Hamilton: “We must continue our efforts to grow in the United States”

Lewis Hamilton has historically been one of the drivers who spent the most time in the United States, notably on his personal time. He has been going back and forth across the Atlantic for years. This is indeed where he worked on his other passion, music.

In his early days in Formula 1, in 2007, he was surprised that Americans, despite being fans of many sports, were not getting hooked on the F1: « When I came to the United States, like the first time in 2007, for many years, every time we came for this race, we just kept repeating ourselves, educating the audience. Sometimes we had a race, sometimes we didn’t. I couldn’t understand when I went to NFL or NBA games to see how passionate Americans are about sports but they couldn’t catch the virus that we got when we were young. »

Therefore, he can only be delighted to see the takeoff in popularity in the country: « It’s so impressive to see that a large part of the country is starting to talk about it. People own simulators, everyone wants to become a pilot! We need to continue to see what happens now. I think that having three races in one country is a big help. » As for the number of races on American soil, Zak Brown considered that three were enough: « The United States could have four races but I’m not sure F1 can. If we want to develop in new regions of the world, it seems difficult to have four races in the United States. »

However, Lewis Hamilton also mentioned that social media interactions are currently seeing a significant drop this season. The main reason is that Max Verstappen has simply switched off the competition. Even though the battle for second place is very tight, it’s not what excites the crowds, particularly for newcomers: « It’s obviously largely impacted by the competition. This is what people want to see. We need to make sure we make the right decisions. The governing bodies need to make the right decisions to keep us close to each other and provide exciting races. »

The next stage of development across the Atlantic, after the inaugural holding of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, will be the broadcasting of the film in preparation with Brad Pitt, in which Lewis Hamilton is heavily involved. He paid a strong tribute to Liberty Media, which gives the film crew a great deal of flexibility: « That we can make this film, have the right to have an additional crew on the track, to shoot with such movie stars… This has never been done before! It’s great that we can get involved in things that have never been done before. They are really doing a great job. There will be a huge spotlight on Las Vegas. This will also play a significant role in our movie. We are really working hard to ensure that this is a true reflection of this legendary sport. »

We are indeed far from the six cars on the Indianapolis grid in 2005. Or from the movie Driven with Silverster Stallone…

From our special correspondent in Austin