Racing series feels Zoll-Schock: How Trump unsettled Formula 1

Suddenly Donald Trump was there. In the start of his second freestyle to the US President, he used the Formula 1 stage in Miami for his personal pre-election campaign last year and staged himself as his lucky charm after Lando Norris’s premiere victory. For Trump it was an uncomplicated detour, since his private estate Mar-A-Lago is only around 100 kilometers from the Hard Rock Stadium, the heart of the sunshine Grand Prix.

The neighborhood newspaper “Palm Beach Post” now wants to find out that the US President is back home in Florida and that it is only to leave its residence on Sunday. This fuels speculation about a new visit to Miami International Autodrome. Whether Trump appears on the racetrack or not: his business course has also unsettled Formula 1.

There are several reasons. The US media company Liberty Media belongs to the billion-dollar premium class of motorsport. If the value of the dollar and the stock prices gets a slut again due to an unexpected Trump decision, this is registered with worry lines at the headquarters in Colorado. Formula 1 is finally listed.

Three out of 24 races (Miami, Austin and Las Vegas) are also aligned in the United States. Many wealthy sponsors are located there. In the small Haas team there is a US racing team in the field. From 2026 there will be a second with the traditional brand Cadillac. Red Bull, on the other hand, will enter into an engine partnership with US car maker Ford next year.

Setting stop at Haas

Cadillac belongs to General Motors (GM). And the US carmaker from Detroit has felt the full force of Trump’s customs policy and the uncertainties in world trade. GM recently announced that the billions in billions are expected and therefore the profit forecast significantly reduces. Even after the recently decided relief for introduced auto parts, the tariffs are likely to cost the group four to five billion US dollars, wrote CEO Mary Barra in a letter to the shareholders.

Hard cuts also experience machine tool manufacturers Haas. As a result of Trump’s customs policy, the US company reported a “dramatic decline” of the demand for its own products. As a precaution, the production was reduced and overtime of the workshops was reduced. A stopping stop was also imposed. However, the PR department quickly increased in the Formula 1 team Haas “everything”.

Team boss: “Socio -economic experiment”

The consequences of the US tariffs are hardly noticeable in the Formula 1 racing stables based in England, Italy and Switzerland. After all, the teams receive only a few components from the USA. North America is an important sales market for car manufacturers Ferrari or Mercedes. The real effects on the Formula 1 departments could yet show up.

“What happens in front of our eyes on a global level is almost like a socio-economic experiment,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff on the edge of the Formula 1 race in Saudi Arabia. The mood among some US partners is “negative because they do not know what that means for their business, how the tariffs and the geopolitical situation will affect them.” So far, the Formula 1 team has not hit this.

From the tobacco rabbit to Corona pandemic

Globalization, supply chains – in no other sport, these terms are deeper than in the premier class of motorsport. The roundabout is also tested by the crisis.

“Formula 1 has experienced some rather seismic challenges in the past 20 years. The ban on tobacco sponsors in the European Union, the financial crisis of 2008, not to mention the global pandemic,” recalled the long-time Formula 1 manager and today’s industry analyst Mark Gallagher.

For him it is “no question that uncertainty about the relationships between the United States and the rest of the world and the economic effects due to the tariffs of the Trump government are of great importance”. “This will also affect Formula 1, whether on the car manufacturers or the sponsors in sports.”

One collects in dollars, the other in euros

And what do the teams who receive their considerable premiums from the Formula 1 right-wing holder do in an insecure times? You try to secure yourself. “Covid taught us one thing: You have to make sure that you have suppliers everywhere because you never know what will happen,” said Williams team boss James Vowles.

Or you sprinkle the risk a little. For example, the driver’s content is paid in dollars, for the other in euros. “I’m not sure what other teams are doing,” said Vowles, “but in our view is simply clever.”