It’s official: Formula One racing is coming to South Florida.
F1 announced Sunday the Miami Grand Prix will be hosted at Hard Rock Stadium in a 10-year deal, which will begin in 2022. The 2022 race date will be announced later with hopes of it being held in the second quarter of next year (April-June).
“It’s a great moment for Formula One and a great moment for Formula One fans in America,” said president and CEO Stefano Domenicali during a press conference in Imola, Italy.
“We’re very excited to bring the world’s greatest racing to the most dynamic city in the United States,” added Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium CEO Tom Garfinkel, the new managing partner of the race.
Sunday’s announcement ends a nearly three-year quest by Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium owner Steve Ross, now the chairman and owner of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, to bring F1 racing to South Florida.
For Ross and Garfinkel, the Miami Grand Prix is just another event that adds to the allure of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
The venue has hosted 11 Super Bowls with Super Bowl 54 most recently in Feb. 2020, multiple college football national championship games, and will host games during the World Cup in 2026.
“We had a vision to create a global entertainment destination. The site exists to bring in the biggest events in the world,” Garfinkel told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
“With the Super Bowl, the [college football] national championship game, international soccer, Miami Open tennis, and really there’s no bigger event in the world than Formula One racing.”
Race organizers and the city of Miami Gardens recently announced an economic package that will include a $5 million commitment, including a STEM education program and race conditions that must be abided by to benefit the area despite significant resistance from local officials and residents in the area.
Ross initially hoped to have the F1 race in the downtown Miami, starting in 2019, until that proposal was also met with apprehension from residents with noise and pollution concerns.
“This is something we’ve worked on for a while,” Garfinkel told the Sun Sentinel. I think frankly, while it feels like it took a long time, when you look at the amount of diligence that goes into it, taking the time to listen to the community, and putting that diligence in during a global pandemic we’ve all been dealing with, it actually wasn’t a long time when you put it in perspective because what it takes to put one of these things on is pretty significant.”
The race circuit will be 3.36 miles, have 19 corners, 3 straights and potential for 3 DRS zones with an estimated top speed of 198.8 mph with the stadium at the heart of the action.
FI and Hard Rock Stadium officials will work together to build a track to provide high speed straights, multiple overtaking opportunities and exciting racing while meeting the highest safety standards, according to a press release.
Miami will be the 11th location Formula 1 has raced in the United States since the Championship series began in 1950. Since that time Formula 1 has raced at Riverside, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Long Beach, Las Vegas, Detroit, Dallas, Phoenix, Indianapolis and Circuit of the Americas in Austin.
The Miami Grand Prix will be the second U.S. race on the F1 circuit next year, joining Austin, Texas.
“There was never a time we didn’t want it to happen or didn’t think it was going to happen,” added Garfinkel. “I think sometimes you will things to happen when you have great partners to get that accomplished.”
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