McLaren boss Zak Brown says the Miami Grand Prix opening next week is like the Super Bowl version of Formula One with a huge buzz and celebrities clamoring for the hottest tickets in town.
The American said his team were the biggest buyers of hospitality for the May 8 race around Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, but demand far outweighs supply.
“It’s going to be awesome. I’ve been here six years and I’ve never seen the need or the buzz for a major tournament like I’ve seen in Miami,” Brown said.
“We could easily double our hospitality and we’re already the biggest buyer of hospitality in Miami … it competes with the Super Bowl as long as ‘are you going to the Miami race? ?’
“I’ve been in F1 for 20 years and I’m used to being in the biggest competition but I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The race is the fifth lap of the season and with the longstanding race in Austin, Texas, one of only two in the United States this year. In 2023, there will be three premieres in Las Vegas.
Brown said McLaren has 1,000 guests, including A-list celebrities, arriving over the weekend and will feature the McLaren House as well as Paddock Club hospitality and stands.
“Having been to the Super Bowl, where there’s football and then celebrities during halftime and shows, this is like the Super Bowl,” he said.
The Miami metropolitan area has hosted the Super Bowl 11 times, more than anywhere else, with six of them at Hard Rock Stadium and the most recent in 2020.
Austin drew the largest F1 crowd last season, with a three-day attendance of 400,000, and Brown said the Texas track has played a big role in building the sport’s popularity. this sport in an important area for Formula One.
So, the popular Netflix documentary series ‘Drive to Survive’, credited with bringing new and younger audiences to the championship, has struggled for airtime in a market driven by US sports. Domination period.
Brown said he saw no signs of bubbles bursting.
“Now that you’ve got Vegas, the sport has never been healthier and more fun,” he said.
“If you look at the corporate partners on our vehicles, half of our vehicles are US-based companies. So the US-based companies are really starting to catch up. head behind it. I think we have a long way to go.”
The Americans also rejected failed legal attempts by some local Miami Gardens residents to try to stop the race, citing disruption and physical harm due to noise levels.
“Welcome to America,” he said. “The headlines I see are people fearing they’ll go deaf. I don’t even have headphones in the garage.
“The amount of exposure and economics that will be brought to Miami…will make a much larger contribution to a much larger audience than X the number of people who don’t want to hear the sound and have probably never heard a Formula A car.”
