F1 in Miami: Like normal F1, but everyone wears pastels

After a brief reprieve, Formula 1's teams were back at it this past weekend at the Miami Grand Prix. It was the first of three stops in the US and five in North America as F1 capitalizes on its current wave of popularity here. The sport evidently believes something is going right—it just announced a contract extension that will see the event remain on the calendar for another 16 years.

The Miami race is among the latest of F1's new breed of Grands Prix. It was originally supposed to be more of a true street circuit like Baku or Singapore or Las Vegas, with a route that crossed over a bridge into South Beach. But the track is laid out around the various parking lots of Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, like a 21st-century version of the early '80s Caesars Palace Grands Prix or the now-defunct Sochi race that wound its way around Vladimir Putin's favorite sea-side theme park.

Ticket prices appear to have come down a little now that the race is in its third year, but the "beach club" and Potemkin marina remain, even if they didn't look particularly busy on any of the overhead shots. Despite what looked like sparse attendance on Friday and Saturday, we're told that 275,000 people attended across the weekend.

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