The plan for a Formula 1 race in Miami, Florida in the 2019 season has been abandoned. The aim is now for a race to take place there in 2020.
Despite the fact that a Formula 1 race on the streets of Miami, Florida was approved by Miami’s City Commission in May, as they decided unanimously to add the race to the Formula 1 schedule starting in 2019, the Miami Grand Prix will not take place in the 2019 season.
Instead, there are ongoing efforts to ensure that the race is on the Formula 1 schedule starting in the 2020 season, which is not a guarantee at this point, either.
Here is a picture of the proposed circuit for the race. It is located in the Biscayne Bay area.
Today got a first look at a potential map for @F1 in @downtownMIA. Most of course is in the port with a loop around AAArena. Would you like to see #miami become a stop on the Formula One circuit? pic.twitter.com/sOY08hJ5yM
— Ken Russell (@kenforflorida) May 3, 2018
This circuit travels around the American Airlines Arena, the home of the NBA’s Miami Heat, as well as Miami’s Freedom Tower. It also crosses the harbor before coming back to downtown Miami.
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The initial deal for the Miami Grand Prix, which was a 10-year deal, would have kept the race on the schedule from the 2019 season through the 2028 season, and it would have made it the second Formula 1 race to be held in the United States.
No other country hosts two races in a Formula 1 season. The current race in the United States is the United States Grand Prix, which has been held each season since the 2012 season at the 20-turn, 3.427-mile (5.513-kilometer) Circuit of the Americas road course in Elroy, Texas. That track is scheduled to continue to host the race until at last the 2021 season, as the track and Formula 1 agreed to a 10-year deal back before it hosted its first race in 2012.
Here is what F1 commercial boss Sean Bratches had to say about the Miami Grand Prix no longer being scheduled to take place in the 2019 season, according to Motorsport.com.
"“In the last few months we have worked diligently alongside our promoter Stephen Ross of RSE Ventures, the City of Miami and Miami Dade County, to realise our ambition to bring a Formula 1 Grand Prix to Miami.“And we have made significant progress. However, these are complicated negotiations. Whilst our preference would have been to race in Miami in 2019, there was always a point by which delivering the best possible wheel-to-wheel racing experience for our fans, drivers and teams wouldn’t be possible in the time available.“We have now reached that point as far as racing in Miami in 2019 is concerned. However, we are taking a long-term view and as a result, we have decided, in consultation with the Miami authorities, to postpone sign-off until later in the summer, with the aim of running the first Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix in the 2020 season.”"
Read more of what Bratches had to say about the matter by clicking here.
The 2019 Formula 1 schedule has not yet been officially released, but it is becoming clearer and clearer as to how that schedule will look with the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring no longer on the schedule and no replacement race for the Miami Grand Prix.
A total of 19 of the current Formula 1 tracks are under contract for next season. Aside of the Hockenheimring, the only current Formula 1 track that is not under contract for next year is the Suzuka International Racing Course, which is the host track of the Japanese Grand Prix.
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Are you disappointed that the Miami Grand Prix will not be held in the 2019 Formula 1 season? Do you believe that it will be held in the 2020 season, and if so, are you looking forward to that addition of a second race in the United States?