Last week’s Miami Grand Prix was a huge extravaganza. The race in Florida, with all of the Formula 1 racers performing brilliantly and an array of movie stars and celebrities attending, was a great success. The audience numbers for the Miami GP and the weekend as a whole have been released. The Miami International Autodrome hosted 2,42,955 during the race weekend last year. This year, the number of attendees increased to 2,70,000.
The television audience numbers are down by a huge amount this year, despite the fact that the Miami GP saw an increase of 30,000 spectators. It has still surpassed all previous F1 races on American television. The inaugural Miami Grand Prix was watched live by 2.58 million viewers last year. This year’s American Broadcasting Corporation viewership totaled only 1,96 million. This 24% decrease in views is a major blow to the FIA’s dream of spreading F1 in every American household.
The Qualifying for the Miami GP was very interesting, even though the race itself was a dull affair with fewer overtakes due to the reduction in DRS zones. In the Q1 round, Lando Norris of McLaren and Oscar Piastri were both eliminated from the race. Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton was also booted out in the second round. Charles Leclerc hit the wall in Q3 at turn 7. This caused a red flag. The Qualis ended with Sergio Perez on pole and Max Verstappen P9, as he was unable to set a laptime. All this entertainment was not able to attract as many viewers last year.
Miami Grand Prix ratings have dropped as well.
The FIA is concerned about the declining number of viewers who tune in to watch the Miami GP, but there’s another problem. The ratings for the Miami International Autodrome race, which was recorded as 1.3 last season, have also dropped. This year’s race received a rating of just 1.0. That is a 30 percent decrease.
Two more F1 races are scheduled to take place in the USA during this year. The first is the long-awaited return of the Las Vegas GP which will be held during the second weekend in November. The other race is the United States Grand Prix scheduled for October. It has been confirmed that the Las Vegas Grand Prix is the most costly F1 Grand Prix ever. F1 could lose huge amounts of money if the audience for this race isn’t up to scratch.
