Alpine team boss Flavio Briatore says he and now United States president Donald Trump were the instigators of the ultimately unsuccessful plan for a Formula 1 grand prix on a New Jersey street track in the 2010s.<\/p>\n
Briatore recalled his story in The Race Business\u2019s \u2018In Conversation With\u2026” series with Darren Cox.<\/p>\n
He said that after the demise of the Indianapolis\/F1 partnership in 2007, he joined forces with Trump to pitch a new US GP to F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone.<\/p>\n
“Sure, Donald had no idea as well about Formula 1 – but he’s a great promoter,” said Briatore, who would later emulate Trump by presenting the Italian version of The Apprentice TV franchise, as Trump had in the US.<\/p>\n
“At the time, he promoted boxing, he promoted everything in Vegas, etc, etc\u2026”<\/p>\n
“And 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.<\/p>\n
“And 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“But we never succeeded, because Formula 1 was not\u2026 considered something special. You talk about\u2026 NASCAR, you talk about Indy[Car], completely different business. And Formula 1 was not [valued] at all.”<\/p>\n
By the time the New Jersey plan progressed, F1 had already secured a new US home at Austin\u2019s Circuit of the Americas from 2012 onwards, but it still committed to adding a second US race – under the Grand Prix of America title – from 2013 on the Port Imperial street track in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel and grand prix winner David Coulthard sampled the track layout in road cars as part of a Red Bull and Infiniti promotion, but the actual race never became a reality – its F1 calendar debut repeatedly postponed before ultimately being largely forgotten.<\/p>\n
Briatore adds that Liberty Media – who purchased F1 from Ecclestone in 2017 – has changed how F1 is valued in the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Now, you go to America, you go to Miami, 500,000 people [attend].<\/p>\n
“You go to Austin, full, you go to Vegas. You see, Formula 1 is changing dramatically. You see, every race is sold out, sold out, [whether it\u2019s] raining, not raining.<\/p>\n
“And, what has changed is really the commercial side. Liberty is much more open. Bernie was very strong, very restrictive in the business.<\/p>\n
“And, Liberty opened the commercial side, opened completely. Marketing opened completely. And, Liberty is working with the team in [a] very good partnership, if you want.”<\/p>\n