Formula 1’s American mistakes
Formula 1 has seen massive growth in the United States, this growth is thanks in large part to the Netflix show Drive to Survive which follows both drivers and certain team members throughout the race weekend and even on days away from the track. This show launched in 2019 and was a look into the 2018 season. Since then it has followed all Formula 1 seasons since. This has been a massive help in growing the sport and showing another side of drivers. This show also inspired many other sports to have similar shows, Including PGA with Full Swing, NASCAR with Full Speed and NFL with Quarterback and coming next year a MLB version following the 2024 Boston Red Sox. The Drive to Survive growth in F1 really took off in 2020 during the COVID Pandemic which caused many people to be at home due to lockdowns, leading people to watch more shows.
The next factor in the growth of Formula 1 was the 2021 season. After gaining a massive amount of new viewers F1 had one of the closest championship finishes ever. Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes-AMG F1 Team, battled and sometimes crashed with each other in the quest for the Formula 1 Drivers World Championship. Max was going for his first ever championship and Lewis was going for a record setting eighth championship. This season got fans from Drive to Survive engaged more and even got the attention of people in general. The final race came down to a winner takes all race in Abu Dhabi. Lewis would lead most of the race until a late Safety Car after Nicholas Latifi crashed. This saw a controversial one lap shootout, Max Verstappen had pit in case of a restart and was on fresh soft tires, Lewis Hamilton stayed out on old hard tires. Once the race restarted Max passed Lewis for the lead in turn 5 and took off to victory winning his first of now 3 championships in a row. This season was insane to watch and captivated the audience, but this season isn't normal in F1…
So how did I get into Formula 1? Well it was mainly Drive to Survive in 2019, one night at dinner my brother had said he was watching Formula 1 and that it had a documentary on Netflix. He had been watching F1 since mid 2018, even before the show. I myself had never watched F1 but knew about it as a fan of racing and I remember seeing many different drivers interviews from watching Top Gear. I had followed Lewis Hamilton on both Instagram and Twitter before even watching F1 and I remember a few moments popping up the trending tab on Twitter, including Lewis winning championships in 2014,2015,2017 and 2018, and his teammate at the time, Nico Rosberg winning the 2016 championship. I also remember Lewis getting a Ayrton Senna helmet when he tied him for pole positions in Canada in 2017. I also tried a demo of F1 2017 on Playstation once which was so different to play as I was always used to NASCAR and the ability to make contact. I had some knowledge of F1 before watching then, this is why I don't feel I fit the label as a Drive to Survive fan given as a label to fans online, I have past knowledge of the sport and also study the sport and have a desire to learn about the past which I feel a lot of newer F1 fans don't do. So my first F1 race, the 2019 Australian Grand Prix. It was an interesting experience, watching a different form of racing. One where the winner wins by 30 seconds on a regular basis. After that first race I was in though. It was weird to watch racing and not see my favorite driver up front, with NASCAR this was a common thing, being a Kevin Harvick fan in 2014-2020 wins and laps led were a common thing. To watch F1 and see Red Bull and Max Verstappen, favorite team and driver not leading and at the front was unique and gave a different perspective on racing. When Max won in Austria for this 6th career win it was an amazing moment and still one of my favorite race wins from him.
As Formula 1 has experienced massive growth in the US the last 5 years the mistakes have begun to pile up, as the sport has grown so has the number of races. The United States Grand Prix has been hosted at Circuit of the Americas since 2012 and was the only US race. In 2022 the Miami Grand Prix was added, this race is hosted at the Miami International Autodrome which is just a fancy way of saying the Hard Rock Stadium parking lot, basically it's another way the stadium can make money especially in May when the Miami Dolphins aren't playing as its NFL off season. The latest addition is the Las Vegas Grand Prix held at the Las Vegas strip, this race looks amazing on TV. So what's the problem? Well both Miami and Las Vegas are expensive, Miami tickets cost an average $1000 in 2022 and Las Vegas tickets cost a minimum of $2000 in 2023. I get it is more about the show and less about the racing but that's not sustainable, once the novelty wears off of the events and F1 in general real fans will be left with boring tracks, personally I wish F1 was at another traditional race track, I'm good with Vegas but Miami can go in my opinion, let's get Formula 1 back at Indianapolis like it was from 2000-2007. Having two races at proper race tracks, Circuit of the Americas and Indianapolis, and then one spectacle race like Formula 1 desires will help keep fans interested in the sport as well as having a big event.
The second and honestly bigger mistake than the tracks is the refusal to allow Andretti Global to become the 11th team, this would be a full on American team putting in maximum effort to be competitive. Andretti got engine support from General Motors with the Cadillac brand. To deny this team on the grounds of "lack of competitiveness and added value" is so laughably bad. I'm writing this article before the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix, so far there have been 4 races 7 of 21 drivers and 3 of the 10 teams are yet to score points, including car manufacturer Renault which competes in F1 as Alpine. So to deny a team for "lack of competitiveness" is ironic. Also to say that Andretti wouldn't be competitive when they have teams in IMSA, Indycar, Formula E, Extreme E and Supercars, that is a lot of different forms of racing and shows a willingness to compete and a desire to win. Next to say that the team wouldn't add value and to discredit the Andretti name is insane, Bringing in a GM brand to Formula 1 is big, when you can get a car manufacturer to buy in and join a racing series its always big news, Ford is joining Red Bull, Audi is buying Sauber and Honda is joining Aston Martin all in 2026. The Andretti name is a big name in American motorsport, It's up there with Petty and Earnhardt. Why would you want to deny that from joining your sport, Mario Andretti is a Formula 1 champion winning in 1978 and his win in the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix is the last by an American driver.
My thoughts are simple and are similar to many American fans I see online. Formula 1 only wants American's money and doesn't really care about the fans or making them happy. Formula 1 shows zero desire to include what American fans desire including a team that wants to compete and a race track that is both affordable to visit and exciting to watch. This is even more clear with the rumors of a Chicago street race, which is a clear move to try and one up NASCAR who hosted a Chicago street race last year, or the desire to host a street race in New York City. the other why this is made clear is with the report of the 2026 concorde agreement, which is the agreement between teams, F1 themselves and the FIA, to including limiting the F1 field to 10 teams which is the current number of teams down from a potential 12 as listed in the 2021-2025 concorde agreement. Andretti was denied joining in 2025-2027 and told that a re-evaluation was to be made for the 2028 season. Limiting the field to 10 teams would be done out of greed and the desire to permanently deny Andretti or anyone else from joining. This will only comeback to bite Formula 1 as they continue to try and gain American fans.