Formula 1 News: COTA wants new F1 race contract beyond 2026
(GMM) Organizers of the US GP at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) want an extension to their contract with Formula 1 that currently ends after 2026.
The event at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) was first held in 2012, prior to the Liberty Media era and having ended the drought of American races in Formula 1.
But since Liberty Media took over, spectacular and entertainment-focused US street races in Miami and Las Vegas have joined the ever more cluttered calendar.
Bobby Epstein, one of the masterminds and financiers of Austin’s COTA F1 project, revealed at the weekend that the circuit was forced to spend over $10 million to resurface the track for the 2024 edition.
“Max (Verstappen)’s poor review might have been the last straw, but it was just time to do it,” he told the Austin American Statesman newspaper.
“Eight figures is what the bill was,” he revealed. “Let’s just say it was a big check.”
And with Austin now competing with the glitz and glamour of Miami and Las Vegas, can the current US GP host continue to look into its F1 future with confidence?
“I think we’re pretty happy with where we are,” Epstein, COTA chairman, said.
The current contract with Liberty Media runs until the event’s 2026 edition.
“We’re doing everything we can to keep Austin on the Formula 1 calendar,” he said, “and our immediate future is assured.
“When it comes to the new street circuits in the US, you have to weigh our track record against their uncertain future. We have a proven track record.”
COTA Handed Track Invasion Fine
Despite having a comprehensive crowd control plan, the United States Grand Prix promoter has been handed a hefty fine for a premature track invasion at the end of its 2024 Formula 1 race.
“A large group of spectators, estimated at approximately 200 people, in the grandstand alongside pit straight, climbed a small fence and dropped around two meters to the ground between the grandstand and the track debris fencing,” a stewards’ report read.
“They then went under the debris fencing and climbed over the trackside wall [approximately one meter high] and then merged onto the main straight. All this occurred whilst the competing cars were still on track completing their cooldown lap after the checkered flag.”
The stewards found this to be in breach of Article 12.2.1.h of the FIA’s International Sporting Code which refers to a “failure to take reasonable measures thus resulting in an unsafe situation”.
It was noted that the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) has until now avoided such an incident since it joined the F1 calendar 12 years ago.
But given crowd behavior “is an evolving issue”, the stewards said it was the promoter’s responsibility to ensure that “public safety precautions evolve accordingly”.
The stewards believe “it wasn’t unreasonable to expect that the incursion which occurred could have been foreseen”.
It was ruled that the promoter’s safety plan for spectators was well implemented but contained a blind spot for a potential incursion area, leading the stewards to conclude that the promoter had breached the ISC.
The stewards therefore ruled the promoter must submit “a formal remediation plan” by the end of the year that adequately addresses the issues that led to this breach as well as identifying sites of potential future incursions.
They also handed the COTA promoter a €500,000 fine, €350,000 of which is suspended until the end of 2026 on the basis that no further track invasions occur during any FIA championship event at COTA.
It has been recommended that the unsuspended €150,000 portion of the fine should go towards the FIA’s road safety efforts.