Sport

Miami spice: Lewis Hamilton’s delight at first of three US F1 races

British driver thrilled by recent surge in popularity in the sport in the United States

Mercedes' driver Lewis Hamilton shoots during a basketball tournament ahead of the Miami Grand Prix. Photograph: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images
Mercedes' driver Lewis Hamilton shoots during a basketball tournament ahead of the Miami Grand Prix. Photograph: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images
Giles Richards
Thu May 04 2023 - 19:45

Lewis Hamilton has hailed the growth of Formula One in the United States as a remarkable success story for the sport, describing it as a dream for F1 to be racing again at the Miami Grand Prix. He is likely to face another trying weekend at the Hard Rock Stadium circuit but he reiterated his determination to help Mercedes return to the front of the grid.

This is the second time Formula One has been held in the city after the circuit made its debut last season. It is the first of three races in the US this season. The US Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas will follow in October and the Las Vegas Grand Prix, taking place on the strip and organised and promoted by the sport’s owners, Liberty Media, will take place in November.

After four years without a US GP between 2008 and 2011, racing returned to Austin in 2012, but initially struggled to gain a mass audience. However, in recent years, partly fuelled by the Drive to Survive TV series, there has been a huge surge in the popularity of the sport with COTA and Miami selling out.

Last year, the US GP attracted 440,000 fans over the weekend, an F1 record, while the Miami race reached a record TV audience in the US of 2.58 million viewers. Hamilton, who is by far the sport’s highest-profile driver in the US, acknowledged how important it was for F1 to be popular in the country.

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“It is a dream for us to be in Miami and in the United States,” he said. “They are massive sporting fans here so to be in such an important city like Miami where sport is huge – and now Formula One is part of that – it is great to see.

“For such a huge country, it is amazing that we finally have three races here. The difficult thing with Formula One is that you usually visit a country once a year. But the growth has been huge and it is such a big market for the sport.”

For the second year in succession, Mercedes are off the pace of the front-runners, Red Bull, who have dominated the season with the world champion, Max Verstappen, and his team-mate, Sergio Pérez, taking two wins apiece from the opening four meetings. They expect to have the advantage in Miami too.

Hamilton finished sixth in Azerbaijan last Sunday and while Mercedes have already concluded they are to change the design concept of their car, the fruits of that decision will not be seen until the next round at Imola, in two weeks’ time. The seven-time champion has acknowledged there will be no magic bullet to bring the team up to speed but maintained he was not lacking in motivation and determination to do so.

“I just want to get back to the front,” he said. “That is what I am working on, trying to get this team back to the front.” – Guardian