The Miami GP has come and gone. And likely it won't be forgotten, but it also won't be remembered fondly by many. And the sport's leaders really have to take a look in the mirror if they want to find out what went wrong.
To whom it may concern (be it F1, Liberty Media, the FIA, or whoever else. Probably nobody, but who cares);
F1 is a worldwide phenomenon, loved by many, old and new. Although, maybe not anymore. Look, I know F1 has been trying to crack America for years, because quite frankly us Americans love to just sink money into something for the sake of it. So, the opportunity was there. As an American F1 fan, I do not think you (those in charge) have gone about this the right way. At all. America is fairly large in size compared to continental Europe, so I actually don't mind that we have a second race in America. The problem is the idea that there is not anywhere suitable to race at, so we have to just make up "street tracks" somewhere. And then when we do, we have to just turn it into some huge gigantic shambolic show where the racing is an afterthought. In this way, Miami encapsulates everything that is wrong with Liberty Media's F1 approach.
Now, I want to be clear. that does NOT mean that everything Liberty is doing for F1 is wrong. There are surely some good aspects as well, but all of the bad aspects can be found in some form in Miami. First, the venue design. OK, I'm probably in the minority here but I actually think the track layout itself was good. Good mix of corner types and straights, etc. Even the chicane, I understand why it's there (because the track has to go over a road and then under another, with no runoff, so the cars have to be slow to avoid leaving the ground during the extreme elevation change and to have a slow corner where there's no runoff, so you need a chicane to bring down the speed). But some parts of it just don't make any sense, mostly in the surrounding area. The fake marina? Stupid. The podium being on the other side of the track? Stupid. The pit exit running onto the racing line? Stupid.
The worst part is the surface itself, which for some reason they decided to make out of some experimental ratios of granite and limestone never used in F1, and as a result it did not hold up. The tendency of the surface to break up (not in a major way, but on a particle level) meant that anywhere except the racing line, it was essentially an ice rink full of dust. This meant that the track could not support multiple racing lines or side-by-side action, despite that being the intention and the design brief.
The race itself was fairly processional, with the exception of the last 10 laps after Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris tangled, bringing out the safety car. So hardly the nonstop action we were promised, although anyone with more than one brain cell knew it wasn't going to happen after five minutes of FP1. So, not great, although it could have been worse, so the race itself isn't my biggest problem. It's all the shenanigans before and afterwards.
Maybe it's just me, but I gain NOTHING from seeing celebrities at any kind of sporting event, be it a race or anything else. But the build-up was constantly "look at all these celebrities we have!" from F1 and the promoters. I. Do. Not. Care. What value is this adding to my life? Nothing. Nobody cares who's in the pit lane watching the race unfold. I'm not paying for a TV subscription or committing time out of my day to see some musical artist or athlete staring at a screen. I'm staring at a screen. Show me, then Liberty Media. Honestly it's a waste of everyone's time. I was fortunate enough (by choice) to not have suffered through the apparent awkwardness of Martin Brundle's grid walk pre-race where I'm sure countless famous people were roaming around adding literally no insight or information that would enrich my life.
In the intertest of retaining some kind of structure, let's focus on the build-up first. Fresh off a weekend where the drivers have complained about the difficulty in finding time due to media commitments in Imola, most drivers arrive in Miami on Monday or Tuesday before the race. Pretty much every team has a full plate of marketing events from start to finish, with F1 itself also hosting a slew of events. Teams and drivers are pushing limited-edition beach-themed merchandise and appearing on talk shows anywhere and everywhere in order to get the word out about this race. The talk of outdoing the Super Bowl in terms of interest and money gets floated around. The amount of marketing being done (and money being spent) is ridiculous. Then the race, as mentioned above, is mediocre. Not terrible, bit mediocre.
Then, after the race; the interviews, cooldown room, and podium celebration. Now I couldn't even sit through Willy T. Ribbs' interviews because I was cringing, which is a shame, because he is deserving of some recognition for being a trailblazer in terms of his role in breaking the race barrier in US motorsport. So after the cringy interviews were done, then we have the cooldown room. But because, in their infinite wisdom, the organizers put the podium on the other side of the track, so it was not feasible to walk there. So, they drove the top 3 over there. With a police escort, which takes forever. Then we have the cooldown room, and then the podium, where the top three walk out wearing football helmets of all things, which just looks idiotic.
And I ask you, again, what is the point of this long, drawn-out ceremony? What value is being added to my life watching this? Nothing. I know what the podium looks like. If F1 is a business, then surely 'value-added propositions' are something that Liberty Media is familiar with. What value did this race add to my life that a race at Road America could not? The pursuit of short-term fame will bring with it long-term pain in the eyes of many, myself included, if F1 does not look itself in the mirror and find out what people want, then they'll find out the hard way.
At some point, this devolved into more of a rant, but that's when you get when you're powered by passion and not by money.
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