About: US Grand Prix at Jones Beach proposal
About
If you have never visited Jones Beach, then you cannot imagine how wonderful, vast, and magical a place it is.
Whether on a summer day in July, a winter day in January, or a rainy, misty day in April, Jones Beach, and its extraordinary sense of space, has the ability to transform you. I, like many Long Islanders and New Yorkers, know this to be true.
As would all of the Grand Prix at Jones Beach ticket holders after the race.
Growing up in New York and spending my summers in Italy provided me with a unique perspective on Formula One, having absorbed over many years the infectious passion people have for Formula One.
Or, as Sir Lewis Hamilton puts it, "catch the F1 Bug" (catturare la mania della Formula 1).
However, I was left wondering why this remarkable motorsport, of which nobody knew what I was talking about when I came back home to New York, was not prevalent or popular in America?
Sometimes asking why F1 wasn't in America at all?
More importantly, why wasn't Formula One in New York?
In later years it became clear that not even the golden years of Michael Schumacher could keep Formula One in America.
A race through Manhattan's streets (the skyscraper solution) remains the most desirable solution for sure.
But limitations exist in trying to hold a three-day motorsport event within this metropolis. Of course, the limitations are not insurmountable.
As a result, this proposal was born out of great love for Jones Beach, immense passion for Formula One, Scuderia Ferrari, and the belief that Formula One Racing belongs in New York.
But also, steeped in the belief that a mutually beneficial agreement between New York State and Formula One, to achieve F1 New York, is not only possible but long overdue.
The story of how Mr. Dan Biederman, and others, successfully transformed Bryant Park through a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) with New York City stood as a prominent example.
If a balanced solution involving the private sector, government, and the public benefited Bryant Park, then such a formula could be applied to and benefit Jones Beach.
Such a venue would itself justify creating an Formula One advertising presence in Manhattan by the owners, teams, and sponsors of Formula One, capable of promoting all F1 races while allowing social media to promote F1 even further.
Achieving what was thought impossible, the pinnacle of motorsports within the New York Metropolitan Area, a sustainable multi race U.S. platform, and the creation of a unified supporting image of F1 to its North American target market and the world.