11/02/2023
NEWS STORY
Christian Horner believes F1 must resume its efforts to stage a race in New York.
It's a sign of the times perhaps that the majority of press releases from the teams relating to the schedules for their car - sorry, livery - reveals have given the American EST (Eastern Standard Time) first and then European and GMT timings.
Then, again, with the sport owned by an American company and with three races in the U.S. of A this season, maybe that it to be expected.
Also to be expected was the question of when F1 might take to the streets of The Big Apple, even though the last attempt ended in failure.
Ten years after Bernie Ecclestone's bid to host a race in New Jersey, with New York City as the backdrop, Christian Horner is calling on the sport to redouble its efforts to take F1 on to the mean streets of the City That Never Sleeps.
"It would be amazing," he tells the Daily Mail. "Racing in big cities in the U.S. is really exciting, a race here in the Big Apple, for example, what a spectacle that would be.
"You can never say never," he adds, aware of the various issues encountered over the years, not least the relative lack of interest Americans, especially New Yorkers, had in the sport.
"We've got other North American races as well, with Montreal, and there's certainly demand for it, so why not? It's great that there's that much interest in Formula 1 in the U.S.
"We're fortunate to race in great venues, whether it's the street circuit of Miami, or the track in Austin... Vegas this year is going to be an absolutely insane event too."
While the sport is now owned by Liberty Media, it was media magnate Leo Hindery Jr who was the driving force behind the last attempt, even to the extent of submitting the relevant entry fee, thereby getting the event, scheduled to take place at Port Imperial on the River Hudson, on the provisional 2014 calendar.
Postponed until 2015, despite the best efforts of the media, Ecclestone and others, the bid eventually crumbled due to lack of investment.
Speaking last year, Liberty CEO, Greg Maffei revealed that New York City mayor, Eric Adams had offered a potential venue for a race, thought to be Randalls and Wards Island, but Liberty deemed the venue unsuitable and declined the offer.
"I think the reality is street races in a place like New York are just very, very, very hard," said Maffei. "New York is a wonderful venue, but it's hard to see that they're going to shut Central Park for us!"
Indeed, one can almost hear the various masked-up Kens and Karens shrieking at the very thought of those fossil-fuel powered vehicles.