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Laurence Edmondson, F1 Editor
MIAMI, Florida – The organizers of the Miami Grand Prix held discussions about turning their annual Formula 1 event into a future night race.
The 3.3-mile circuit is located around the Miami Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium, and on Sunday held the second race on its 10-year contract.
The event, slated to be held in early May onwards, is one of three F1 races in the US this season, with a night race in Las Vegas joining the schedule in November. .
Six of F1’s 23 races are now under floodlight and Miami Dolphin CEO Tom Garfinkel is considering giving a similar treatment to his event.
“We’ve had some discussions about that,” Garfinkel told reporters in Miami. “We’ve had some discussions about the possibility of doing that.
“Obviously at this time of year the weather is a bit unpredictable, it’s been nice this year, last year it was unseasonably hot, but there are a lot of factors that influence that with F1, television and everything else. so we have to consider all of that, but we’re definitely open to it.”
Garfinkel said other considerations would include noise to local residents in Miami Gardens and whether Miami will host Saturday night’s race as planned by Las Vegas.
“We’re not where we’re making decisions right now,” he added. “I think we’re discussing what it would be like if we did it.”
The Miami Grand Prix invested heavily in improving the facilities for the second race, including three levels of new hotel units above the pit line and the decision to move the team’s hotel units to the field of Hard Rock Stadium.
Garfinkel says the upgrade was made with the race in mind, but plans to make use of the bunker buildings on football weekends, including a unique high-end tuning experience for players. Dolphins fan.
“We’re going to do some things around football games, but we’re going to do some interesting things,” he added. “I like to put the driver’s sign above the garage and for football games we’re going to do some high end tweaks down there.
“So someone can rent out Lewis Hamilton’s garage and have a bartender, they can drive in right away, have a cook, as well as do some high-end tailoring.”
