Formula 1 has been obsessed with racing in Miami for what’s felt like an eternity. After all the preliminary agreements, pushback from the community, relocation and even a lawsuit, the show somehow seems destined to go on. F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali confirmed the inaugural race is provisionally penciled-in for the first half of May 2022 during a recent investor call, per PlanetF1.
Next season’s Miami Grand Prix — that is the official name, by the way — will get some breathing room between it and the existing United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, which seemed as though it was on the ropes but will evidently continue for at least one more year. That event will probably be held in the fall, as it historically has been. Roger Penske wants Indianapolis to host it on alternate years, but I’m not sure anyone other than Roger Penske wants that.
But, back to Miami. F1 tends to barge into cities like it owns the place, only to sulk and walk away when it doesn’t get what it wants. We saw it happen in New Jers— sorry, New York almost a decade ago, and it really began to look like the same would go down in Florida. Many Miami locals hated the idea: both the original proposal, which took the form of a truly horrendous-looking street circuit running up and down Port Miami Bridge, as well as its replacement which will see the course wrap around Hard Rock Stadium, home of those Dolphins of the NFL.
The first track layout gave rise to concern about traffic shutdowns bringing that area of the city to a standstill, so the race was moved to a glorified parking lot. Then, county and city noise ordinances were the basis for a lawsuit filed against F1 and the Dolphins by a group of Miami Gardens residents and several homeowners associations.
However, thanks to the support of former Miami-Dade County mayor Carlos Gimenez, current Miami mayor Francis Suarez and Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, the race has overmatched its opposition and remains on track to piss a lot of people off. It’s sort of the thing both F1 and politicians do best. As for the rest of the 2022 season, the provisional calendar will likely be announced in September or October.