Has Monaco Grand Prix lost its crown to Miami, Las Vegas for F1's elite spenders?

New York Times

24-05-2025

MONACO — There was a point not too long ago when the Monaco Grand Prix stood alone on the Formula One calendar, as the undisputed 'crown jewel' event.
The street track had a pull for big spenders, celebrities and VIPs unlike any other round on the F1 calendar. If there was a place to be seen, it was Monaco.
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Questions around the race's sporting spectacle — or lack thereof — have grown even louder in the era of F1's current wide, heavy cars. It prompted the FIA to introduce a new mandatory two-stop strategy rule for this year in the hope of spicing things up.
Yet off the track, with partners and sponsors placing such an emphasis on the American races in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas, Monaco is no longer in the rarified air it once enjoyed.
'If you look at some of our sponsors who want to target America, or they have big business interest in America, they want to be attached to those American races,' Mark Morrell, the director of marketing at Haas F1 Team, told The Athletic.
F1 has inextricably been connected to the business world through its 75-year history, being far more than a racing series and just what the fans see on the race track. Big brands not only want to be seen as part of such a glamorous, appealing sport, but teams also rely on sponsorship dollars to help them go racing.
Haas used its first of three home races in the United States in Miami earlier this month to announce a new partnership with Infobip — a communications service used by companies such as Uber and Google. Haas also had sponsors who signed deals to cover the 2025 season late last year asking to bring forward the announcements to Austin and Las Vegas, in October and November, to capitalize on the American interest.
Morrell said Haas has around half as many partner guests with the team in Monaco compared to Miami, and that the sheer busyness of an F1 race weekend had been 'shifting over the last couple of years towards Miami.' Although Silverstone and Monza stand as two major European races for sponsorship events and showcases, 'those U.S. races are the ones.'
The off-track events scheduled for those in the paddock is typically full-on during the Miami and Las Vegas races, with sponsor activations and events, in part thanks to their settings in major cities with an array of hotel rooms, dinner locations and event spaces.
In Monaco, a cramped location at the best of times and so F1 teams and sponsors are often reliant on the extra space offered on the super yachts moored in the harbor for extra hosting duties, and with Nice a 20-minute train ride away, it's not quite so straightforward.
'There's just more options available to sponsors when they look at the entire calendar now,' Morrell said. 'Whereas, Monaco in the past may have been the one iconic milestone event. They now see more opportunities where they can address their marketing budgets and activate.'
Oliver Hughes, the chief marketing officer for Red Bull Racing, agreed that the Miami Grand Prix was 'really up there now as one of the pinnacles because the U.S. is booming,' noting the influx of American company CEOs at the event. More than half of Red Bull's F1 sponsorship portfolio is made up of American brands. For those considering their travel from the States, picking a race closer to home instead of crossing the Atlantic to Europe makes more logistical and financial sense.
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Yet Hughes still feels that Monaco provides a 'huge draw' that was difficult to match given its location on the French Riviera. While Miami is a better race to speak to prospective partners and try to do new business, Monaco is more about impressing existing partners and their guests by making a lasting impression.
'What you'll find is if they go (to Monaco) in year one of a partnership, they'll definitely go in year two,' Hughes told The Athletic. 'It's a long way to go. But once they've been, they come back.'
Hughes explained that Monaco was able to offer unique aspects that other races could not match, such as attending events on yachts, arriving at the track on a tender boat, or even enjoying hospitality on Red Bull's one-off floating energy station. Instead of taking up space in the cramped confines of the paddock next to the other eight teams, squeezing onto the harborside, the two Red Bull-owned teams have their normal hospitality unit placed on a barge that is moored in the harbor for the weekend. There are some extra additions, including a large patio area to host guests next to a vertically-suspended Red Bull F1 car, a prototype of the RB17 hypercar and even a swimming pool on the top floor.
Hughes said it had become something of an 'accidental legacy' for Red Bull that the novelty of the floating energy station was so popular in the paddock, given it was done initially for logistical reasons. From 2026, temporary, uniform hospitality units that serve as a F1 team bases at the track will be used in the Monaco paddock — similar to how the paddock is arranged for events outside of Europe — instead of the motorhomes for other European races. But Red Bull still plans to bring its 'floaterhome,' given it does not rely on the paddock space. The Monaco paddock space will be even smaller in 2026 when Cadillac joins the grid as an 11th team.
The novelty of Red Bull's floating hospitality meant rival teams' partners are also keen to sample its offering in Monaco, claimed Hughes. 'We are sneaking in our partners' CEOs left, right and centre on this platform,' he said. 'They'd rather be here than over there, sitting in the shade. They want to be in the sun by the pool. Obviously the other teams will probably tell you the complete opposite, that they're all in their place…'
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Red Bull used the 2025 Monaco weekend to make another major partner announcement — extending and expanding its relationship with Visa, a title sponsor of the sister Racing Bulls team. This will be increased branding on the Red Bull Racing cars as a result. Visa's president first attended the 2024 Monaco race and was eager to return, even holding an event for other CEOs, including Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, on Thursday night in the principality.
'Visa have their biggest banking CEOs here this weekend,' Hughes said. 'So it's all timed in nicely.'
Red Bull was not alone in using Monaco for major sponsor activations this year. Aston Martin used the track to give its new F1-inspired supercar, the Valhalla, its public debut. F1's official cruise partner, MSC, has moored the luxury Explora II cruise ship in the harbor, with VIP packages running into the tens of thousands of dollars. There's still a desire to impress and F1 and MSC also used the weekend to announce their partnership contract length has been extended.
On Wednesday, McLaren and OKX, a cryptocurrency platform that is one of the team's major partners, held an event on the $50 million Coral Ocean yacht. They launched a new campaign including a tweaked F1 livery design that was revealed on a full-scale car — which had been lifted onto the yacht for the unveiling. Drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were on hand to lift the covers off the car, while McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown commented it was probably the first unveiling he'd ever attended in his socks, shoes not being allowed on expensive yachts.
'Monaco is still the jewel in the crown of the European calendar,' Lou McEwan, McLaren's chief marketing officer, told The Athletic. 'If you look back through from a fan point of view, I think last year's race was still third in the most-watched race in the U.S. ever. We know it resonates with fans.
'We've got double the number of B2B (business-to-business) guests that we had last year as a team — doubled it — and of that, we've probably got more C-suite and CEOs than any other race in the calendar. So, it's a really big focus race for us as well.'
Haider Rafique, the chief marketing officer at OKX, said the history and significance within F1 of Monaco made it the perfect place to launch the campaign, particularly with a livery alteration. 'If you're going to do something that's making a fashion statement, which this livery absolutely is, I think Monaco's a great place,' he said. 'People come in, fans come in, they want to dress up, they want to really enjoy the environment. It's the crown jewel of F1 in my view as a fan.'
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Morrell agreed that despite the 'logistical headaches' that come with activations in Monaco, the race remained iconic within F1. 'It's still an invite you can probably never turn down,' he said.
Hughes argued that Monaco's star had not diminished at all amid the presence of the new, American races, but instead had risen with F1's commercial tide. 'We've just got these new shiny toys like Vegas and Miami that are perfectly placed, and perfectly timed, to grab the attention of the new audience that has come into the sport,' he said. 'I think Monaco is still growing. There's just other shiny toys around it now.'
As impressive as those 'shiny toys' may be for F1, the teams and their sponsors, Monaco still has an appeal those events cannot buy: its history, its prestige, and its location.
'You look at the backdrop of this race, for all the people that watch it on TV or on social media —it's just spectacular,' Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said on Friday. 'In terms of guest activation programs or sponsors coming, it's huge. And, especially for the European market, very important.
'Monaco needs Formula One, and Formula One needs Monaco.'
Top photo: ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP via Getty Images