The prospect of the Miami Grand Prix becoming a night race in 2024 is “very, very unlikely” according to the event’s president Tyler Epp, but is not off the table for the future.
Miami has enjoyed two sellout races so far since joining the Formula 1 calendar in 2022, and recently announced it would be expanding its capacity to 100,000 spectators per day next year. At the latest event, the race’s managing partner and NFL Miami Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel hinted the prospect of becoming a night race was being explored — with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Las Vegas all being held on Saturday nights in future — but Epp says more research of the impact of such a change still needs to be done.
“Tom and Steven (Ross, Dolphins owner) give us all the resources to have these kinds of discussions,” Epp said. “We’ve looked at it a little bit. Singapore was very helpful in terms of sharing how they do it. We’ve obviously had a discussion with Vegas — there could be some opportunities to work together. What Liberty is doing in Vegas is fantastic, and Greg (Maffei) and Renee (Wilm) get a ton of credit for that.
“I would tell you, it’s very, very unlikely for the 2024 version, but we will always look at opportunities to improve the experience if we deem as a group — and frankly, with the FIA and Formula 1 as well saying it does makes sense to look at Saturday night or a Sunday night or whatever it may be, we look at it. But for 2024, not on the docket.”
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Epp explains there are multiple reasons why a night race could be entertained in the future but says the priority for Miami will be the fan experience at the track itself.
“Depending on what we start to get year over year from just a weather perspective — I mean, those of you who were there, like Sunday evening is much different than Sunday afternoon. So pushing the start back just a bit into the evening could be a benefit to the fan. Depending on what Formula 1’s strategy is for their broadcast, there could be some benefit there. Again, that’s up to them. We’re there to support their initiatives on that.
“So I think we have to look at those things. But we would center our analysis from our business perspective on what works for the fan in Miami. So we’d have to do a full analysis of that, and we haven’t scratched the surface there.”