Miami Grand Prix won't happen next year

Plans for a new Formula 1 race in Miami are on hold at least until 2020, the hope was to stage a grand prix in the city in 2019 but announced Monday that negotiations have taken too long to get it on next year's racing calendar.

While calling negotiations "complicated," F1 managing director for commercial operations Sean Bratches said the series is committed to keep trying to stage a Miami race in 2020.

Formula 1's American ownership group, Liberty Media, wants to grow the series in the U.S. F1 has three races in North America in Austin, Texas, Montreal and Mexico City.

The Miami race has been proposed as a street course, which led to concerns from some locals that it would disrupt neighborhoods.

"We have always said that we wouldn't compromise on delivering the best possible race," Bratches said. "If that meant waiting until 2020, then that was far more preferable than signing off on a sub-optimal race track, just to do a deal."

The Florida race is supported by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross.

Formula One races in cities across the globe but left the U.S. from 2008-2012. It returned with the U.S. Grand Prix in Texas at the Circuit of the Americas, a $300 million facility built specifically for F1. A Miami street race would be the first F1 street race in the U.S. since 1991 in Phoenix.

The series has been interested in a second U.S. race for years with talk of races in New Jersey, Los Angeles or Miami. But more races in the U.S. could pull fans away from the Texas race, which already competes for fans with the Mexico City race, which joined the calendar in 2015 and is run a week after the U.S. Grand Prix.

Official Statement from Sean Bratches, Managing Director of Commercial Operations at Formula 1:

“In the last few months we have worked diligently alongside our promoter Stephen Ross of RSE Ventures, the City of Miami and Miami Dade County, to realise our ambition to bring a Formula 1 Grand Prix to Miami, and we have made significant progress: however, these are complicated negotiations.

“Whilst our preference would have been to race in Miami in 2019, there was always a point by which delivering the best possible wheel-to-wheel racing experience for our fans, drivers and teams wouldn’t be possible in the time available. We have now reached that point as far as racing in Miami in 2019 is concerned.

“However, we are taking a long-term view and as a result, we have decided, in consultation with the Miami authorities, to postpone sign-off until later in the summer, with the aim of running the first Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix in the 2020 season.

“We have always said that we wouldn’t compromise on delivering the best possible race, for the people of Miami, our fans and the 1.8 billion people who watch F1 globally every year, and if that meant waiting until 2020, then that was far more preferable than signing off on a sub-optimal race track, just to do a deal.

“At every stage of this process we’ve enjoyed positive collaboration and co-operation with the City of Miami, Miami-Dade County, Port of Miami, Bayfront Parks Management, residents and businesses. As a result of these discussions, we have listened and adapted our plans, including elements of the track layout.

“We are committed to expansion in the US and to Miami in particular and we will be bringing our fantastic sport to this iconic city in October with the Formula 1 fan festival, where we look forward to engaging and exciting fans.”