![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/XPB_1275773_HiRes.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDonald Trump was involved in F1’s push into the USA in the early 2010s. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDonald Trump was involved in F1’s push into the USA in the early 2010s. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n
Briatore said the proposal took shape while the championship was searching for a stronger foothold in the United States following the loss of Indianapolis from the calendar after 2007.<\/p>\n
The Alpine executive advisor turned to Trump, whom he knew through their separate versions of The Apprentice, believing the businessman\u2019s experience promoting major events could assist F1\u2019s return to the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure, Donald had no idea as well about Formula 1 \u2013 but he\u2019s a great promoter,\u201d Briatore told The Race.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, he promoted boxing, he promoted everything in Vegas.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I made Donald talk with Bernie [Ecclestone]. 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
\u201cAnd Donald [told] us New York is very difficult for a million reasons, but New Jersey was the place. So Bernie started negotiating New Jersey with two or three different people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s assessment redirected the talks across the Hudson River, where organisers began examining the possibility of holding the event in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
The proposal later developed into the Grand Prix of America, with a 5.1-kilometre route planned around Port Imperial and the neighbouring communities of Weehawken and West New York.<\/p>\n
Its waterfront location would have placed the circuit opposite Manhattan, while the area\u2019s elevation changes promised a distinctive challenge for drivers, with Red Bull even conducting a filming day on the proposed route in the lead-up to the event.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The race was listed for 2013 before being withdrawn and returned provisionally for 2014, only to again miss the final calendar.<\/p>\n
Briatore said the sport\u2019s limited standing in the American market at the time made finding the required commercial support considerably harder.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we never succeeded, because Formula 1 was not\u2026 considered something special,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou talk about\u2026 NASCAR, you talk about Indy[Car], completely different business. And Formula 1 was not [valued] at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New Jersey effort came during a difficult period for F1 in the United States, where the championship had struggled to build continuity through previous events in Phoenix and Indianapolis.<\/p>\n
The championship returned to the country in 2012 when the Circuit of the Americas in Austin joined the calendar.<\/p>\n
F1 has since expanded to three American events, with Miami and Las Vegas added alongside the United States Grand Prix in Texas.<\/p>\n
Briatore argued Liberty Media\u2019s acquisition of Formula 1 in 2017 had transformed the championship\u2019s ability to attract audiences, commercial partners and event organisers across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, you go to America, you go to Miami, 500,000 people [attend],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou 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
\u201cAnd, what has changed is really the commercial side. Liberty is much more open. Bernie was very strong, very restrictive in the business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump was involved in F1’s push into the USA in the early 2010s. Image: XPB Images Briatore…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,2490,10367,806,805,803,804,9910,85],"class_list":["post-841044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-donald-trump","tag-flavio-briatore","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-slot2","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}