Miami GP showcases F1's youth movement, American popularity

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- "Are they cheering for me?" asked Evander Holyfield, former heavyweight champion of the world, looking up from the ground floor of the Miami International Autodrome and into the tiered balconies above. That's where hundreds of Formula 1 fans were spending their Sunday afternoon, leaning over the railings and screaming down into the paddock below, hoping to grab the attention of the celebrities making their way toward the fourth edition of the Miami Grand Prix.

"Aw, naw man, that ain't for me. I'm not young enough and cool enough for this crowd," the 62-year-old "Real Deal" said with a wink, a shake of his head and a point to a mob of people moving by him, swirling around someone hidden between them. "Like that guy is."

"That guy" was Timothée Chalamet, the 29-year-old actor from "Dune" and the Bob Dylan biopic (not to mention College GameDay). And yes, the very young crowd indeed roared for the very young star.

But not even the Oscar nominee could generate the suddenly elevated level of high-pitched screams elicited by the sight of the even younger men on their way to work.

As each race car driver emerged one by one from the F1 team HQs constructed on the field of Hard Rock Stadium and snaked through the crowd toward the garages where their machines were being prepared, the decibel level of the audible adulation unleashed upon them felt directly tied to their age.

"It is good to be young and fast," observed Sir Jackie Stewart, 85, as he watched 25-year-old Lando Norris and McLaren handlers power by, showered by a chorus of "LANDO! LANDO! LOOK UP HERE!" Continued Stewart, a three-time world champion, "That's the proper way to describe Formula 1 right now: young and fast."

A few hours later, the field only proved the legend's point. Norris finished second to teammate Oscar Piastri, 24, as they further cemented their 1-2 rankings in the drivers' championship standings. They were joined on the podium by George Russell of Mercedes, followed by reigning world champ Max Verstappen, both of whom are 27, Alex Albon, relatively ancient at 29, and then Kimi Antontelli, who on Friday became the youngest F1 racer to ever win a pole position.

Antonelli won't turn 19 until the end of August.

"I spent 15 years trying to get my kids to watch F1 with me on Sunday mornings and they were always like, 'Shut up, Dad, it's boring and we want to sleep in!'" said Miami resident Oscar Martinez, 48, his arms and legs stretched out over the seats of Section 301 in the upper deck of Hard Rock Stadium, watching a race on the giant TV screens inside the home of the Miami Dolphins as those seats were rattled by that race unfolding around the stadium. He pointed two rows down, to his teenage son and daughter, both dressed head to toe in McLaren papaya and riveted by the action outside. "Now, they come wake me up on Sunday mornings to watch F1 and these tickets were the only Christmas presents they wanted." He shouted the next sentence just loud enough so they could hear him.

"She has the biggest crush on Oscar!"

"Dad, shut up!"

See? Young. And to go back to Mr. Holyfield, cool. Never in F1's 75 years has the globe's most beloved form of motorsport been this cool in the United States and certainly has never grown this fast among the young.

Americans have surged toward F1 since summer 2020, when everyone was stuck in their homes to wait out the COVID-19 pandemic and, like "Tiger King" and "Gilmore Girls" reruns, discovered the already-existing streaming series "Drive to Survive." Suddenly, a sport that had long been beloved by a devoted but niche and, frankly, gray-haired auto racing audience of dads (no offense, Mr. Martinez of Section 301) became a curiosity for millions who prior didn't know the difference between a safety car and the Safety Dance.

Amid a global fanbase estimated at 750 million people, an estimated 42% is under the age of 35, the kind of numbers that make U.S.-based NASCAR and IndyCar green as a starting flag with envy. F1 claims that one out of every two American fans of its series started watching the sport within the past five years, it has more than 20 million new fans and that its fastest growing demographic is females between the ages of 16 and 24.

It would be easy to write off all of those stats as fuzzy marketing math, spun by a sanctioning body eager to brag on itself. But anyone who spent time in the Miami International Autodrome grandstands on Sunday has plenty of instant anecdotal evidence to back those claims.

"When I was a kid, my father dragged me to this stadium to watch Dan Marino play because he said he wanted me to be able to say I'd seen the greatest quarterback who ever lived," Lisa Donato of Fort Lauderdale shouted over the cars that roared by below her perch on one of Hard Rock Stadium's signature spiral ramps. "I didn't want to at first but ended up becoming a lifelong fan. I even have a No. 13 tattoo. Now I come to this same stadium with my kids and they love (27-year-old Ferrari driver) Charles Leclerc. Now my daughter wants a Ferrari tattoo. But I said she isn't old enough yet!"

"Nothing makes us happier than to see not just young people, but families, here together," said Tom Garfinkel, who oversees the Miami Grand Prix and so many other events held in and around Hard Rock Stadium, and is also vice chairman, president and CEO of the stadium's most famous tenant, the Miami Dolphins. On Friday, F1 announced a landmark 10-year contract extension that will keep the Miami GP in business through 2041. "The Formula 1 audience has become so much broader, everywhere, but here in the United States it's been dramatic. We aren't the reason for that, but we are proud to be a part of that reason."

The 1980s and '90s were largely barren of Stateside F1 events. Then came years of one-time visits. Now there are three per year, with Miami in the spring and trips to Austin, Texas and Las Vegas in the fall. After recent years of noise about more American cities wanting their own Formula 1 weekends, it appears that this trio will be the lineup for the foreseeable future. The Circuit of the Americas in Austin has a contract with F1 through next season. Las Vegas has already signed on all the way through 2032.

Judging from all of those young people leaning over the rails and all of those just-as-young people they were shouting at, the ones who drive the race cars, the kids in America, they live for the racing go-round. And none show signs of finding something else to do anytime soon. As underlined -- very loudly -- when Piastri took his fourth win of the season and sixth GP victory in nine months, and the resulting cheers that went up from the grandstands inside Hard Rock Stadium momentarily matched the roar of the twenty 1,000-horsepower machines outside.

"You can feel that energy, no doubt. I know that I do, and I'm certainly no youngster," Red Bull boss Christian Horner said on Friday when asked about the fountain of youth running through the paddock and the midways that surround it. He is the employer of Verstappen and his 24-year-old teammate, Yuki Tsunoda. "The fans, they feed off it from us, but we also feed off of it from them."

As Sir Stewart said, it's good to be young -- and fast.