Yahoo Autos 10 Years and Counting: How the F1 US Grand Prix Aims to Be ‘F1’s Largest Ever Event’
This year, Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, celebrates its 10th anniversary.
It now has the assurance of fugture F1 races at the facility, following the renewal of its contract with the series through 2026.
Austin has gone from F1’s sole U.S. destination for a decade to one of two this year and will be one of a trio from 2023.
When the Formula 1 circus first pulled the trailers up to the behemothic purpose-built Circuit of the Americas facility just outside of Austin, Texas, it was hoping to find a permanent home in a country whose fans it long sought to capture.
That was 2012, and a nation that once appeared distant to Formula 1 is now fully engrossed, with the Miami Grand Prix having debuted in May, and the much-anticipated F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix set to happen] next November.
Austin’s Circuit of the Americas—now firmly established as the home of the United States Grand Prix—is the grandfather of what will be three Grands Prix in the U.S. beginning in 2023.
This year, COTA celebrates its 10th anniversary. It now has the assurance of future events following the renewal of its contract through 2026.
Did COTA ever feel that it would get to this stage of being considered a cornerstone of the current schedule?
“We thought it would get to this point because when we built a track specifically to host Formula 1, it’s not an undertaking that’s inexpensive or something done lightly, so you hope it’s going to have a home for more than 10 years,” COTA chairman Bobby Epstein told Autoweek. “The drivers have received it well, the fans have received it well, and I think it’s (course designer Hermann) Tilke’s greatest design. That’s led to the longevity that I think we’re seeing.
“The road to get here is probably not the route we thought it would be—it was certainly rough—and we had some rough years. There were times we probably felt like getting to year 10 might be painful but now I think when we look back we’re very pleased, satisfied and gratified that we’re here to see all the fans supporting us and supporting the sport.”
High points for Epstein include “hearing Lewis (Hamilton) saying it was his favorite circuit” and “watching a family dancing together to one of the bands that were playing,” counterbalanced by low moments, none more so than “the rain event (in 2015) that caused a lot of flooding, mud, cars stuck (in parking lots) and broken sewer lines—that was not a fun year.”
Last fall’s COTA event was almost like a carnival; its 2020 absence, the full impact of Drive to Survive, and the post-pandemic desire for social gatherings led to a weekend attendance of 400,000.
COTA is building on that experience in an attempt to be, in the words of Epstein, “the biggest sporting event in the world this year—and certainly the largest F1 event in their 70-plus year history.”
The event has been a sellout for several months, so COTA has been able to apply lessons from 2021 in a bid to expand further.
“We have been able to order the equipment you need to host a bigger crowd,” Epstein said. “Rather than just sell more general admission tickets—the hills are already packed with people, which is a wonderful sight—we’ve been able to build grandstands inside the loop, instead of just outside of the track.”
