F1: USGP boss aiming for 500,000 attendance in 2023 (Update)
The USGP saw 432,000 fans come through the turnstiles this past weekend, down slightly from 440,000 last year.
While still a huge crowd, the idea of getting 1/2 million people for the weekend appears unreachable for the time-being.
October 25, 2022
The Circuit of The Americas hosted a three-day crowd of 440,000 for the United States Grand Prix this past weekend, making it a new race weekend record for F1 and for the circuit.
That’s nearly 200,000 more people than the race saw in 2018, and it makes this year’s race the most-attended 3-day weekend in Formula 1 history.
Absolutely incredible!
Formula 1 said that 70% of the 400k attendees at last year’s US Grand Prix were attending their first F1 race ever.
That’s wild — and it speaks to the content-driven strategy Liberty Media has deployed since acquiring the business in 2016. Liberty Media also wanted to buy IndyCar and make it huge, but their offer was turned down, preferring to stay small and largely inconsequential.
COTA built a new grandstand and opened up more general admission viewing areas to accommodate an extra 40,000 fans compared to the race in 2021.
COTA Chairman Bobby Epstein says the USGP can reach 500,000 fans as early as next year if they can get fans in and out of the circuit in a reasonable amount of time. And the new Brad Pitt F1 movie is only going to take F1 to a ‘another dimension’.
“We can get there,” Epstein said when asked by Autosport about the chances of making it to half a million fans.
“We’re testing our bus system this year. It’s a lot more robust. You go from 300 buses to 600, and if that works and the load times are possible, then this is really the litmus test for it.
“We’ve got to convert to mass transit, and if that works, then we can grow.
“So it could be next year.”
COTA quickly sold out the additional tickets it put on sale for this year’s race, while the general admission areas around the track were packed out with fans, especially on the hill at Turn 1.
Epstein said there was already the ticket demand to reach 500,000, but said the most important thing was to ensure the fan experience was as good as it could be.
