After a five year absence, Formula One will make a return to the United States this season, in an attempt to rebuild the popularity of the sport in North America.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway had the honours, when hosting the last American Grand Prix in 2007, but the iconic circuit is no longer a part of the Formula One calendar. Instead the race for 2012 will be held at an all new, purpose built circuit in Austin, Texas, with a proposed long term future for the American Grand Prix being the promoters’ goal.
Capitalising on a rich heritage of road racing, the new circuit uses a mix of challenging corners, over a series of gradients and high speed straights, to allow more opportunities for overtaking. The early designs of the circuit look similar in proportions to the likes of Watkins Glen, Road America and Laguna Seca, a far cry from the steep high speed banking of Indianapolis.
It has taken extensive negotiation and planning to get to this point, with development still taking place on the circuit in the build-up to the race weekend in mid-November. Already being viewed as one of the title deciding circuits for 2012, the event organisers and the FIA will be optimistic that the United States Grand Prix will have a prosperous future with American audiences.
However, if Formula One is to have a future in America, it needs to prove it can compete with the established home-grown Championships. As a country, the United States has an obsession for motorsport, NASCAR is the most popular televised sport in the USA, while the ovals that host IndyCar average 250,000 spectators per race.
This has always been the major problem for Formula One, its Global popularity has never managed to translate in America, particularly when compared to its main rivals. Both NASCAR and IndyCar are raced on ovals, where fans can access more of the action, and because there are more laps on shorter tracks it means that spectators are as close to the action as physically possible.
The cost of hosting a Grand Prix has also become a major negative for the reputation of Formula One, not just in the United States but globally. Countless racetracks have lost their grand prix status, not because they were unsuitable but because they simply could not compete with more wealthy rivals.
In the last ten years the Austrian, French, San Marino, American and more recently the Turkish Grand Prixs have all been victims of the ruthless F1 cull. One of the many problems with Formula One is that it has such excessive spending power, too many critics it suggests an air of vulgarity, something which has deterred many newcomers from following the sport.
In truth, it is hard to see how Formula One will manage against NASCAR or the IndyCar series, because while there is the fan base in America, it is difficult to see how larger crowds will be drawn to a predominantly European sport.
North America does have an existing presence in Formula One, mainly thanks to the popularity of the Canadian Grand Prix, which has built a solid reputation with fans and competitors alike. However the advantage for Canada is that their iconic Gilles Villeneuve circuit is already well established in the sport, allowing Montreal to be a regular feature on the F1 calendar.
The problem for the race organisers in Texas will be that they are moving completely into the unknown, there is no guarantee that ordinary race fans will want to travel the distances, or pay the prices that F1 demands. This is where the new circuit has to deliver when it opens in November, ideally it should promote the drama of Formula One as the season reaches its finale, something that might entice people to visit.
In the last ten years, a number of new circuits have become debutants in Formula One, with varying degrees of success and prosperity. Arguably, Singapore, India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have had the biggest impact, bringing new audiences and further exposure to the sport, justified by their continuation on the calendar this year.
Singapore became the first country to host night races in 2008, providing a new angle and a new challenge for drivers and teams. In the same year it also played host to the now infamous ‘CrashGate’ fiasco, implicating the old Renault F1 Team and driver, Nelson Piquet Jnr, in the process.
As a result, the circuit gained a certain notoriety internationally and established the Grand Prix, perhaps for the wrong reasons, on the race calendar. Spain has been another country to make further in-roads into Formula One recently. Thankfully for the right reasons, as Valencia has started to establish its own identity on the European Grand Prix in the last three years.
However, while the gamble to bring new circuits and new countries into Formula One has had its winners, it has inevitably had its losers. Bahrain and Turkey have found out the hard way that major investments in sport don’t always present major returns. Before the start of the 2012 campaign, the Turkish Grand Prix lost its status as a Formula One circuit, mainly due to the wealth of competition.
Bahrain has also lost out since hosting its first race back in 2004, as civil unrest and a fall in spectator figures have tarnished the reputation of the Grand Prix. While the event has still been hosted this year, the unease shown by the drivers and teams over the course of the race weekend suggests its future could be very uncertain.
While it is a daunting prospect to launch into Formula One with a new circuit, there is the suggestion that the United States could make their own impression once again. After all, America has an obsessive passion with motorsport and it appears, on face value at least, with Formula One.
However while America is eager to prove it can make a success from Grand Prix racing, the sport itself must prove that it can learn from previous mistakes, and give the fans a spectacle once again.
Since 2005, Formula One has always been trying to rebuild its reputation with American audiences, the tyre debacle at Indianapolis between Michelin and Bridgestone brought chaos to the race weekend and left many spectators angered and disillusioned with the sport.
The scandal involving Michelin arguably fuelled the sports withdrawal from America in 2007, and perhaps goes some distance in explaining why Formula One has taken so long to return.
The next challenge for the sport will be whether it can justify its place in the US and create a credible future with American audiences. If this dream is to become a reality, then Formula One must compete with America’s most established and demanding race, the Indy 500.
Along with Le Mans, the Indianapolis 500 is the only race which can compete with Formula One in terms of popularity and spectacle. The sense of history and nostalgia behind this iconic race is just as established as the history in Formula One, but this could be a blessing in disguise for the event organisers.
It really depends how the race weekend is marketed and promoted, and playing on the sense of history behind the American Grand Prix could be the driving force. After all, there is only one nation who enjoy sporting nostalgia and a sense of history more than the British, the Americans.
Will F1 crack the American market? Comment or let us know your thoughts @Formula1fancast
Carlo Abate George Abecassis Kenny Acheson Andrea de Adamich Philippe Adams
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