The sprint format did not sell more tickets in Austin

The United States Grand Prix in Austin hosted one of the six sprint format races of the 2023 season. This format was introduced to make race weekends more attractive and energize the sessions, thus attracting more people over the three days rather than just on Sunday.

During a sprint weekend, the race qualifications take place on Friday, while Saturday is dedicated to the format (qualification and race). The traditional race always takes place on Sunday. With these three busy days, F1 hoped to increase ticket sales and the number of supporters present throughout the weekend, or even raise the price of tickets per day.

However, the director of the Circuit of the Americas revealed that the format implemented in Austin had not succeeded in attracting a larger audience on Saturday. « It did not contribute as we had hoped. It’s a surprise », admitted Bobby Epstein in front of the media, including Motors Inside. « We need to know the reason for their arrival. And I believe that our fans come as much for the event itself as for the sporting battles. Fans’ opinions are divided on this format. It is still an experiment at this stage. »

Another full Sunday

If Saturday’s sales were disappointing for the organizers, Sunday was still very satisfactory. Despite Max Verstappen’s dominance throughout the season, the grandstands were full.« Max’s superiority is not directly responsible for our disappointing sales on Saturday », explains the circuit director. « Our Sunday sales were as high as the previous year, so I don’t think this domination had an impact on the number of supporters. If that were the case, I would say: “Well, I passed this test with strong sales on Sunday, and now I point out that the second part of the problem is that this year’s Saturday sales were slightly lower than those of the previous year, despite the addition of a sprint race in 2023.” »

After this disappointment, Epstein stated that Austin might not position itself to host a sprint weekend in 2024. « We will work with Formula 1 and let them decide what is best, but we are happy that it can vary a little, » he added.

The last sprint format race of the season will be held in Brazil, on the Interlagos circuit.