The rocky past and fascinating future of the US Grand Prix at COTA

It’s been almost ten years since the 2015 United States Formula 1 Grand Prix took place. But if I close my eyes, I can still see it.

It was Saturday – qualifying day – and my twentieth birthday. I was a student in the garage of the Circuit of The Americas, with a media degree and a few professors who were angry that I had skipped their classes to work in the field I was studying. I was wearing rain boots up to my knees and holding an umbrella so close to my head that I could barely see in front of me. I looked up to see a few fans in the stands, all peering through ponchos. The F1 cars raced past with such ferocity that it felt more like I was watching a water park attraction than a race track.

Heavy rain over the track

Photo by: Patrik Lundin / Motorsport Images

Spectators waded through mud, rain and flooding for a bleak race weekend, followed by even bleaker headlines:

“The end of F1 in Austin? The American Grand Prix may not return next year”

‘Why the future of Formula 1 in Austin looks a bit murky’

‘Questions about the future of the American Formula 1 Grand Prix now that Texas is making cuts’

‘US Grand Prix ‘subject to change’ on Formula 1 calendar 2016′

“Bernie Ecclestone sows more doubt about 2016 USGP”

That rainy day and those headlines feel like a lifetime ago. Yet it’s just a small hiccup in America’s long and rocky history, in which Formula 1 has been riddled with safety issues, crumbling track surfaces, entire races falling to pieces right before the eyes of spectators, and more. These catastrophic events took place at circuits across the country and continued to push F1 out of the US market. That rainy day in 2015 was a pivotal moment for F1 in America, and I thought it would end like the rest: F1 would leave us to try again later.

But somehow, Formula 1 in America not only survived the 2015 flood; it crawled from obscurity into the spotlight, all with the Circuit of The Americas at the center of it. Heading into this 2024 race weekend, F1 at COTA is not the same event I feared we would lose all those years ago.

F1 at Circuit of The Americas: the early years

Circuit of The Americas is located just outside of Austin, Texas. Famed F1 circuit designer Hermann Tilke created the circuit and it was opened to the public in October 2012, when F1 champion Mario Andretti completed the first few laps. The first F1 race took place a month later, breaking a five-year absence from the American market, all spurred by the series’ infamous tire disaster at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

When COTA opened in 2012, it was America’s big, shiny, purpose-built F1 track, with new facilities, a giant observation tower overlooking the track and vast star-studded drainage areas to meet modern F1 safety standards. It’s a 20-turn, 5.41-mile circuit with a mix of high-speed straights, hard braking zones and momentum-based corners like the esses and the carousel, and it’s my personal favorite circuit to ride.

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

For the most part, COTA is still America’s premier F1 facility. The series’ new US tracks in Miami and Las Vegas are street circuits, and while glamorous, they don’t have the same permanent footprint. (The biggest mistake the builders made at COTA was not planting trees, because it’s been twelve years and there is still not a square inch of natural shade.)

But there were doubts about COTA from the start. When the track opened, the local Austin Chronicle wrote about residents’ hesitations, concerns about financing and subsidies, and F1’s troubled history in America – all issues that would soon plague the race and the venue.

Pestilence, destruction and (avoidance of) death

The first US Grand Prix at COTA in 2012 had a three-day attendance of 265,000 and a race-day attendance of 117,429, but numbers dropped from there.

The 2013 race had 250,000 weekend spectators, 2014 had 237,000 and the rainy 2015 race had 224,000. My mother went to the track in 2015 and co-headlined the Elton John concert, and she called the race “dreary and muddy.” When she and I got surprise tickets to the ultra-expensive indoor Paddock Club, she said she felt like “Cinderella” in her dirty cleaning clothes.

COTA’s attendance numbers didn’t get dramatically worse from year to year, but they did get worse, resulting in a weekend drop of about 41,000 in four years. Austin residents also tend to invest in their local events: University of Texas football games, the Austin City Limits music festival and the like. But my Italian professor made me ask permission (in Italian) to skip class for a ride with F1 legend Sebastian Vettel, and my audio journalism professor acted as if working on the race was an inconvenience. This lack of enthusiasm was because they – and others – did not yet view F1 as a true Austin event. Real Austin events are always worth attending.

The chance of it becoming a true Austin event almost escaped, quite prematurely. Just after the 2015 race, COTA was hit by storms. Rains flooded the (very high) traffic tunnels leading to the infield, and the storm toppled trams, leveled temporary buildings and ripped seats from the main stands. A rock wall was hit so hard that it fell apart, and an awning was torn off a nearby gas station.

As the storm raged, discussions also arose over whether or not the state would continue to fund the race. When F1 released the 2016 calendar, the US Grand Prix had an asterisk next to it: *subject to agreement with the promoter and national sporting authorities. The American Grand Prix was again in doubt.

The USGP needed a boost, so in 2016 the event organizers brought in the big act: Taylor Swift. It was billed as her first and only concert of the year, and it attracted an estimated 80,000 attendees.

Taylor Swift at a concert

Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images

All this made sense in 2016, when F1 in the US needed a boost in attendance and a beacon of hope. But in 2024 that is unthinkable. It’s hard to imagine Swift, whose extensive Eras Tour reportedly attracted an average of 72,000 visitors per show in 2023, would be an addition to a sporting event rather than her own show, and it’s hard to imagine F1 helping her even in America. .

I remember sitting in the media center in 2016 and looking at live traffic maps to see when to leave the track. (This is necessary at COTA, as a few two-lane roads lead to a venue with a six-figure capacity.) The map leading to COTA after track operations ceased was solid red, as concertgoers opted for music only. Forget the race cars.

Things went badly. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and canceled the 2020 USGP, things could have been worse.

But then the ‘Drive to Survive’ effect happened.

Remaining unique in a saturated American market

Netflix’s F1 docuseries ‘Drive to Survive’ exploded in popularity as Americans were stuck at home during pandemic lockdowns. F1 did that too.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, and Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri, in the driver parade, flanked by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Returning to COTA for the 2021 US Grand Prix, attendance at the weekend was 400,000, setting a new record for F1, as the series rushed to capitalize on the US boom. The Miami Grand Prix was on the calendar for 2022, and the Las Vegas Grand Prix – a race along the famous Vegas Strip, with casinos on either side of the track – debuted in 2023. America became a hotbed of F1, where three of the series were hosted. 24 global races this year.

Now, after deep lows and record highs, COTA faces a new challenge: defining itself in an era where it is the US Grand Prix in name only, as there are now three US Grands Prix. When F1 returned to the US following the cancellation of the pandemic and the ‘Drive to Survive’ boom, COTA was the main option for new US F1 fans. It was like that one restaurant in a small town: it didn’t have to stand out because everyone had to go there anyway.

But now that town has a Cheesecake Factory and a Chili’s. There is competition, with freshly polished dining tables and multi-page menus with spiral bindings. The local restaurant is still a staple, but there are tempting distractions.

The way forward for the US Grand Prix at COTA, I think, is to lean into the culture of Texas. Miami is the club and beach hotspot, Vegas is the glitzy night race and Austin is supposed to be the Wild West race. The appeal of F1 races across America should not just be the geographical proximity of spectators, but also the kind of culture they offer. In Austin, that culture consists of modern cowboys and live music.

Sir Jackie Stewart meets a Texas Longhorn

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

It may feel like elaborate cosplay for the locals, but this is all cosplay in one form or another. The Miami race is a giant parking lot, and Vegas is a city of overpriced knockoffs, yet both feel glamorous because they are advertised as being so. These events are what we – and the race promoters – make them.

I’ve lived through every era of F1 in Austin, from the massive floods of 2015 to the bright, sunny days after ‘Drive to Survive’. Each of them feels like a lifetime ago, and hopefully F1 in the US has many lifetimes to go.