Flavio Briatore reveals how he wanted to bring Formula 1 to New York in the 2010s together with current U.S. President Donald Trump
It’s no secret that Formula 1 tried to gain a foothold in the U.S. even under Bernie Ecclestone. Long before Liberty Media brought the premier class to Miami and Las Vegas, Ecclestone attempted, among other things, to bring Formula 1 to New York—with the help of a prominent ally.
Speaking to The Race more than a decade later, Flavio Briatore revealed how he once tried to persuade current U.S. President Donald Trump to support then-Formula 1 boss Ecclestone in bringing a Grand Prix to New York.
Trump may not have had “a clue about Formula 1,” according to Briatore. “But he’s a great promoter. Back then, he organized boxing matches; he organized all sorts of things in Las Vegas, and so on and so forth,” explains the 76-year-old.
“And I got Donald to talk to Bernie,” he reveals, recalling: “I was in Donald’s office. We had a video call with Bernie to figure out where in New York the best place for the race would be.”
“Donald told us that New York was very difficult for a million reasons, but that New Jersey would be the right place,” says Briatore. Ecclestone then negotiated “with two or three different people,” but in the end, the plan was never carried out “because the guy who wanted to build the racetrack went bankrupt.”
What connects Briatore and Trump?
But how did the connection between Trump and Briatore come about in the first place? Years ago, Briatore himself revealed on the podcast “Beyond the Grid” that he had first met Trump in the early 1990s—and had even nearly worked for him.
In the mid-2010s, their paths crossed again because Briatore took on the lead role in the Italian spin-off of the reality TV show “The Apprentice,” while Trump filled the same role in the American original.
“The Apprentice” only ran for two seasons in Italy, in 2012 and 2014, and according to Briatore, it was during this period that the aforementioned meeting with Trump and Ecclestone took place. Briatore had previously been forced to leave Formula 1 in 2009 following the “Crashgate” scandal.
In 2024, he returned to the top tier as an advisor to Alpine, but a Grand Prix in New York or New Jersey never materialized. “Before Liberty came along, Formula 1 wasn’t really considered anything special in America,” explains Briatore.
“People were talking about NASCAR, about Indy[Car], about completely different business models. And Formula 1 wasn’t even on the radar. When Liberty entered the picture, everything changed,” says Briatore.
Donald Trump later had only a very brief connection to Formula 1. At the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, he was a guest of McLaren at the racetrack.