Circuit of the Americas nearly went the same way. From a weekend attendance of 265,000 for that inaugural race in Austin, it was down to 224,000 three years later, and it took until 2019 – the first year that Drive to Survive aired – for that initial number to be exceeded and keep growing.
On the eve of its tenth anniversary, with Miami already on the calendar and Las Vegas ramping up preparations for its debut next year, it’s easy to forget what COTA has achieved.
The 2021 race saw 400,000 come through the gates. This year is poised to see the crowd increase by 10%. The hype train has well and truly left the station and so many people want to be on board. But Austin was buying into F1 even before there was any of that hype.
It was before Liberty Media’s ownership, and so there hadn’t been a clear push to prioritize the United States. Teams weren’t really focusing on the market in the way they are now, and in turn the market wasn’t focusing on them.
If you look around now there are a huge number of American-based sponsors in the sport, including one of the biggest when you take into account Oracle’s title partnership of Red Bull. As an aside, one race on from winning the drivers’ title at Honda’s home race, to win the constructors’ championship at Oracle’s would be beyond the team’s wildest dreams…
But it was COTA’s wild dreams that have paid off big time. The circuit’s chairman Bobby Epstein is not the only figure to have been involved by any stretch, but he has been there from the start and has seen the ups and downs.