They are presented as “Formula 1 royalty and the best quarterback in history,” but the greatest of flattery still falls short of introducing Lewis Hamilton y Tom Brady, two true legends of the sport that this Wednesday they were a golf couple at an IWC watch firm event, ‘The Pilot Challenge’, held at the Miami Beach Golf Club. The seven-time world champion and the seven-time Super Bowl winner shared a few hours of sports and interviews with the local press after playing a charity game in which Marcus Allen, former NFL player, and businessman Brandon Okpalobi also participated.
“We are neighbors in New York, although we don’t see each other that much, but I always follow their games,” he reveals. Sir Lewis sobre Brady. The Englishman, who has been “playing golf for three years”, reserves its best talent for other sports disciplines. “I would like to say that I am like Tiger (Woods), but I’m pretty good at getting the ball out of the water,” he joked. Although he didn’t get to roll up his sleeves and test the pond, his expertise with the drive and the putt confirm the suspicions. In any case, the result was the least of it. “I am very happy to be in Miami surrounded by legends. It’s the first time my sport has come to this city and the days leading up to the event are already incredible.” The Englishman at least smiles, unlike when he left Imola with a 14th place.
Miami GP
The luster of the participants is at the height of what will be the weekend in Florida. The non-permanent circuit has been built in Miami Gardens, in the surroundings of the Hard Rock Stadium, with capacity for 240,000 spectators throughout the weekend (82,500 on Saturday and Sunday). In the coming years it is intended to increase that number. All the tickets have been sold that they were not cheap: a ticket for access to the venue without a grandstand reached a thousand dollars. The teams are doing real juggling to balance all your invitations or Paddock Club passes intended for VIPs. Among the illustrious attendees, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, David Beckham, the Williams sisters, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Denis Rodman and other stars of the screen, music or entertainment are expected.
And what’s under all the glitter? A sport that wants to be big in the United States and that it already has a mass of fans capable of packing venues, but it still cannot be classified as ‘mainstream’. The Miami Heat NBA playoff crossover is broadcast on the sports bar televisions. And further north on the peninsula, the Fort Lauderdale ice hockey team has qualified for the Stanley Cup finals. Lewis Hamilton or Mercedes occupy some advertising screens in the city center or highways, but at street level locals still show strangeness when asked about Formula 1. In addition, the English driver and his German team will not even be the reference on the track.
With these types of events, the great 2021 season as a wick and the Netflix series as a seasoning, Liberty Media wants their championship to make headlines across North America. They already have two races, Miami and Austin, soon to be three: Las Vegas comes in November 2023. In any case, few competitions complement the sport so well and the show like F1, And those are two ingredients that work well in America. It’s a matter of time. Perhaps the local driver is missing, although McLaren wants to study all the possibilities with Colton Herta, an IndyCar star, and they have designed a test program for him. In the meantimethe home driver is Hamilton.
