Circuit of the Americas boss Bobby Epstein: 'We don’t have to change our recipe, it’s really working.'

• Circuit of the Americas chairman Bobby Epstein says the circuit is sticking to its principles and not reacting to the external noise of F1 races at Miami and Las Vegas.

• Epstein says that Miami and Las Vegas “can work sort of as a commercial, and be complementary to what we’re doing,”

• This year’s Grand Prix at COTA is scheduled for October 22.

The organizer of Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix says the recent arrival of Miami – and impending debut of Las Vegas—won’t change the vibe around Austin’s event.

Austin’s purpose-built Circuit of the Americas became the home of Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix in 2012 and was the sole grand prix in the country through 2021.

Last season Miami was a high-profile edition to the calendar while in November Las Vegas—which has already gained widespread attention that transcends just motorsport—will become the third Grand Prix in the country.

This year’s Grand Prix at COTA is scheduled for October 22 and chairman Bobby Epstein says the circuit is sticking to its principles and not reacting to the external noise.

“I don’t think we’re doing anything different, actually,” he said during a media call on Austin’s approach for 2023. “What’s nice is the other events, as they came in, tried to establish their own unique identity.

“We don’t have to change our recipe, it’s really working. I think one of the things we’ve found is that the people have defined us, the fans have defined us. It’s been nice to see that the fans have looked at this and said in many ways it’s what they call ‘the people’s race’, we’ve seen that name a lot, and it’s nice to see that, and we’ll try and live up to that.”

Epstein added that Miami and Las Vegas “can work sort of as a commercial, and be complementary to what we’re doing,” pointing to Miami’s spring date on the calendar, and Vegas’ very different character, as beneficial for Austin.

“We’ll have a full day of racing, plenty for the race fan and enthusiast, and the concerts (are) included (with the tickets),” said Epstein, referring to Queen with Adam Lambert, and The Killers as the headline acts this year.

“One of the underrated components is the fans in the camp grounds, they give a great spirit to the event, on site, that lends to the atmosphere—the other events are great in their own ways but they don’t have that spirit which I think is very authentic from the fans that stay there.

“But it takes years to really find out what the appeal and staying power is to each event.”

Last season’s event at Austin attracted 440,000 spectators across the four-day weekend and Epstein at the time hinted that the half a million barrier could be a target for 2023.

That ambition has been tentatively circled for 2024 amid a desire not to dilute the fan experience without essential factors being properly implemented.

“That comes down to transportation, food service, enough restrooms,” said Epstein on expanding capacity. “We found that our bus shuttle services are working well, we’ll upgrade it this year with the new link road that opened just before last year’s race.

“With some enhancements and tests we’re doing this year both on food service and transportation, we’ll be in a position to do that next year. We’ll have to see if the demand is there but we’ll have the capacity (for half a million attendees) I think certainly next year, assuming the things we’re trying this year go as well as we hope they will.”

Reports recently picked up on Formula 1 tickets for the 2023 US Grand Prix being sold at Costco. That perplexed some observers, but Epstein was delighted at the public awareness.

“I’m surprised it gets the attention this year when we’ve sold there many times in the past!,” he said.

“I think one of the things we want to do… there’s a lot of coverage on the expensive tickets, the $10,000 tickets, the $1 million package in Vegas, we want to get our message out that there is value in a ticket to the U.S. Grand Prix at COTA, that everything’s not a $10k ticket. It’s been hard to get our message out! So that being seen is real value to us – but Costco doesn’t represent bad products or poor products. What it represents is value, we’re trying to find every way we can to tell the customer that a ticket to the U.S. GP is affordable and there’s great value to it.”