Components One might add one other American cease (and its first Midwestern cease) to its calendar within the not-too-distant future. Whereas nothing is official, a brand new report claims the race’s organizers lately filed a trademark for a number of variations of the identify “Chicago Grand Prix.”
Citing U.S. patent workplace data, the Chicago Solar-Instances wrote that the organizers trademarked variations of the names “Formula 1 Chicago Grand Prix” and “Grand Prix Chicago” on January 19. We all the time take trademark filings and patent functions with a grain of salt as a result of they don’t seem to be all the time correct. Chevrolet trademarked the Cavalier nameplate in September 2022, but the mannequin hasn’t returned to our shores but. Nevertheless, generally they’re proper on: Lamborghini trademarked the Revuelto identify in Could 2022 and unveiled the automobile the next 12 months.
Alderman Brian Hopkins informed the publication {that a} race is unlikely to occur. “I’m told that F1 typically requires a 10-year minimum deal. And that appears to be non-negotiable. The conversation [with the city] did not get much past that,” he defined to the Chicago Solar-Instances.
Components One officers and the Chicago mayor’s workplace have not commented on the report.
Chicago is healthier identified for deep-dish pizza than racing, however NASCAR proved it is attainable to show the Windy Metropolis right into a observe in July 2023. The primary road race organized by the collection happened in and round Grant Park in downtown Chicago. Hopkins notes internet hosting a Components One race can be significantly extra difficult, the observe would notably need to be longer, and significantly far dearer.
“What we did with NASCAR, welding manhole covers and smoothing over potholes and calling it a track — that doesn’t work with F1.”
Components One has already revealed its 2024 calendar and Chicago is not on it, so a Grand Prix within the Prairie State would not occur till 2025 on the very earliest. Three races are scheduled to happen in america this 12 months: the Miami Grand Prix, the USA Grand Prix in Austin, and the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The latter was held for the primary time after a decades-long hiatus in 2023, and it drew an enormous crowd.