Miami in talks with F1 over becoming night race

As F1 races look to innovate and keep themselves fresh, one idea being considered is for Miami to follow Las Vegas and run at night.

Speaking on Sunday morning, Miami GP managing partner Tom Garfinkel said that a night race was something being evaluated amid talks with F1.

“We’ve had some discussions about potentially doing that,” Garfinkel told selected media, including Autosport.

“Obviously at this time of year, the weather’s a little unpredictable. This year is pretty nice so far, and the breezes have helped a lot, but last year was unseasonably hot.

“But there’s a lot of factors that go into that [decision to become a night race], with F1 and television and everything else. So, we’ve got to weigh all those things. But we’re certainly open-minded to it.”

One of the factors speaking most against Miami becoming a night race is its time zone in relation to Europe, with it being five hours behind London.

That means a night race would take place in the middle of the night in Europe, so would hit television audiences quite hard.

Las Vegas, which is eight hours behind, is holding its night race on a Saturday night so it takes place in the early hours of the Sunday morning in Europe.

Asked if a night race in Miami would also be on a Saturday, Garfinkel said: “We’re not at a place where we’re making a decision right now. I think we’re having discussions about if we did it, and what would it look like.”

Sold-out event

The local interest in the Miami event has been hard to gauge this weekend, with the grandstands and spectator areas not appearing to be full at times, despite the organisers expecting a total of 270,000 fans over the three days.

Garfinkel said, however, that all the tickets were bought up, and one of the key things he wanted to ensure was that the venue got the balance right between the people on site and ensuring that the experience for those at the track was not ruined.

“We are sold out,” he said. “We probably could have sold 150,000 tickets [per day] based on the demand and the room we have here, but I want everyone to have a great experience.

“It’s hard to get people in and out, to make sure there aren’t lines [of people] and to make sure there is not much traffic and all of those things.

“We want to grow a little bit every year as we operationally get better and better, but we also…