(Motorsports news) Due to the heightened global appeal of the sport following its Netflix boom, the glamorous Miami Grand Prix joined Austin’s Circuit of the Americas on the calendar last year. This season, Las Vegas plans to surpass that with a lavish spectacle centered on its famous Strip and supported by the Formula One championship.
Although COTA president Bobby Epstein acknowledged that it can be “frustrating” when the attention focused on Miami and Vegas drowns out the US’s longest-running race, he insisted that the event will continue to be known as the “people’s race.” On October 22, 2023, the race will hold its 10th running since F1 made its return to the United States at the brand-new COTA track in 2012. With the exception of the 2020 campaign, which was disrupted by COVID, it has been a constant on the schedule every year.
At a media roundtable, Epstein was asked if his event needs to set itself apart from Miami and Vegas. “I don’t think we’re doing anything different, actually, because what’s nice is that the other events as they came in each tried to establish their own identity that’s unique,” Epstein said. We don’t need to alter our recipe because it’s effective. One of the things we’ve discovered is that the people, not we, have defined who we are.
The supporters have commented that this is in many respects the race of the people. That name has come up frequently. It’s wonderful to see that, and we’ll do our best to uphold Miami and Vegas races. According to Epstein, the market is now large enough to support three US races since they can work together to increase awareness of one another. He said, “We witnessed that last year with the huge crowd that came. “That was a result of a mixture of more exposure in the US, including exposure from the Miami race, Netflix, and previous work.
“So, I believe that the Miami and Vegas races may serve as a sort of commercial and that they can be a great asset to what we’re doing. It’s excellent that the race is still going on in Miami in May because it enables us to simply catch the US viewer’s attention. Austin takes itself in offering family-friendly entertainment, and it made headlines when it adopted a ground-breaking strategy by combining on-track action with off-track performances.
Taylor Swift attended COTA in 2016, but this year’s lineup for the October festival has Queen and The Killers. Traditional race fans initially criticized its tactics, but Liberty Media has pushed promoters to offer more entertainment for a larger audience, and it has now become a model for other races to follow. “When we initially started incorporating music into it, we created a lot of noise in the sense that the purists said: ‘What are you doing, you’re killing the sport,’ when in reality we were just providing the client with additional value.
“Now, I believe that in the future, people will look back on this and realize that we were really acting in the best interests of the fans and the family members who want to attend the event and attempting to make it appeal to a wider audience.” Epstein thinks the facility “will have the capacity for” that number by next year, which is what COTA previously stated it wanted to be the first F1 grand prix to achieve.
He is optimistic that Red Bull’s dominance and stagnant TV statistics won’t necessarily stop the expansion of his event to Vegas and Miami because of the US GP’s entertainment-focused strategy. You must consider the date that the event’s tickets went on sale, he advised. “You could say that people aren’t necessarily coming for the competition if your event is in June or July and it is sold out in January.
“I believe there are a variety of reasons why people go to live Formula 1 races,” COTA has began selling tickets on a wide range of channels in recent years, including store Costco, where three-day general admission vouchers are sold starting at $350, in order to reach that number, up from last year’s record of 440,000 visitors.
Epstein acknowledged that it has been “hard to get our message out” due to the commotion surrounding Miami and Vegas, as well as media attention around the latter’s $10,000 tickets and $1 million VIP packages. In addition, “the media have given so much coverage to the expensive tickets and the jaw-dropping prices, and the $10,000 tickets or the million dollar packages in Vegas,” Epstein continued.
“We want to spread the word that a ticket to the US Grand Prix at COTA has value and that not everything requires a $10,000 ticket. And spreading our message has been challenging. We’ve sold thousands of tickets that way, so it’s a tremendous boost that someone is noticing that it’s at Costco. “We are attempting to communicate to the customer that a ticket to the US Grand Prix is reasonable and offers excellent value.
“It is annoying. This week, I listened to a podcast that covered solely the US races in Miami and Vegas. And in some cases, I believe, if you don’t put yourself out there, no one will notice you. But we do have a really devoted fan base, so I believe we just need to be patient. When something new appears, we do not become alarmed. “In the end, it’s the fans that speak. In our eleventh year, visitors keep returning and the numbers grow yearly. It really evokes some of the customs.
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