New races planned means F1 can have it all – Lowe

Williams technical chief Paddy Lowe has welcomed the planned expansion of the Formula 1 race calendar as he sees it providing an attraction to all fans with different tastes.

F1 looks set to secure a new city street race in Miami after the Florida city voted through initial plans to host a race, rumoured to be lined up for as early as 2019, as the sport’s owners Liberty Media looks set to increase the race calendar with particular focus on city races.

With the majority of races on the current F1 calendar hosted at traditional and purpose-built circuits, Lowe feels Liberty’s strategy of adding more street races wouldn’t tip the balance while offering more attractions to a wider range of fans.

“We’ve got 21 races now and more races to come in the future so we can afford more races in that nature [city streets].

 “It gets away from the tradition of a pursuit racing track like Spa or Silverstone but we need some of each. Part of the interest of F1 are some fans who like the glamourous events and other fans who love the purity of a lap around Spa. I think we can have it all.”

While city races have also been rumoured in Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Hanoi, Williams boss Lowe feels the immediate addition of a race in Miami would be a key boost to F1’s struggles breaking into the US market.

“I welcome more races in the USA as it is a huge market in which Formula 1 has not had a great presence in over the years,” Lowe said. “We have Austin now which is a tremendous addition to the calendar in all sorts of ways. The size of the country and the market means to have two races will be terrific.

“I think bringing races to city centres or adjacent to city centres where there is a large population and lots of different things to do is a really great idea as you make the race into much more of a destination than simply a sporting event which gives it more breadth and range of fans who could come to make a bigger weekend out of it. Monaco is shining example of that and we also see that in Singapore.”