Briatore reveals failed New Jersey Grand Prix plan with Donald Trump

Flavio Briatore has revealed that he and Donald Trump tried to bring a New Jersey Grand Prix to Formula 1 in the early 2010s, but the project collapsed because the sport held little cultural weight in America at the time. The planned Port Imperial street circuit never reached the 2013 calendar, despite Trump's promotional backing and Bernie Ecclestone's involvement, leaving the idea as a forgotten footnote until now.

The details:

• After the United States Grand Prix left Indianapolis in 2007, Briatore partnered with Trump to pitch a new American race to Ecclestone.
• Trump directed the group toward a 5.1km street circuit in New Jersey rather than Manhattan, but the deal stalled and never recovered.
• Briatore recalled that F1 simply was not "considered something special" in the US then, with NASCAR and IndyCar dominating the market and leaving no room for a European-centric series.

Why it matters:

The failed bid underscores how far F1's American standing has come. Where promoters once saw little value, the sport now hosts three US races with massive crowds and sold-out attendance. Briatore credits Liberty Media's 2017 acquisition for the turnaround, noting the company opened commercial and marketing channels that Ecclestone's restrictive regime had kept closed.

The big picture:

With COTA, Miami, and Las Vegas now established on the calendar, the New Jersey proposal looks less like a fantasy and more like a vision that arrived too early. Briatore's account suggests the American appetite for F1 existed all along, but it took a change in ownership and philosophy to finally unlock it.