The story of F1's first failed Big Apple grand prix
This year Formula 1 matches its record high of races in one nation, as the United States hosts three grands prix. But 40 years ago, it nearly held four in one season - one of them in New York. Here's the story of F1's near-miss in the Big Apple
It seems that, when addressing modern Formula 1’s business sensibilities, it is becoming increasingly impossible not to mention the championship’s boom in popularity over the previous few years. The growing presence of F1 in the current cultural zeitgeist has been the main driving force behind greater sponsorship interest, the inflating values of the 10 teams on the grid, and economic powerhouses queuing up to get their own countries on the calendar.
This is why the United States, capitalism’s own backyard, has landed three races on this year’s schedule. F1 toiled for years in its largely wasted efforts to ‘crack America’; subpar street circuits did nothing to enhance the series’ image in the eyes of Americans brought up on a diet of NASCAR and Indy cars, while F1’s finest racers hated the bumpy, claustrophobic nature of the 90-degree city streets. Perhaps F1 thought it had finally ‘made it’ after landing a race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – American motorsport’s heartland – but this faded away after 2007 as F1 succumbed to its own hubris.
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