Miami GP president reveals major shock over F1 sprint race

For the first time in 2024, the Miami Grand Prix held a sprint race, in just its third season on the F1 calendar - but key figure Tyler Epps was not so sure of the idea.

Epps is the president of the Miami GP, and exclusively tells RacingNews365 that he was not initially sold on the idea of the shorter race.

"With the sprint race, I have to give [managing partner and Miami Dolphins CEO] Tom Garfinkel and [vice president of business operations] Kathy Novak a ton of credit," he says.

"They were the main drivers behind the sprint race, and I was very wary of it from day one, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  It was a really, really positive thing for us, it increased the interest in Friday, and Saturday was also a race day and Sunday was also great. 

"It worked really well for our fan base, but I do understand that it doesn't work for everybody's, but it really worked for ours.

"There is also a big thanks to F1 for thinking ahead, with the ingenuity and the way they are looking at their business, and it gives us an opportunity to impact ours."

Tickets have recently gone on sale for the 2025 race due to be held across the weekend of May 2nd-4th, with another sprint weekend planned as Epps also reveals how the organisers are also increasing synergies with the Miami Dolphins NFL team whose Hard Rock Stadium provides the back-drop to the circuit.

Ticket sales and the Miami Dolphins

"We are not built to sell out [tickets] on the first day [of sales], that is not the point," he says.

"For us, it is just about trying to get the word out and honestly describe what exactly you are buying, so we've put a ton of work in this year into the actual description of the actual products and the changes that we have made.

"Where we have really seen [the Dolphins' impact grow] has been Dolphins House - an experience that intermingled the football experience.

"It was actually in the training complex for where the players train, and it was connected right outside Turn 18, and it sold like crazy, so it was a bit of learning for the crossover between the two sports.

"There are some synergies that we probably missed in years one and two, but we started to make strides with in year three. There is a bigger crossover than we think, but we just have to make it easy and comfortable for Dolphins fans to jump on the F1 train and vice versa."

Reflections on 2024 and moving to the future

The 2024 race was a landmark one for McLaren and Lando Norris as the British driver claimed his maiden grand prix victory, with Epps detailing how organisers immediately identified potential for a lasting impact as the race begins to identify its core markets.

"Given Lando's maiden win, we texted [McLaren CEO] Zak Brown quickly after the race," he says. 

"he was more than gracious and helpful for us to get [a special McLaren grandstand lined up].

"We took a portion of one of the grandstands by the Marina - so Turns 6/7/8, because he thought it was a great idea. 

"Lando is a popular driver, but Sergio Perez with a large fan base down in Mexico is also very popular, and going into year four [in 2025], we are starting to get a feel of where our fans now come from. 

"About 40% of the fans come from Florida, about 20% come domestically and the other 40% is international, and this is mainly Latin America, South America and Europe. 

"It is a nice mix as  I'd worry if we had too many people from Florida, we weren't doing our job in terms of delivering economic benefits.

"We've done a billion dollars [of economic impact] in the last couple of years, and that is important to us and to the community [of Miami Gardens] that hosts all these folk. There is real reason to believe that we can continue to grow, and it is a good event for all of South Florida."

Epps believes that the race can become a central part of the Miami culture scene, and feels that small steps are being made to further embed the grand prix in the local community. 

"This is a part of the country where we do big events, and almost every weekend, there is something big happening - and this is one of the biggest events ever," he says.

"We've got cooperation from hotels and restaurants, and we're starting to now on those relationships to try and impact the fan positively, like with new bus routes now ending at a particular location, and with happy hour entertainment [across a race weekend.]"