The untold story of Briatore and Donald Trump's F1 New Jersey project

Today, Formula 1 can count the United States among its strongest and fastest-growing markets, with three Grands Prix on the calendar: Austin, Miami and Las Vegas, the latter returning to the championship in 2023. The sport has also enjoyed a significant surge in popularity across the country in recent years, with growing fan interest and an expanding commercial presence.

Donald Trump's rise to mainstream fame accelerated through The Apprentice, the reality TV show that turned him from a businessman into a household name across the United States. Years later, Briatore took on the same role in the Italian version of The Apprentice, becoming the face of the programme in Italy.

Speaking to The Race, the Italian revealed that he enlisted Donald Trump's help because of his experience as a promoter, despite the future US president knowing very little about Formula 1 at the time. Briatore explained that he brought Trump and Bernie Ecclestone together to explore potential locations for a race in the New York area.

According to Briatore, New York itself quickly proved too difficult because of a range of logistical issues, with New Jersey emerging as the preferred alternative. Ecclestone subsequently entered talks with several parties, but the project never came to fruition. Briatore said Formula 1 simply did not have the profile in the United States at the time, with NASCAR and IndyCar attracting far greater attention.

In the same interview, Briatore called for a major overhaul of the current Sprint format, arguing that every Formula 1 weekend should feature a Sprint race rather than just a handful of selected events.

The Alpine executive believes the existing schedule offers too little entertainment for fans on Fridays, with much of the running focused on technical work instead of meaningful on-track action. In his view, introducing a Sprint at all 24 Grands Prix would provide spectators with more competitive racing throughout the weekend, while also giving drivers an extra opportunity to fight for results instead of spending large parts of practice gathering data for the engineers.