It seems like Donald Trump has his fingers in every sporting pie at the moment. And Formula 1 is no different.
De facto Alpine boss Flavio Briatore opened up about his connection to the US president and how the two of them concocted an unsuccessful bid to revive F1 on American shores.
Donald Trump nearly moved into Formula 1 during the 2010s. Mark Thompson
Speaking on The Race’s In Conversation With… podcast, Briatore recounted how he and Trump were instigators of the ultimately unsuccessful plan for a Formula 1 grand prix on a New Jersey street track in the 2010s.
“I tried as well with Donald Trump to have a race in [New] Jersey,” Briatore said.
“Donald had no idea as well about Formula 1, but he’s a great promoter. At the time, he promoted boxing, he promoted everything in Vegas et cetera.”
Briatore admitted that after the demise of the Indianapolis partnership in 2007, he joined forces with Trump to pitch a new US GP to F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.
“I made Donald talk with Bernie. I was in the office of Donald. We put in [a] video with Bernie to find what was the best place in New York to do the race.
“Donald [told] us New York is very difficult for a million reasons, but Jersey was the place. So Bernie started negotiating Jersey with two or three different people.”
By the time the New Jersey plan began to materialise, the sport had already found a permanent home at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas, starting in 2012.
However, F1 was still eager to add a second stateside race and committed to the Grand Prix of America, with a debut for 2013 on the Port Imperial street track in New Jersey.
Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel and 13-time grand prix winner David Coulthard tested the track out during promotions, with the Manhattan skyline as their backdrop.
But the actual race never saw a green light as its calendar debut was repeatedly postponed before quietly fading into obscurity.
“We did not succeed because the guy who wanted to build the track went bust – bankruptcy – so it was impossible,” said Briatore.
Austin has become a mainstay piece of the F1 calendar. Mark Sutto
It wasn’t until Liberty Media stepped in and purchased F1 in 2017 that the sport finally cracked the code in an American audience, thanks to Netflix hit Drive to Survive.
According to Briatore, the media giant took a radically different approach from the Ecclestone era and fundamentally shifted how the sport is marketed. F1 now boasts three massive races in the USA: Austin, Miami, and Las Vegas.
“We never succeeded because… in America before Liberty [Media] arrived, Formula 1 was not considered something special,” Briatore admitted.
“You talk about…NASCAR, you talk about Indy[Car] – completely different business. When Liberty arrived, everything changed.
“Now you go to America, you go to Miami, 500,000 people. You go to Austin, full. You go to Vegas, it’s completely full.
“You see Formula 1 is changing dramatically. Every race is sold out, raining or not raining.
“What has changed is the commercial side. Liberty is much more open. Bernie was very restrictive with the business. Liberty opened the commercial side – open completely. Marketing [is] open completely.
“Liberty is working with the teams in a very good partnership. This is for the benefit of everybody.”
The races in the United States currently hold some of the longest contracts in the sport, but F1 almost boasted a bizarre calendar connection involving a now-US president and an iconic skyline.