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.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by The stogie, 12/02/2023 17:11

"Why not return to Watkins Glen."

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2. Posted by alvarezh3, 11/02/2023 5:30

"@ Defiant

Yes, that's what I said, it's financial.

Additionally, the teams love the fact that there are 10ths of millions of consumers in what is called the North East corridor that extends from D.C. to Boston, that the advertisers on their cars want to showcase themselves to. NYC is almost the center of the said area.

We have to keep in mind that the teams do not exist to please us who follow the sport, they are after selling the products they advertise. Ferrari, Mercedes, Alfa, Alpine, McLaren and Aston Martin want F1 to help them sell cars. Alpha Tauri wants to sell wearables while Red Bull its drink. Haas its CNC machines and Williams sells a moving banner for companies to advertise their products on. Therefore, they want to be seen as much as possible.

As far as distance is concerned, the stretch between Montmeló-Le Castellet-Monaco-Imola-Spielberg-Budapest are almost as far together (or in some instances closer) as NYC to Montreal, yet they are considered different markets.

100% with you on the street tracks...enough!"

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3. Posted by trackrecords, 11/02/2023 0:28

"Estoril, Anderstorp, Kyalami plus a German track, it is not as if we're short of tracks. At what point does F1 become an American series? Why not have a Franchised USA F1 championship rather than impose on the rest of the world so many races on their time period? Just think how many successful UK TV series have been Americanised, but don't compare to the original. My fear is that F1 is going to suffer likewise."

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4. Posted by Defiant, 10/02/2023 23:53

"@alvarezh3, NY maybe hundreds of miles and many many hours away from the other races but Montreal isn't far away from NY at all. I'd say this is a little political and a lot to do with $$. It has very little to do with what's best for fans or even F1.

The last thing F1 needs is another awful street track. I wish they'd drop at least ½ of the ones they already have on the calendar."

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5. Posted by Simon in Adelaide, 10/02/2023 22:11

"Red Bull in favour of an additional American GP but not an additional American team.

There seems to a lot of politics go on behind the scenes but who is pulling the strings."

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6. Posted by alvarezh3, 10/02/2023 19:41

"Liberty Media does not take geographic (or political) boundaries when considering an event, it's the market potential that counts.

The USA is almost equal in territory and in population as western Europe and has the added advantage that the income per capita is greater. If you count the GPs in Europe you can see that it has more than double the GPs the USA presently has.

NYC is hundreds of miles away from Miami, Austin or Las Vegas, it's market is not being served by those far away events and that is what they see. It has nothing to do with country or territorial boundaries, it's about the financial value of the area to be served."

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7. Posted by Chester, 10/02/2023 19:00

"Christian Horner hawking New York as an F1 venue was part of the expense-cap-violation negotiations. He was offered the "task" as a way to keep more of Red Bull's wind tunnel allotment."

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8. Posted by Superbird70, 10/02/2023 18:47

"Saudi Arabia has enough room, and money to build duplicates of every F1 circuit past and present, including Monaco if they want. Travel would be greatly reduced, and it would probably tick a number of green boxes wrt sustainability. "

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9. Posted by F1nerd, 10/02/2023 18:09

"There is also a great deal of interest in Europe (especially for purpose built circuits).
Also there a a lot of beautiful cities in Europe so why go over to America for races at "silly O'Clock"."

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10. Posted by KKK, 10/02/2023 15:05

"WTFF is the best acronym I can think of....whats wrong with the current venues anyway or is F1 just going to race in the States and Middle east countries? Total Joke,"

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11. Posted by Superbird70, 10/02/2023 14:45

"Sorry, but Montreal is a purpose built "street" circuit. Not a reasonable comparision at all. "

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Horner wants New York Grand Prix

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