Miami Grand Prix will be next US Formula 1 race

Written by P.H. Chang, CNN

The Brazilian Grand Prix will remain in Rio de Janeiro this year, despite months of uncertainty as to whether the race would make it to the city in 2019.

But starting in 2021, Brazil’s second race will head to the coastal Miami Beach Circuit , making the seaside city the first in the United States to host a Formula 1 race.

“We are going to have a brand new race that has never been seen anywhere in the United States before,” said Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chairman of the Formula 1 Group, Thursday at Miami-Dade County commissioners meeting, announcing that the race would be held at the Circuit.

The Miami Grand Prix is not just a good thing for the region.

“This is the next step in motorsport happening in a region that has been historically not a major region of motorsport,” he said.

“And so having the race here on the cruise ships is the first time that you are going to have the outdoor race in America since the Indy 500 happened 100 years ago.”

The United States has struggled to attract major sporting events to the nation’s largest city. The Miami Grand Prix is the region’s first motorsport event in the 50 years since the Indianapolis 500 took place here.

There was no official confirmation that the race would include space as the Miami Beach Circuit and International Space Station shared a hillside.

“The co-location of the human body and the earth is very appropriate for this race because the oval track is 19.58 meters (52 feet) in diameter and when we go back to space and look at our bodies, we can actually see ourselves traveling around the Earth and looking out at the earth,” Al Mubarak said.

The reason for the heat

The decision to bring the race to Miami comes several months after residents petitioned to stop an open letter about the race to the mayor of the city of Miami.

They wrote that the proposed route through Miami is “unacceptable, unsafe and cannot survive”

To appease the public, representatives of race operator Circuit of the Americas raised over $48 million in financial pledges, according to the Miami Herald . The letter stated that the race would create between 6,000 and 20,000 jobs and generate revenue of $50 million.

The South Florida Regional Planning Council also acknowledged that the original plans to host the race in November did not meet some of the fundamental elements necessary to host a race.

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