When the Miami Grand Prix was added to the Components 1 calendar on a 10-year contract, F1 purists had been skeptical. The race represented every little thing that that they had resisted for years: glitz, extravagance, and an overtly American spectacle. However Miami rapidly cemented itself as a marquee occasion, not simply by delivering stable on-track motion – however by successful over followers. On the heart of its success is Exhausting Rock Stadium, a venue that has advanced from a conventional NFL stronghold to a year-round hub for main international occasions — and F1 is on the coronary heart of that transformation.
“Nobody wants this … however we’re within the enterprise of reminiscence making,” says Tyler Epp, President of the Miami Grand Prix, whereas chatting at a Dolphins residence sport final December. We’re speaking in regards to the pomp and circumstance surrounding sporting occasions on the stadium, together with the unique Members Lounge we’re standing through which transforms into the ultra-luxurious F1 Paddock Membership every Might. I believe what he’s truly telling me is that Miami should create extraordinary experiences to maintain prospects coming again, particularly when competing with two different races on American soil.
Epp credit a lot of the Miami Grand Prix’s fast success to the Dolphins group and its almost 4 a long time of expertise internet hosting NFL video games. “Once we began this three years in the past, we had been already midway there. Now we have these tremendous advertising and marketing folks, gross sales folks and a variety of different assets, so we must always ship the perfect Grand Prix on the calendar,” he explains. “The power to lean on shared providers has been an actual profit, however we’ve additionally had our challenges. Now we have to construct complete grandstands and hospitality venues, and all of our plumbing and energy [outside the stadium] is short-term … to not point out, ensuring that the grounds don’t ever really feel like a car parking zone, which has been the mission that Tom Garfinkel [CEO of the Dolphins] talked about from day one.”
Lando Norris celebrates on the rostrum on the 2024 Miami Grand Prix
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Photographs
At this time, the group operates as a cohesive unit, with the soccer facet of the enterprise even drawing classes from F1. Campus operations throughout Dolphins sport days, for example, are actually modeled on logistical successes from the Miami Grand Prix. “We have become a year-round mega occasions enterprise,” Epp says. “We begin planning the Grand Prix structure in August [the year before] and that’s finalized in November or December. However from a publicity perspective we are able to’t ever make it appear to be we’re not planning for a Dolphins championship residence sport,” he explains. “We all the time should assume that the crew might be taking part in within the stadium that weekend, but when the perfect case situation does not occur, now we have to be nimble sufficient to maneuver up our timelines.”
Epp additionally has the advantage of virtually a decade immersed within the soccer world, having labored on the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs earlier than transferring to Florida. “We have been very intentional about by no means prioritizing F1 over soccer. However we additionally perceive what an enormous alternative now we have, as a result of we’ve now acquired a sports activities leisure enterprise,” he says. Miami’s pure attract as a playground for the wealthy and well-known has been one other stroke of excellent fortune for the crew, as numerous A-listers have stepped foot within the paddock over the previous few years. “There have been some celebrities that nobody even is aware of had been right here,” Epp says coyly after I ask about rumors that Beyonce and Jay-Z secretly attended the race in 2022. Others have been extremely low key. “Michelle Obama needed to come back and was a visitor of Lewis. She confirmed up proper on time, acquired to expertise a session, and was out and in very, very quietly,” he explains. “Then there’s the C-list celebrities who simply wish to be right here as a result of they love racing, however typically these individuals are [the most valuable] as a result of they will discuss so graciously in regards to the expertise, and so they nonetheless have affect over thousands and thousands of individuals on-line.”
Venus and Serena Williams on the grid
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Photographs
Dealing with high-profile friends is an artwork in itself. If, say, Taylor Swift (whose boyfriend, Travis Kelce, is an investor in Alpine Racing) needed to attend the race, the method is rigorously orchestrated. “The primary verify is all the time with F1 to ensure they learn about it and we’re all aligned,” Epp explains, noting that “the worst state of affairs is when an agent and a supervisor are speaking to 2 completely different events and taking part in us in opposition to one another.” The second name can be to Swift’s administration crew. “That’s after we actually perceive what expertise she’s in search of. If she’s bringing her complete household and it’s an enormous celebration they’re having collectively, then we’re going to cost you. However when you’re simply coming since you wish to see the race, which is a good profit [to us], there is not any cost,” he says.
The VIP expertise extends effectively past the stadium, all the best way out to the freeway. “About 5 years in the past [Dolphins owner] Stephen Ross and Tom launched a Black Card Categorical Lane off the Turnpike you can solely drive on with a particular move and takes you proper into our luxurious car parking zone,” Epp says. “You don’t have any interplay with the overall inhabitants from the time you permit your resort to the time you get to your seat. It’s all very protected and personal … crucial factor is that they’re in an atmosphere the place they’re comfy amongst friends and do not feel like they’re being checked out.”
In fact, not each visitor craves discretion. “There are undoubtedly two forms of celebrities: there’s additionally the individual that actually desires to ensure that they’re seen, and that is nice, too. Now we have a unique program for that the place we are able to parade you thru the paddock and be sure to’re there on the grid.” The way in which Epp sees it, there’s a give and take: “We deal with them like every other buyer, however there’s a variety of worth there [for us] so it’s only a query of, ‘What do we have to do to make this work?’”
Managing VIPs isn’t with out its challenges, nonetheless. The problem that instantly involves thoughts for Epp includes friends arriving with a a lot bigger entourage than anticipated. “Everyone seems to be trailed by a videographer now … even CEOs,” he says. Although it may not seem to be a significant situation, arriving on the paddock gates with 5 additional individuals who don’t have passes could cause some critical complications in a sport obsessive about purple tape.
Donald Trump and Zak Brown
Picture by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Photographs
Private safety is one other vital situation, which got here to a head when Donald Trump attended the 2024 Miami Grand Prix and wreaked havoc within the paddock. “Working this race is extraordinarily tough from a safety standpoint due to all of the doorways, nooks, crannies and caverns. In that stadium, there are secret hallways that solely our guys know, so within the first yr, paddock safety was not good,” Epp admits. Earlier than Trump’s go to, the Secret Service spent 10 days surveying the venue, nonetheless they nonetheless ordered main shutdowns in areas of the paddock only a few hours earlier than the race kicked off. “The Secret Service blocked off the walkway in the course of the paddock for 20 minutes, and the groups had been dropping it as a result of they had been like, ‘I’ve to cross,’” he remembers. “However talking utterly apolitically, it is nice to have that kind of superstar on the grid. We’re pretty disciplined on not aligning our group with any political determine — we deal with everyone the identical, as a result of we wish to present that we perceive precisely what you want to your go to. Taylor’s going to wish various things than Trump wanted, and various things than a CEO wants, however now we have the flexibility to execute all of it.”
I ask whether or not there have been any learnings from the Trump go to, however Epp isn’t certain how a lot would change ought to the now-President select to attend the race once more this yr. “Whenever you’re coping with world leaders and governmental safety, there’s solely a lot you are able to do. We simply needed to attempt to make the perfect choices that we probably may within the second … we will not inform them no, and we by no means would,” he says.
Haas crew members go to the Miami Dolphins NFL crew coaching floor.
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Photographs
Once I attended the inaugural Miami Grand Prix in 2022, I wrote that the most well liked place to see and be seen was a small entry highway behind the Exhausting Rock Stadium. Within the years since, the F1 paddock has prolonged past that entry highway to incorporate hospitality buildings on the soccer discipline and the purpose-built Paddock Membership constructing. However Exhausting Rock Stadium isn’t simply an F1 venue for one week of the yr — it’s evolving into one thing way more built-in.
“We’re nonetheless discovering our means, and possibly we’ll be having a unique dialog in 18 months, however the great thing about it’s that it will get to be buyer centered,” Epp tells me. The garages are rebranded because the MIA Storage Tailgate post-F1 and can be found to hire for pre-game BBQs. In the meantime, the Paddock Membership construction, which connects to the principle stadium by way of a skybridge, has hosted wedding ceremony receptions and serves as a lounge for Dolphins members on sport day. “We bumped our heads a little bit bit attempting to determine precisely what the providing was, however we really feel like we’ve discovered a very nice candy spot,” Epp says of the lounge. “This isn’t the Paddock Membership. That is meant to be a spot for passionate followers to get away and chill out earlier than the sport.”
In the end, all of it comes all the way down to delivering experiences that final. “We service everyone from the one that saves all their cash for one sport that they take their youngsters to yearly to [ultra high net worth] people, and now we have to have the ability to try this each within the soccer enterprise and in F1,” Epp says. In a crowded F1 panorama, he’s assured that his crew has a singular proposition. “We’re within the reminiscence making enterprise on the finish of the day, and we’re attempting to create an atmosphere to make particular recollections that can final a lifetime. That is our aim.”
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Emily Selleck
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