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F1 has registered four trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office surrounding variants of the ‘Chicago Grand Prix’.
Formula 1 has experienced strong growth in North America in recent years, such that the world’s largest economy now boasts three races.
The United States Grand Prix is the most mature of the trio and has been taking place at the Circuit of The Americas since 2012 – though it was absent in 2020 due to the global pandemic.
In 2022, Miami joined the calendar with a street circuit in the car park surrounding the Hard Rock Stadium.
Most recently, Las Vegas returned to the schedule for the first time in four decades with an all-new track layout that incorporated The Strip (rather than the Caesars Palace car park as was used previously).
Attempts have been made over the decades to stand up a race in New York, with F1 registering trademarks for a potential event in the Big Apple in 2017.
Those were renewed in 2020, but no serious movement has occurred on that project.
The current spread of events in the United States is such that the south-east of the country has a race in Miami, with the centre covered by Texas – Austin is also nicely situated to service the northern-Mexico market – with Las Vegas covering the west coast, close to Los Angeles, the country’s second most-populous city.
Missing is the country’s north-east region, within which New York and Chicago reside.
New York is the country’s largest city and has a population of 8.34 million, and Chicago 2.67 million, the latter roughly the size of Brisbane.
By comparison, Australia’s most populous city is Sydney, with around 5.5 million inhabitants.
Another benefit of a Chicago F1 race is its proximity to Indianapolis, the United States’ home of motorsport (and home of F1 in the country from 2000 to 2007).
However, the fact that F1 has registered the trademark does not mean the Windy City will ever appear on the calendar.
For now, given the NASCAR race at Grant Park, famously won by Shane van Gisbergen in 2023, it seems nothing more than brand protection.
Four trademarks have been registered: Formula 1 Grand Prix of Chicago, Formula 1 Chicago Grand Prix, and both variants with the name of the championship omitted.
The move is also in keeping with the recent trend to brand events after the region in which they are located rather than the country, as was historically the case.
That has been seen in the naming of the Abu Dhabi, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Miami, Las Vegas, and Emilia Romagna Grands Prix.
But the Chicago trademarks also hint at the future of F1, which continues to enjoy strong growth in the United States.
Circuit of The Americas enjoyed a crowd of over 400,000 for the third successive year in 2023, while television American television audiences remained, on average, above one million per race for the second year in a row last year – and that despite Max Verstappen’s utter domination of the championship.
Attendance was up in Miami too, and there are high hopes for Las Vegas in the longer term as Liberty Media changes its business model to promote that event.
There is more to come too, with General Motors set to have a presence on the grid in 2026 through its Cadillac brand as it joins Ford as a power unit supplier for F1’s next generation of engine regulations.
Add increased media interest through the various social channels and Hollywood, and the United States looks fertile ground for the sport to continue harvesting.
Hence ring-fencing terms surrounding the brand through trademarks in seemingly valuable regions makes sense, even if there is no imminent plan to use them.
