Bobby Epstein.
Despite this, Epp thinks the Saturday tickets sold well on the secondary market, where they’re resold after being bought from the venue. He said that a few weeks before the event, there was a lot of interest in Saturday’s activities, possibly because of the sprint race.
Epp mentioned that the midday start time of the sprint race wasn’t ideal, but it being a race instead of a practice session was crucial. He believes that having many people scan their tickets before noon and be in their seats for the start of the sprint race shows something about the crowd.
He thinks if they didn’t have the sprint race, fewer people would have been in the stands by noon. Despite some challenges, they had a great crowd when the sprint race started.
