Long before the explosion of Formula 1’s popularity in the United States, Flavio Briatore and Donald Trump had already tried to organize a Grand Prix at the gates of New York, but unfortunately this project failed.
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Alpine’s executive advisor reflected on this abandoned project, believing it simply came too early, at a time when F1 was not yet considered an attractive product in the American market.
After the disappearance of the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis in 2007, Briatore was looking for a new location for the championship in the United States.
New York Dream
He then turned to Donald Trump, whom he knew for his real estate promotion skills: “Donald didn’t know much about F1, but he was a great promoter. At the time, he was organizing boxing matches and many events in Las Vegas.”
Briatore explains that he organized a video conference meeting between Trump and the former head of Formula 1, Bernie Ecclestone, to determine the best place to hold a race near New York: “I arranged a discussion between Donald and Bernie. We were in Donald’s office and we looked for the best place to host a Grand Prix around New York.”
According to Briatore, it was Trump himself who steered the discussions towards New Jersey, believing that organizing a race in Manhattan would be far too complicated: “Donald explained to us that New York was extremely difficult for a million reasons, but New Jersey was the right choice. Bernie then began negotiating with two or three different contacts in New Jersey.”
Abandoned project, symbol of another era
Despite these promising initial contacts, the project never came to fruition: “We never succeeded because at that time Formula 1 was not considered something special. In the United States, people mainly talked about NASCAR or IndyCar. Formula 1 had practically no value.”
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The project then evolved into what was supposed to become the Grand Prix of America, planned on a street circuit in Port Imperial, New Jersey. A first edition was initially envisaged in 2013 and Sebastian Vettel as well as David Coulthard even performed a demonstration on part of the track during a promotional event by Red Bull and Infiniti.
However, successive delays eventually led to the definitive abandonment of the project, while the Circuit of the Americas in Austin became from 2012 the main American venue of the championship.
Missed opportunity
For Briatore, the situation is now completely different, especially since the purchase of Formula 1 by Liberty Media in 2017: “Today, we go to the United States and Miami hosts 500,000 spectators. Austin is sold out, Las Vegas is booming. Formula 1 has completely changed. All races are sold out, rain or shine.”
The Italian executive believes this transformation is primarily the result of the commercial strategy implemented by Liberty Media: “What really changed is the commercial aspect. Liberty is much more open. Bernie was very strong, but much more restrictive in his way of managing the business. Liberty has completely opened up marketing and works in true partnership with the teams.”
With the current success of the Miami, Austin, and Las Vegas Grands Prix, the aborted New Jersey project now appears as a missed opportunity. For Flavio Briatore, it was not a bad idea, but simply a project launched several years before Formula 1 became the phenomenon it is now in the United States.
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