By: Cosme Lozano Staff Writer “It’s lights out and away we go!” is a phrase that is becoming quite familiar for Americans across the country. Over the span of the last few years, America has been bit by the racing bug. With the events of COVID-19 shutting down large parts of the world, many major sports have been operating at half or completely empty capacities. As we get closer to 2022, sports appear to be approaching full strength once again. Americans and the sports world alike celebrated this recently, at the United States Grand Prix in Formula One (F1). With nearly 380,000 people in attendance, Americans showed everyone that other forms of racing can thrive in this country, besides NASCAR or IndyCar. However, it wasn't always like this. Formula One has a long and confusing history in America, which goes all the way back to 1950. Americans would have mild interest in Formula One throughout the mid twentieth century. It saw new highs in the 70s and 80s, but the interest created could never stay. This spilled over into the 90s, where the sport would not visit America again after the 1991 season. Racing action would return in 2005 at the Indianapolis speedway, but this Grand Prix would be a major stain on an already dirty resume for racing in America. The track would be taken off the calendar after the 2008 season.
US Grand Prix crowd celebrates Max Verstappen's championship win
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November 29, 2021
In 2010, the United States and the city of Austin were awarded with a ten-year contract to host Formula One races again. All US Grand Prix’s would take place at Circuit of the Americas (COTA). This track first saw racing in 2012 and has seen some slight face lifts over the years. For a majority of its history, the average fan attendance has fluctuated from 190,000-250,000 attendees. Formula One in America would take a two-year gap after 2019. The sport made its triumphant return very recently with the US Grand Prix taking place the weekend of October 22-24, 2021. As mentioned earlier, the fan attendance skyrocketed to 380,000 this year, and there is one large reason why. If you are an avid Netflix browser, the title, “Drive to Survive,” might ring a bell. This is a docuseries that focuses on the drivers and teams involved in F1 racing. It has been very successful at drawing in new audiences, and it has developed some genuine fans of the sport, beyond the TV show. The show focuses on some of the more dramatic aspects of the sport, and with high profile characters like Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, the show has struck gold in North America. It has helped expand the sport’s demographic, which is largely European. Talking with amateur race car driver Jordan Missig, he said, “I think a lot of F1’s rapid growth in America has been due
