Why Formula 1 Should Come to New York

By Mungo Campbell

Formula 1 is known for many things like speed, precision, and cutting edge engineering. Formula 1 is also known for racing around some of the most iconic and scenic tracks around the world. We were recently treated to a night race around the streets of Marina Bay in Singapore. We got to see landmarks such as the famous Singapore ferris wheel, and the night time skyline of Marina Bay. I unfortunately was not able to be there in person, owing to the fact I only have 10 dollars a month to spend on F1 TV, not thousands to spend on plane tickets, hotels, food, and of course the always high end seats to the race. But that got me thinking, what if I didn’t need to travel 15,000 kilometers, for such sights and of course an exhilarating race? What if I could take the subway to an F1 grand prix? I present to you the New York Grand Prix!

Before we start, I want to cover a few key terms I will be using in this article. The first term I will use is DRS. DRS stands for drag reduction system and is an apparatus that sits on the back wing of Formula 1 cars. DRS decreases drag and increases speed.When DRS is activated, a flap on the back wing flips up letting more air pass without hitting the car, decreasing drag. DRS can only be used when you are within one second behind a car in front of you. This is measured at chosen speed traps around the circuit and activated in “DRS zones”. DRS used to be a button that the driver could open whenever they wanted, but these DRS zones were designed to allow for closer racing with more overtaking, creating a more entertaining race. 

Another key term is the word downforce. Vital for Formula 1 cars, downforce is the force of air pushing the car onto the ground when moving at high speeds. Think of downforce as the opposite of lift, it increases grip and allows drivers to take more aggressive angles when turning at corners. Now onto tire jargon. There are 5 different tires available to formula one teams. When to switch tires and to what tires is one of the most important aspects of strategy in formula 1. The five tires are intermediates (used for partially wet tracks) wets, (used for very wet tracks) softs, (used for high speed and high traction, however soft tires degrade fast and last few laps) mediums, (mediums compromise between durability and track pace) hards, (hards don’t have good traction and pace but they last a long time on track). 

This 5.67km race would have a fairly average lap length. It would sit 2 kilometers under the longest lap belonging to Spa-Francorchamps (7km), and 2 kilometers longer than the Monaco Grand Prix(3.3km). The New York Grand Prix would take place from the southern tip of Manhattan, all the way to Chamber Street and would be the most unique track on the calendar. Without construction to widen the curbs, it would be similar to Monaco and be hard to overtake on. However the problem is mitigated by the extreme mix of high speed straights and low speed corners. Looking at the map above, drivers would compete to have the latest braking points at the end of the five straights, to dive into turns 1, 15,16,18 and 24.  There would be a few medium speed corners which would complement the mix of high speed straights and slow speed corners.This track would be spoiled rotten for slow corners, the several hairpins at turns 3,5,6,15 and 24 would be very entertaining. Local F1 fan Seiji Jasper brings up how he feels Lewis Hamilton would greatly benefit from this circuit’s tight corners, “Hamilton is very good at maneuvering tight corners and good on the straights.” Jasper also brings up how Lewis’s skill through the corners would pair excellently with his new team Ferrari, who have recently created cars that excel on the straightaway, “Ferrari would be good at maintaining speed because the main overtaking options are in corners. Despite the long straights I see it more as a good place to hold position rather than overtake. Combine Ferrari straight line speed with Lewis Hamilton being very confident on the breaks and I see Hamilton as a very strong driver especially when he moves to Ferrari next year”. When asked who he thought would win this New York Grand Prix, another local F1 fan Ciaran Jacobs brought up Ferrari’s excellent ability to take advantage of the two DRS zones on the circuit, with the main straight located on West Street, and the second on Water Street. “I would say Ferrari because similar to Mexico and in DRS zones we saw Sainz overtake, we saw Leclerc overtake cars like Verstappen even when they were also using DRS. So I think that it is very likely that they could win.” 

Now this would be one of the most interesting races of the calendar, just because of the tire strategy and the higher potential to crash on a street race.The combined wear and tear with heavy braking and accelerating from tight turns into high speed straights would wear out tires extremely quickly, it is highly unlikely that we would see a one stop (one pit stop) strategy,and teams would likely take a two stop or even three stop strategy. This tire strategy would provide extremely interesting moments in race weekends. The sheer insanity of having 5 hairpin turns in one race combined with a one kilometer main straight and two other fairly long straight would certainly make teams stray away from the softer, faster, tires, which degrade at a much faster rate; in favor of the harder compounds for tires, which cause slightly slower lap times, but they also degrade slower and last longer under the intense conditions of Formula 1 racing. 

A Google Maps outline of the track.

Now for some of the pros and cons of having a New York Grand Prix. Let's start with some of the practical concerns. The main practical concern is the width of the track and having enough space for facilities such as grandstands, the paddock. An equally valid and important practical concern is making all the streets race worthy. Some streets would need to be repaved, some streets would need their curbs temporarily pushed back, and some avenues would need their pedestrian refuge in the middle temporarily removed. The second medium speed corner from turn 19-20 and three quarters of the way to turn 18 is private and used for security of an NYPD building. The part that isn’t used by the NYPD occupies opposite lanes connecting the Brooklyn Bridge,  and the divider would need to be removed and that would need to be connected to the private road. The other end would then be a normal road past City Hall. 

Another concern is having enough seating room. This is a blessing and a curse in this context. Because there are many windows you can watch from, there is plenty of indoor seating to put around the track. However, because of buildings it would be hard to fit grandstand seating outside. One option would be to put grandstand style seating in between blocks. This could be elevated, but might not offer a good view of the track. Another option would be to use public parks. This track runs past several public parks, where they could be used for seating. The track between turn 12 and 13 runs directly next to the water- so floating seating could be used to give people a view of the race. Not to mention because of the Covid-19 pandemic, there are several empty office buildings because of everyone working from home, Formula 1 could partner with the owners of these office buildings to provide seating in these empty buildings. 

Now for the positives of the proposed race. Runoff space would be extremely easy to make because most of the streets in Manhattan are straight, meaning if a driver missed his breaking point or had a mechanical failure he could easily keep going past the turn on most of the turns on the track without crashing into a wall and safely retire the car. This spectacle would also bring in a lot of tourism to New York, not just to the raceway but the rest of the city. This would definitely be something that would help us surpass pre Covid tourism levels. 

Formula 1 is an extremely international sport, yet the United States already hosts three races on the calendar, Miami, Austin, and Las Vegas. It would be ridiculous for the us to host a fourth, so I propose that we suspend the Las Vegas Grand Prix in favor of New York. Las Vegas is a disaster of a city, and they are running out of water because who builds a city in the middle of the desert? Las Vegas has none of the history New York has, and on top of that Las Vegas is dependent on tourism and casinos, business that could disappear tomorrow. Not to mention the homeless problem in Las Vegas is much worse than the homeless problem in New York. Should we be rewarding a city that is running out of water with an event as international as Formula 1? In a way, giving Las Vegas a gigantic event like an F1 Grand Prix would only worsen their problems. In Las Vegas, their grand prix needs to be scheduled at night in the fall/winter because the temperatures would get way too hot for hosting a motor sport event in the summer in New York, that is much less of an issue. We have a much larger possible window to host a grand prix. We can play around with when to host and not be bound to seasons.

One final topic I wanted to cover is the issue of Formula 1 and the rise of street circuits. With each passing year, there is increasingly a higher amount of street circuits, race tracks built in the middle of a city using city roads like this New York Grand Prix, and a dropping number of traditional racetracks, built specifically to F1’s specifications. This race would only add to the controversy. When I asked F1 fan Ciaran Jacobs, he strongly supported the idea of the New York Grand Prix, even as another street circuit, “I feel like with street races, you could get a lot of a lot of views because of the city setting…I think it would be very cool to see it come to New York as a New Yorker and as an F1 fan. But like, it seems very unlikely.” Another F1 fan Seiji Jasper took a more negative stance on street races, especially this NewYork Grand Prix, “No I think it wouldn’t fit (into the F1 calendar) because the southern part of the track would be very turn based but the northern part would be very street and long straights. ..F1 already has great traditional tracks.”

 This all comes down to entertainment and economics. Cities can pay F1 far more to host a race there since cities make more money than traditional dedicated circuits. Not to mention many people will tune in to street races to see the spectacle rather than a circuit they’ve never heard of before. A casual fan is more likely to watch the Las Vegas Grand Prix than the race at Spa Francorchamps because to them Las Vegas is more recognizable; even though the quality of racing in Las Vegas can be incredibly boring and the racing at Spa is second to none.

Both Jasper and Jacobs said the prospect of a Grand Prix happening in New York would excite them not only as a fan, but as a New Yorker. Jacobs said it would be very exciting to see the 20 best drivers in the world race around southern Manhattan, although he later admitted that it would be a pain to get around the city during the grand prix, and would inconvenience a lot of  New Yorkers. “I mean, as a New Yorker, I think it excites me as a New Yorker, because I would love to see F1 come to New York, but like, I think a lot of people would consider it as like a nuisance, because, like many people are trying to get around in the city, and closing down streets would probably cause a lot of disruption.”

  If we were to host a New York Grand Prix, it would be the most interesting circuit on the calendar. It would combine high speed sprints and slow corners, tear apart tires and make strategy very important. All these pit stops would make the race much more competitive. Overall, this circuit would be extremely hard to set up, as renovations would cost millions, but it would be one of the coolest circuits in all of motorsports, and would provide this city with one of the most iconic sporting events in the world.