F1 fans are still flocking to the glitz of the Miami GP - and they really are F1 fans

The inaugural running of Formula 1's Miami Grand Prix took place back in 2022, and five years on, fans are still flocking to the event for a little taste of South Florida glamour.

“I've been saving up for this literally since F1 first announced it,” one Charles Leclerc superfan told me as I prowled the fan zones to get a better sense of what it is that keeps fans coming back to brave the heat, humidity, and sunshine. “I was kind of like, ‘I don't know…’ at first, right? Like, if it would be worth it. But it's kind of a dream come true.”

That fan — a 26-year-old named Chloe who hails from nearby Fort Lauderdale — is just one example of the new American viewers flocking to Formula 1. When her in-person high school classes were canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chloe turned to Netflix to stave off the boredom, and it was there she discovered the docuseries Drive to Survive.

A longtime F1 viewer might criticize DTS for its propensity for soap opera storylines and glossing over of the sport's more esoteric technical details. Yet those narrative choices are exactly what hooked millions of new fans throughout the United States — many of whom skew younger and female.

“It was, like, this whole new universe,” Chloe gushed of her early experience with DTS. “I wanted to know everything.”

And with plenty of time on her hands, she could do just that. Chloe — like a handful of other younger fans I spoke to in Miami — dove headfirst into a sport they'd never heard of. They absorbed old race highlights, films, and YouTube videos of their newfound favorite drivers. And when Formula 1 resumed its abbreviated 2020 season, they were ready to watch every second.

Ferrari Hat Guy in Miami

As I mingled with fans seeking shelter from the blazing heat of Florida's sunshine, I heard Chloe's story echoed back to me multiple times. But I found a greater diversity of fan experiences than I necessarily expected.

Beside me in the Red Bull Energy Station was a couple who had been F1 fans for years and who had ticked off bucket-list races across the globe before arriving in Miami. From afar, I spotted Kim Reimer, colloquially known among F1 fans as “Ferrari Hat Guy” — an American fan from Tallahassee who has been creating exact replicas of each new Ferrari to don atop his head since 2002.

Miami gets a bad rap among plenty of longtime F1 fans who have never actually been to the race. They see the spectacle — the yachts lined up in a fake marina, the celebrities, the influencer footage — and make sweeping assumptions about the kind of people who come to this race. No real F1 fan would actually choose to attend the Miami Grand Prix and actually enjoy themselves.

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Yet everywhere I looked, there were dedicated fans. Yes, there were plenty of folks who were more interested in snapping the ideal ‘fit pic for their Instagram grid, and VIPs who had never heard of F1, and people who were mostly just hoping that Lewis Hamilton would bring Kim Kardashian to the paddock so they could claim they were in the same general vicinity as her.

But those folks were outnumbered by the sheer number of people who had turned up because they're actually enthusiastic about Formula 1 — the ones with handmade outfits, obscure merch, and massive smiles on their faces.

F1 fandom might look a little different here in the United States. But five years into the Miami Grand Prix's tenure, there's no sign of this fervor slowing down.

By Elizabeth Blackstock