The Monza Grand Prix made headlines a few weeks ago for everything but the racing. Throughout all social media platforms, fans were posting photographs and videos that made Monza look more like Fyre Fest than a world-renowned Formula One Grand Prix.
According to RacingNews365.com, Monza costs organizers $25 million per year. And while I wasn’t able to find out exactly how much organizers earn from each race, F1Destinations.com has the Monza GP 2023 admission prices set from $450 USD up to $4,050 USD for the higher end packages. With record-breaking attendance for the 2022 race exceeding 336,000 fans over the span of the weekend, you can do the math on that. However, it makes fans wonder how a race that costs so much to attend could be such a disaster.
There were extensive queues for entering and exiting the circuit, for shuttles and restrooms, and due to a flawed token system, queues to buy food and drinks were a complete disaster. Attendees couldn’t enter with caps on their water bottles. And they oversold Sundays race to the point that fans were having to find random objects to create their own viewing platforms with. Moreover, leaving the race was a mess which left drivers stuck in traffic for hours thereafter. Unfortunately for Formula One, similar incidents occurred at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona in the spring.
This trend of replacing heritage, European F1 tracks with the glitzy, star-studded races in Miami and Las Vegas is already creating waves among F1 purists who think that it’s less about racing and more about the lifestyle. It’s hard to deny that trend, and race ticket prices should be the first indicator of the trajectory this sport is headed. That’s not to say that some of the tracks in the past were good; many weren’t. But that was a different time in the sport, and with demand at an all-time high, track owners and officials have to approach designs, logistics, and operations through the same competitive lens as the drivers on-track.
With its incredible rise in popularity in recent years, F1 is now the most popular sport in the world, and with that, should come the logistical anticipation of higher crowds at these events. Unfortunately, some believe that letting chaos grow at legacy tracks is by design. If investments aren’t made into reinforcing the infrastructure of the tracks and surrounding accommodations, fans have to wonder if these races will eventually lose their demand and provide the perfect opportunity for F1 to pass on extension negotiations in favor of newer tracks and locations.
In Miami, the circuit is built around a National Football League stadium and has yachts tucked into fake water. Despite the fake water being the focus of the memes mocking the track, officials have announced that they’re returning. And while the circuit in Vegas looks promising, it’s still anyone’s guess what eccentric theatrics await us in November 2023. The point here is that as an American Formula One fan, the thought of losing these iconic European tracks to locations that are being marketed to celebrities and influencers is concerning. We had Monaco for that. Unfortunately, it’s already happening, and I’m not sure what the answer is, but at the very least, organizers have to step up to avoid Monza Grand Prix-style comparisons to Fyre Fest in the future.
