Miami Grand Prix Chief Rules Out This Change For 2025

Chris Ladd | Sep 10, 2024

May 5, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; McLaren driver Oscar Piastri (81) during the Miami Grand Prix at Miami International Autodrome. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-Imagn Images / John David Mercer-Imagn Images

The Miami Grand Prix will not transition to a night race for the 2025 season, despite ongoing discussions about the possibility of hosting the event under floodlights in the future. The idea of a night race has been floated since the race's debut in 2022, primarily due to concerns over the high temperatures that the event faces in its current May slot. While racing at night would help mitigate the heat, a date change for the event is unlikely due to scheduling conflicts with the Miami Open tennis tournament and the NFL season, which makes altering the calendar less feasible.

Tyler Epp, president of the Miami Grand Prix, confirmed that although the organizers are still exploring the possibility of hosting a night race in the future, it won't happen in 2025. The discussions around the logistics and potential benefits of a floodlit race are ongoing, but for now, the race will continue to be held during the day according to a report by Racer.

“We’re going to continue to push into entertainment. We’ve got a great partnership with Hard Rock – they’re doing wonderful job of supporting us – so we’ll continue to emphasize that. We’re going to continue to emphasize the concept of opening a little bit early and doing something like in year one; the Wednesday night party. We’re going to think about doing something like that again, either Wednesday or Thursday," Epp commented.

“The biggest thing for us is trying to make sure there’s a lot of things that are starting to happen along the beach and throughout the Miami community. So to get our tentacles into some of those a little bit.

“We’ve been approached numerous times about official parties and official this and official that. We’ve been careful to not play with that, because we want to stay focused on what’s happening on our campus. But I think in year four, you’ll see us start to engage a little bit outside of what’s happening at the track on those three or four days, and try to broaden our reach just a little bit back into the community.”

For the 2025 Miami Grand Prix, organizers focus on maintaining continuity for fans, aiming to replicate the successful elements of past events. According to Epp, while there are always areas for improvement, next year’s race will feel familiar to returning fans. He emphasized that consistency will be key to the event's development, extending beyond the race. The organizers are looking to highlight the event's broader impact on the Miami community, such as cultural and economic contributions, with more focus on activities happening away from the Hard Rock Stadium.

“This third year, it felt a little bit like we finally understood like the core of what we need to do,” he said. “That’s not to say that we have it all figured out. It’s not to say that it was perfect. It’s not to say that everything’s going to be the same. But instead of thinking about revolution – which we thought a lot about in year two and even a little bit in year three – it’s a little bit more into evolution now.

“I think we were starting to build some equity in some of the experiences for the fan base, and really, not just for the fan base, it’s really all of our customers and our stakeholders. Whether it’s the investment that we make in the Formula 1 paddock, that’s something that now has some kind of a definition around it. Or whether it’s the way that we build out the beach with Hard Rock, and there’s now an expectation of what happens out there for the fan. Or it’s even just making sure that the media are taken care of properly.

“So finding that consistency. We really try to focus on the experience for the customer, but the customer is defined not only as the ticket buyer, but also our partners, and also the media, and also the FIA and F1. So we think we’ve got some momentum there.”