Circuit of the Americas will remain on F1 schedule through 2026 season in 5-year deal

Associated PressFeb 18, 2022, 9:30 AM EST
F1 Circuit Americas extension
Adam Davis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
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AUSTIN. Texas — Formula 1 announced a new five-year contract extension with the Circuit of the Americas to keep the United States Grand Prix at the Texas track through the 2026 F1 season.

The 2022 U.S. Grand Prix is scheduled Oct. 23 and has been on F1’s official calendar without a formal contract. The track’s original 10-year deal expired with the 2021 race, which drew more than 300,000 fans.

“It says our first decade went really well and all sides want to see it keep going,” track president Bobby Epstein said of the new contract. “Everyone seems to be excited about the future … Our commitment in building this place was a long-term commitment to the sport.”

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The contract also keeps at least two F1 races in the U.S. through 2026. The Miami Grand Prix starts a 10-year race contract in May. Montreal in June and Mexico City in October round out the series’ four races in North America.

“There’s more than enough demand and interest to support a lot more growth of Formula 1 in the U.S. Being the permanent circuit that is solely dedicated to racing, this will always be the home of the United States Grand Prix,” Epstein said.

F1 president and chief executive Stefano Domenicali hailed Austin as well as the growing popularity of the sport in the U.S.

“Austin is a great city, and the track is a favorite for all the drivers, and we cannot wait to be back in October for more action and entertainment,” he said in the announcement.

The track carved out of rolling scrub land a few miles outside of the Texas capital was the first purpose-built F1 track in the U.S. The original race contract brought the global series back to the U.S. after five years away, and the venue quickly established itself as a favorite among teams and drivers.

Its late-season position on the calendar also had the Austin race playing a major factor in deciding the season championship. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton clinched his 2015 and 2019 championships in Austin.

The Texas race has been supported by more than $200 million in public funds. State law allows race organizers to apply from the Texas Major Events Reimbursement Program to help pay F1’s annual rights fee. That fee was $35 million in 2021, according to state records.

Epstein said he didn’t ask for a 10-year deal as the original but said he believes the Austin track could host F1 for another 25 years.

“This will remain and only get stronger,” Epstein said. “We have tradition now.”

The track also recently finished a project to resurface about 70 percent of the 3.4-mile course. The MotoGP motorcycle series has raced the Grand Prix of the Americas there since 2013, but riders have complained for years that bumps in the track caused by soft soil underneath made it dangerous.

The April 10 race is the last in the current contract with MotoGP. Epstein said the series likely wouldn’t come back if the improvements weren’t made, and he’s still in negotiations for a new deal to keep MotoGP’s only U.S. race.

“We wouldn’t have done the repaving to the extent that we did if we didn’t think we were going to bring MotoGP back,” he said. “We’re kind of excited for them to come ride it and enjoy it because it’s been several years.”

Roger Penske vows new downtown Detroit GP will be bigger than the Super Bowl for city

By Jun 1, 2023, 2:00 PM EDT
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DETROIT – He helped spearhead bringing the town a Super Bowl 17 years ago, but Roger Penske believes the reimagined Chevrolet Detroit GP is his greatest gift to the Motor City.

“It’s bigger than the Super Bowl from an impact within the city,” Penske told NBC Sports. “Maybe not with the sponsors and TV, but for the city of Detroit, it’s bigger than the Super Bowl.

“We’ve got to give back individually and collectively, and I think we as a company in Michigan and in Detroit, it’s something we know how to do. It shows we’re committed. Someone needs to take that flag and run it down through town. And that’s what we’re trying to do as a company. We’re trying to give back to the city.”

After 30 years of being run on Belle Isle, the race course has been moved to a new nine-turn, 1.7-mile downtown layout that will be the centerpiece of an event weekend that is designed to promote a festival and community atmosphere.

There will be concerts in the adjacent Hart Plaza. Local businesses from Detroit’s seven districts have been invited to hawk their wares to new clientele. Boys and Girls Clubs from the city have designed murals that will line the track’s walls with images of diversity, inclusion and what Detroit means through the eyes of youth.

And in the biggest show of altruism, more than half the circuit will be open for free admission. The track is building 4-foot viewing platforms that can hold 150 people for watching the long Jefferson Avenue straightaway and other sections of the track.

Detroit GP chairman Bud Denker, a longtime key lieutenant across Penske’s various companies, has overseen more than $20 million invested in infrastructure.

The race is essentially Penske’s love letter to the city where he made much of his fame as one of Detroit’s most famous automotive icons, both as a captain of industry with a global dealership network and as a racing magnate (who just won his record 19th Indy 500 with Josef Newgarden breaking through for his first victory on the Brickyard oval).

During six decades in racing, Penske, 86, also has run many racetracks (most notably Indianapolis Motor Speedway but also speedways in Michigan, California and Pennsylvania), and much of that expertise has been applied in Detroit.

“And then the ability for us to reach out to our sponsor base, and then the business community, which Bud is tied in with the key executives in the city of Detroit, bringing them all together,” Penske said. “It makes a big difference.

“The Super Bowl is really about the people that fly in for the Super Bowl. It’s a big corporate event, and the tickets are expensive. And the TV is obviously the best in the world. What we’ve done is taken that same playbook but made it important to everyone in Detroit. Anyone that wants to can come to the race for free, can stand on a platform or they can buy a ticket and sit in the grandstands or be in a suite. It’s really multiple choice, but it is giving it to the city of Detroit. I think it’s important when you think of these big cities across the country today that are having a lot of these issues.”

Denker said the Detroit Grand Prix is hoping for “an amazingly attended event” but is unsure of crowd estimates with much of the track offering free viewing. The race easily could handle a crowd of at least 50,000 daily (which is what the Movement Music Festival draws in Hart Plaza) and probably tens of thousands more in a sprawling track footprint along the city’s riverwalk.

Penske is hoping for a larger crowd than Belle Isle, which was limited to about 30,000 fans daily because of off-site parking and restricted fan access at a track that was located in a public park.

The downtown course will have some unique features, including a “split” pit lane on an all-new concrete (part of $15 million spent on resurfaced roads, new barriers and catchfencing … as well as 252 manhole covers that were welded down).

A $5 million, 80,000-square-foot hospitality chalet will be located adjacent to the paddock and pit area. The two-story structure, which was imported from the 16th hole of the Waste Management Open in Phoenix, will offer 70 chalets (up from 23 suites at Belle Isle last year). It was built by InProduction, the same company that installed the popular HyVee-branded grandstands and suites at Iowa Speedway last year.

Penske said the state, city, county and General Motors each owned parts of the track, and their cooperation was needed to move streetlights and in changing apexes of corners. Denker has spent the past 18 months meeting with city council members who represent Detroit’s seven districts, along with Mayor Mike Duggan. Penske said the local support could include an appearance by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Witmer.

Denker and Detroit GP  president Michael Montri were inspired to move the Detroit course downtown after attending the inaugural Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, Tennessee.

“We saw what an impact it made on that city in August of 2021 and we came back from there and said boy could it ever work to bring it downtown in Detroit again,” Denker said. “We’ve really involved the whole community of Detroit, and the idea of bringing our city together is what the mayor and city council and our governor are so excited about. The dream we have is now coming to fruition.

“When you see the infrastructure downtown and the bridges over the roads we’ve built and the graphics, and everything is centered around the Renaissance Center as your backdrop, it’s just amazing.”