AUSTIN -- The hours leading up to the U.S Grand Prix were like nothing F1 had ever seen before.
The build-up to lights out in Austin was headlined by the greatest athlete of all time and a man who has made over $400 million from a trademarked five-word phrase synonymous with the biggest boxing fights in history. It was over-the-top, in-your-face and unashamedly red, white and blue -- exactly the sort of thing Chase Carey and Liberty Media promised when the sport's new owners took over at the start of 2017.
There has been scepticism about Liberty's dream of turning every F1 race into a Super Bowl-style event. For starters, the Super Bowl doesn't happen 20 times a year, and some races on the calendar don't have anywhere near the appeal or prestige of others. But F1 shouldn't shy away from making a bigger deal about some of its races, especially as its core fans know which ones really matter.
It is puzzling that every race, from the world-famous Italian Grand Prix at Monza to the less-famous Russian Grand Prix at Sochi, follows the same format. In golf, the Masters and the PGA Championship are exactly the same level -- a major championship -- but everyone knows the former carries more prestige. Much of this is due to the history and the added bits around the event itself, the Augusta course and the famous green jacket presented to the winner. Likewise, F1's calendar is peppered with events which stand out.
The U.S. Grand Prix is one of them worthy of some razzmatazz. It felt fitting that the American race, held in a nation F1 has been trying to crack for decades, was the first of the Liberty era to stray from the from the same tired pre-race schedule the sport has been rigidly stuck to for so long. Michael Buffer's driver introductions celebrated F1 drivers as heroes and, most importantly, gave the race a distinctly American feel. Though his intros may have been distorted slightly by the medium of TV, it should be remembered the main point of them was to entertain the fans who forked out the money to sit in the grandstands on the main straight.
Though plenty of attention was given to Buffer's driver introductions themselves -- including gems such as Danny "The Torpedo" Kvyat, "The Heartbreaker" Lance Stroll, "The Viking of Sweden" Marcus Ericsson -- the most important quote was how the boxing legend kicked off his segment. "Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to unleash the greatest racing spectacle on the planet." Liberty understands that to connect with non-racing fans in the modern era of social media, the spectacle is as important as what happens on track after the lights go off and the race starts.
Beyond Buffer, add into the mix a global superstar in Usain Bolt, a former U.S. president in Bill Clinton, who presented the trophies on the podium, a concert bill including Justin Timberlake and Stevie Wonder, and you have an event that feels like it really matters beyond the world of motor racing. The Super Bowl is as famous now for its half-time show -- each of which tries to out-do the last -- as it is for delivering the showpiece event of each NFL season. I watched my first Super Bowl because Bruce Springsteen was playing at halftime, only to accidentally get hooked on what happened on either side of it.
Bolt, a man who made the art of sprinting look easy at three consecutive Olympic Games, was genuinely blown away by a lap of Circuit of the Americas with champion-elect Lewis Hamilton in the hours leading up to the race. The Bolt lap and Buffer's intros were quickly trending worldwide on Twitter as people from across the globe ventured toward F1 pages with a sense of curiosity for the show taking place to the south of Austin, Texas.
That isn't to say what happened in the moments before the U.S. Grand Prix was perfect, or that it doesn't need work ahead of next year. But Liberty is pulling out all the stops to engage fans on a level they've never been engaged with before and, after years of Bernie Ecclestone's profit-driven approach, we should be grateful for that.
Showing the gold
One thing F1 has done a bafflingly bad job of in recent years is giving out its championship trophy. As I wrote after the Indy 500 -- an event which displays the majestic Borg-Warner Trophy at every given opportunity -- the F1 world championship trophy is one fans rarely get to see. In the Ecclestone years the reward for winning motorsport's premier series was locked away until a postseason, black tie gala -- an event for media and dignitaries, not for fans.
In Austin, it was front and centre: after Buffer's introductions, championship contenders Hamilton and Vettel stood opposite each other, either side of the trophy they have been fighting for all year. If nothing else, it serves a reminder of why they're all there in the first place.
Bringing quali back
Another interesting takeaway from the race weekend was something that happened away from the race track -- at the COTA infield, to be precise. The Timberlake and Wonder concerts were front and center of much of the advertising for the race dotted around the streets of Austin.
The Timberlake concert on Saturday night had a different impact on the weekend than just entertaining fans (the race ticket doubled up as entry). In a bid to encourage more people to arrive early and watch the racing, the start of qualifying was shuffled back by two hours -- creating a four-hour wait between FP3 and Q1.
It created a strange situation for many in the paddock, though fans were treated to a support series race and a fan forum on the infield stage. Some observers felt more could have been done, but how to effectively fill that gap is a discussion for another day.
The key point to take from it is that it shows F1 bosses are more than happy to tweak the format of a race weekend in order to bolster the overall spectacle. A revamped format is something F1 has been crying out for for years and this is a further reminder that the issue is one of Liberty's top priorities going into its second season in charge.