Reports came out earlier this week that Formula One could add another race date on the continent its former leader called a big shit hole, North America, as soon as next year, and the City of Miami confirmed Tuesday that those reports weren’t overly eager. A multi-year deal could start in the city as soon as 2019.
Dutch outlet Ziggo Sport F1 dropped the news on Monday that F1 could head to Miami for a race as soon as next season, dropping the controversial Azerbaijan Grand Prix in the process. A city spokesperson told the Miami New Times that is on the table, and that talks could start soon about a multi-year hosting deal starting in October of 2019—a move that’s been rumored since mid 2016.
The Miami New Times reports that the Miami City Commission will vote next week on a motion that would give the city manager until July 1 to negotiate a multi-year deal to host a grand prix, with the deal scheduled to start in October of next year and likely be a street race. The agreement with the city manager would then have to be approved by the city commission, according to the report.
October is on the opposite side of the F1 calendar from Azerbaijan’s current race date, which was the last weekend of April this year. There have been no official updates on that part of Ziggo Sport F1’s report since the original came out, but Motorsport.com reports that Azerbaijan’s contract with F1 goes through 2020.
A shift toward America for more F1 race dates has been expected for a couple of years now. When F1 sold to American company Liberty Media, the new owners came in with a lot of new ideas—including more races in United States.
F1 only has one U.S. date as of now, the U.S. Grand Prix at Texas’ Circuit of The Americas, but Liberty Media has been looking to add more since it bought F1 in September of 2016. Options included Las Vegas and Miami at the time, and F1’s licensing arm applied for trademarks for a Miami Grand Prix, New York Grand Prix and Las Vegas Grand Prix late last year.
It looks like at least one of those ideas will probably pan out in the near future, depending on how the negotiations with the City of Miami go. If a race does end up there, though, the Miami New Times reports that it won’t be all sunshine and rainbows—a group has already started running ads in the Miami Herald against turning “taxpayer-funded streets into a race track.” The Miami New Times also reports that wealthy condo owners aren’t big fans of noise, and have fought to shut down nightclubs and festivals in order to quiet the city down.
The last time I was in Miami, the club music was so loud on a Saturday night that I couldn’t even sleep with headphones in to drown it out, and I almost missed a flight home because a marathon shut down what felt like every street in downtown. Maybe it’s time to... what’s the phrase I’m looking for here?
Oh. Lighten up.