Chairman and promoter Bobby Epstein told Autosport that it was “surprising” that the additional events on the race bill did not enhance ticket sales for this year’s US GP in Austin, Texas.
A sprint race weekend incorporates an additional sprint qualifying and sprint race, on top of the traditional practice, qualifying and race format.
Some 432,000 fans still attended the 2023 US Grand Prix across the weekend, down 8,000 from last year’s figure.
“It didn’t help. It’s a surprise. You have to decide at what point are people coming for the event, which I think our fans are coming for the event, as much as they are for the sport. So, I think it still remains to be seen whether the sprint race is something the fans are embracing, or it’s more controversial,” said Epstein.
“You’ve got people that are proponents of it and advocates, and you have others that say I like it the way it was. It’s still an experiment at this point.”
Yesterday’s (Sunday’s) race was won by Red Bull and three-time World Champion Max Verstappen, who was also on the top spot for the sprint race a day earlier.
The dominance of both Red Bull and Verstappen over the last few years was also highlighted by Autosport, which asked whether this had an effect on ticket sales for the US GP.
Epstein explained that Sunday’s ticket sales were still strong, and said: “I guess the only way to say it is that when Sunday is still as strong as it was last year, that probably answers the question that you asked.
“Why is Sunday still so strong if it’s the Max factor that affects the attendance? I’d say ‘well, I passed that test [in strong Sunday sales] and now I’m saying, part two is Saturday this year was a little bit less than Saturday last year, and yet we have a sprint race this year. So that’s the only thing that moved.”
However, Epstein did concede that this year’s ticket sales may mean that Austin will opt against hosting a sprint race next year.
There are three F1 races in the United States this year, including Miami, Austin and the newly added Las Vegas Grand Prix in November.