Episode 246: Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix President Katharina Nowak

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Business Radio. Welcome into Cars and Culture. I'm your host Jason Stein for episode 246.

Great to have you back with us again. This week we take you to Miami, where Formula One has

become far more than a race. In just a few short years, the Miami Grand Prix has established itself

as one of the sports most ambitious and talked about events. A place where world-class competition

meets big-stage entertainment, global brand power, and a city that knows exactly how to put on a show.

And at the center of it all is today's guest, Kathy Novak, president of Miami Formula One.

And her rise is every bit as striking as the event she now leads. Born in Vienna,

raised in Miami, educated in Chicago, Kathy took a path that didn't exactly follow the

conventional racing line. She left a job with the Chicago Cubs to take an internship with

the Miami Dolphins ahead of the 2020 Super Bowl. It was a decision that looked like a leap at the

time and now looks like the start of something truly remarkable. Just six years later, she's

running Formula One Miami, one of the most visible and complex events in global motorsport.

She's one of the few women in the world to hold a role like this. And she's not even 30 years old.

This year, Miami is pushing the spectacle even further. The event continues to evolve,

adding new details and signature experiences designed to make the weekend feel bigger,

sharper and even more distinct, including the arrival of a temporary yacht that's 55 feet high,

placed in the marina. One more example of how this race keeps leaning into the personality,

theater and sense of place that have made Miami such a unique stop on the F1 calendar.

So today we talk to Kathy not only about the mechanics of staging a modern grand prix,

but about vision, how you build an event that must satisfy fans, teams, partners,

a global sport and a hometown audience all at once. We'll talk about what she learned on the

way up, what leadership looks like under pressure and why Miami has become such an important proving

ground for Formula One's future in America. This is a story about risk, timing, ambition,

and the business of making something feel iconic. And now from Race Control at the Miami Track,

my interview with Kathy Novak. Hi, I'm Kathy Novak. This is Cars and Culture with Jason Spine.

What an honor it is to be here with you, sitting at Race Control at the Speedway.

Three weeks away from the race. Are you weeks away from the race? I know you probably count

that as 21 days. I've got a countdown on an hourly basis at this point. 400 hours?

Well, first of all, congratulations. Thanks for having us. Thanks for being on the program.

Thank you. I appreciate you being here. What's it like with 21 days to go? I imagine it's a mix of

nerves, trepidation, excitement, worry. You're probably worrying all the time. Yeah, we're

constantly looking at the weather, making sure that, you know, given the fact that we're building a

temporary campus around Hard Rock Stadium, it's all about, you know, how fast can we build and

what's in our way to continue to build. So the weather has been an interesting one over the

last couple of days. We've got some winds and storms and lightnings, which obviously

puts obstacles in our way. But we still have, like you said, 21 days to go, and our team's

feeling really confident about where we are. And so I think for us, you know, we've hosted

at Hard Rock Stadium, the Miami Open, we just ended it. You just had tennis courts in the center

of the football stadium. Correct. So these days, right before the Miami GP, the last four weeks,

is really the heaviest push, given the fact that we actually have to pause our build for

majority of the campus around Miami Open, which is a full two-week period. So

the heaviest four weeks leading up to the race are always these last four weeks,

just given the fact that Hard Rock Stadium is a year-round venue.

Well, it's a flurry of activity, even just coming in here this morning. Stands are being put up,

signage is there, the forklifts everywhere, golf carts everywhere. I mean, that's a lot to get

your arms around in such a short period of time, as you said, with the transition,

because there's always something that's happening at Hard Rock Stadium.

Totally. I think the craziest thing is that obviously Hard Rock Stadium is celebrating

their 40th anniversary this year. And we start our build right after the Miami Dolphin season.

And so over the past couple years, we've always been able to start, you know, in early January.

And this year, given the fact that we hosted CFP, which is College Football Championship,

on January 20th or January 19th, I need to check that date. But, you know, we didn't start our

build until right after that. And so we basically had, you know, a couple weeks delay on getting

started. And then in the middle of just the build time from January to May, we also hosted a formerly

race here. We had Jazz in the Gardens, Miami Open. And so, you know, the build timeline to build

actually keeps getting tighter year after year. And then this year, right after the GP, we have

FIFA World Cup. And so we've got four weeks to get everything out of here that, you know,

taking everything down for a not small event. Yeah, that happens. Yeah, the expectation,

the expectation is four weeks after the Grand Prix that this site is handed over a perfect

pristine. Yeah. So what is that like for you? I mean, I know what it's like for everybody else,

which is a madness of activity. But what's it like for you going through this the first time?

Yeah, I mean, I was driving around on a golf cart because we do nightly, nightly ride arounds to

see how the progress is going. And I was thinking about this the other day about how absolutely

crazy it is to be building up what we build up for a three day weekend around Hard Rock Stadium.

And it's just what, you know, a normal person would think is absolutely impossible to do at the

size of this venue and the amount of events that we have around here. You know, I was just thinking

about how grateful I am for the team that we have that really does pull off what we think,

what most think is probably impossible. So it's more of a feeling of gratefulness that we get

the ability to do what we do and to do it at the standard that we do is and to be recognized the way

that we do is really awesome. Yeah, recognized as promoters of the year track. I mean, the track is

one enormous accolades for its execution. There's a little bit of muscle memory now here for the

group, right? I mean, I was here right after the first iteration. And I know that was obviously

chaotic in its own way because it was the first time. But now you get into successive years.

Is there a bit of muscle memory in it? Oh, there is. And there's so much efficiency year after

year, you know, although we do like to keep innovating and changing the way that we build

this campus, you know, a lot of it gets to stay the same, especially from the things that people

don't see. You know, all the back houses where we used to have, you know, different vendors in

different parts of the campus now bringing in, you know, one or two vendors rather than 17 to

come and take ownership over parts of the campus that, you know, we didn't know when we went into

year one and year one because of how big of a build this was for everybody, you needed the

amount of people on site to be able to pull it off. And as years went by, we started to learn,

okay, how can we consolidate some of the things we're doing in the East campus versus the West

campus and get smarter and, you know, a little bit more efficient every year that we go along.

So, you know, I always joke with our Venops team that, you know, if we didn't change up the campus

for them, they'd get bored because it's just the same thing year after year. So, lucky enough,

we've got a creative team that continues to change the way that we deliver this Grand Prix.

Beyond timelines, what challenges pop up that you try to account for or try to overcome that maybe

weren't there in even year one? Maybe timeline is the biggest one because it doesn't get trunked.

Honestly, the biggest obstacle is just the logistics around operating around a global

entertainment destination like Hard Rock Stadium, right? You know, we could a year, one year have,

you know, a total of, you know, four months to build and the next year it's already shrunk by

two weeks and then the loadout shrunk. So, like, the logistics of pulling this off is really,

you know, the challenges that we have to overcome in terms of actually getting it done

because, you know, in this sport, you have to finish on time. There's no option but to not

be ready on that Friday morning when gates open. And so, we've started implementing things to make

sure that there is a guarantee that we are ready to go. And so, a couple, two years ago, we implemented

what I dubbed as something called show ready. And it's essentially making sure that every

department and every structure is ready to go, you know, five days out to the event so that

there's no surprise come Monday of race week of like, okay, what are the key areas that we need

to go attack? But there's, we shouldn't get to Thursday night and be like, oh, crap, we need to

fix this. So, it's that kind of stuff that we're putting processes in place to make sure that no

matter what, we're ready to open gates and deliver the fan experience that our fans have now come

to expect. These races on the F1 calendar are iconic. This is an unusual year because of the

two canceled races due to the situation in the Middle East. So, you become the next stop.

Is that, how does that change your perspective on it? Is it more pressure? Is it less pressure?

You know, it doesn't, it won't change at all in the way that we deliver the grand prix. You know,

we've been planning since May 4th of last year to deliver the 2026 race. So, I think for us,

the biggest piece, I guess, is just the, you know, the world's eyes on Miami now and we're

excited to continue to deliver the way that we've been planning for in the last year and make sure

that we show up in the way that the industry expects us to. This race has a feeling to it.

I've been here multiple times, different than other tracks.

Miami had to build its own identity almost in real time.

How do you define that identity? And I guess, what does being authentically Miami with this race

mean to you? That's a great question. We spent a lot of time this year really honing in on that. I

think, you know, as we head into our fifth year now, you know, our audience has also changed over

last four years. And so, but we're starting to see that start to stabilize. And I think we've also

now with the awards and the accolades that we've been able to receive, I think we've now really

identified ourselves as a key race on the F1 calendar, which we're super grateful for. And I

think part of that comes with the responsibility to continue to establish ourselves and make sure

that we're identifying ourselves in a way that is really unique to the F1 calendar. And so,

we talked about, okay, what do we want to stand for as the Miami Grand Prix? And it really

came down to three different things. It was world-class racing. That's ultimately the pinnacle

of what we're doing here, right? The second is luxury. It doesn't matter in what hospitality

product you're in and what ticketing product you're in. We are going to deliver you a luxury

experience in terms of how you experience an event. And then the last one you mentioned it,

but it's authentically distinctly Miami. And so, it's bringing in the culture and the city

of Miami to the circuit. And so, it doesn't matter if you're from South Florida or you're

flying in for this race, you're going to come to the Miami Grand Prix and feel like you're in

Miami. And I think you've mentioned it as this energy. We have this Miami vibe to everything

that we're doing. And I think when people come to this race, there's an expectation. I think the

industry expects that Miami's going to come really vibrant. And so, everything that we do

around the campus is about continuing to amplify that vibrancy of Miami and making sure that when

they're in the stands, they're having the time of their lives. But then when there's no track

activity going on and they go back to experience the campus, we're bringing that energy to the

campus and allowing that vibrancy to go on the eight to nine hours that were open for Gates.

Yeah, the vibrancy, the energy, music design, luxury, internationalism,

diversity, those are all Miami traits. How do you translate those into a race experience without

making it seem like a theme park? Yeah, it's a great, I mean, look, I think it's a little bit

of doing it in a classy way, right? Like how do you show up in a way that's not too cliche and

it's like, oh gosh, like of course they did X, Y, and Z, you know? But it's also doing it in a way

where the marina is a perfect example, right? Like year one, we created this marina with real

yachts, but dry docked in a fake water. And I think it's also leaning into that a little bit

more and saying, okay, we're not going to take ourselves too seriously and enjoy the fact that

these are the highlights of Miami and create the experiences that fans want to see. And so

on one end, you've got this luxury marina hospitality product. And on the other end,

you've got a beach club where fans are in coming in their bikinis because there's pools there and

they want to have a great time and enjoy the entertainment that the Hard Rock Beach Club

provides, right? So it was really about building an experience that can deliver for every type of

fan, but also making it a way that Miami shows up in its most authentic self. And, you know,

continuing to evolve on that as well, right? Like Miami has changed a lot over the last couple years

and we're continuing to see how Miami is developing itself and the wealth and the luxury

that has moved to Miami. You know, we're working on amplifying that in every way we can. So

we see the demand for that. Yeah, I mean, you have everything from

Kazatua, right? And that kind of high end sort of dining experience, like you said, down to the

beach atmosphere. A little bit for everybody. How much of your planning starts with the hardcore

Formula One fan and how much of it starts with the person who may be experiencing

the sport for the first time? Yeah. Because I know you're trying to, obviously,

the demographic around Formula One has changed so significantly in the last five,

ten years. Yeah. You're pulling in new fans too. We are. So it's a balance, right? We see that

totally. I think, you know, we've studied now our fan attendance and who these people are getting

to know who they are over the last couple years. And as you can imagine, you're one and two a bit

skewed in terms of who those people are because the demand for the event was so high that it was

kind of like this FOMO attendee that just needed to be there. And in the last two years, we've

actually seen the state of Florida really drive two thirds of our attendees, which is really

interesting for us because now it starts, okay, we're shifting in terms of not everyone coming

from everywhere, but really like two thirds of our base is here in the state of Florida,

which I think is so special because now we've got a community opportunity to build on in the

next couple of years. And so it first kind of starts of like, okay, are these people flying

in? How much of Miami do they know? And so with the two thirds Florida base, we now say, okay,

like out of that out of that base, we offer something for that motorsport fan, which is really

where we place the grandstands, where the track views, you know, how much access to the track and

the paddock are we allowing? And we're super proud of the fact that you've got the F1 paddock

inside the team village and fans can come into the stands in Horrocks Stadium and look at look

into the F1 paddock, which is normally completely off limits, right? You never get the opportunity

to peek inside. And so you can see your favorite drivers and I was actually scrolling through

through Instagram the other night, and I was watching and a fan kind of recap their Miami GP

experience. And they said that they when they weren't in their grandstand seat, they were parked

inside the stadium just looking at what was happening inside the F1 paddock, which was really

cool. So yeah, I think look at we look at it from, okay, we've got the different audiences that we

have. We've got a cater to, you know, a little bit of everybody. But I think what we also really

aware of is the fact that we do drive a high number of casual fans. It's what Miami is. It's,

you know, the fact that we're still a very new race. And so big part of what we do is educate

around the fact that Miami is here to stay. You know, we signed an extension to our contract

until 2041 last year. Right. And so a big part of that is educating, like, get into motor sports,

like we are going to be here for a very long time and also introducing that casual fan to a

different way to experience motor sports. New audiences want accessibility. In addition to

entertainment, discovery is part of Miami success. The fact that it maybe refuses to choose between

those audiences, but gives them all of that. Yeah. And how related, what are you doing to

increase accessibility? F1 has become a much more accessible sport than it ever was before.

So maybe choosing between those two. And then what do you do on the accessibility side?

Yeah, I think the first is that, you know, in all of our product offering, we are differentiating

the different experiences that you have. So if you want to come and experience one day,

we launched single day tickets last year. We didn't have that for the first couple of years.

But in listening to our fans, we realized that's something that they really sought after. And

so now you can show up to the Miami Grand Prix on a Friday at a starting price of $75 for grand

stand ticket and bring your whole family and get to experience the taste of the Miami Grand Prix.

And then I think, of course, then we scale it up to different hospitality products and

corporate products. And then, of course, our ultra luxury products that you mentioned before,

Casatua 72 Club and, of course, the Pada Club. And I think in terms of making this product a

bit more accessible, it's ultimately what drove the decision to build a fan fest this year out

in Miami Beach, right? Like there is a, I mentioned before this educational piece of, you know,

being here at the Miami Grand Prix. So part of the fan fest was to say, okay, if you've never,

if you have no idea what motorsports is, and, you know, you're, you're just trying to take a,

get a little bit of a peek behind the curtain of what can you expect. Then, you know, that is what

fan fest is about. So it's a free event. We're starting it on Wednesday already. So Wednesday,

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, you'll have access to the, to our fan fest at the

at the Miami Beach at Loomis Park. And the whole goal of that is to welcome fans into the experience

of Formula One and do it in a way that's accessible beyond just having to pay for a ticket. They get

to experience it. Our partners are activating there. We're working on bringing, you know,

programming to the stage outside of just watching the track activity, but getting them introduced

to some drivers and to, you know, personalities within the F1 experience so that you can kind of

get like your little intro to Formula One without having to buy a ticket to get on site. So we're

super excited to launch that this year. And I think so far the interest has, has been really

exciting. We've seen over, you know, thousands and thousands of tickets already redeemed. So

we're excited to see the, the, the attendance on race weekend. On the track, back to some of the

modifications. I know we're going to, we're going to see some of that a little bit later. You're

going to, you're going to show me some things. But the big news is obviously the fact that you've

imported a yacht into the facilities. Where did that come from? I know you have a strong

partnership with MSC around that. What is that all about? And how does that change the experience

for 2016? Well, you know, every year after the Grand Prix, we white bar overlay and we say, okay,

like, where do we need to highlight on our campus? And like, what do we need to do to continue to

innovate? Right. And so one of the key areas that we felt had an opportunity was our iconic

Marina zone. You know, we talked about it earlier, but the fake yachts in the water, or sorry,

the real yachts in the fake water have everyone really enticed in seeing that. But we've always

been a limited experience for fans because we had it ticketed. So we first and foremost were like,

how do we open up this zone a bit more to the general fan who's coming on a grandstand ticket or

general campus pass ticket that's not buying a hospitality product? So our focus was how do we

kind of open this experience up? And then it was like, okay, what does the hospitality product

look like within this zone? And we wanted to lean heavier into Miami. So rather than, you know,

the yachts that we bring and creating a yacht club, we were like, what if we just made one massive

super yacht, essentially? And then we brought him a CM board to call it the MSC yacht club.

And so we're super excited about it. It was all about, you know, building a hospitality product

that doesn't already exist on site. And so it was leaning into Miami, and then leaning into the

track views that we have over there. And so one of the things that is our main opportunity in that

product is given the topography of South Florida, being as flat as it is, a lot of other tracks

around the world, you're sitting at a grandstand and you see a significant portion of the track

because of the topography around the world. Here, because we don't have the ability to

offer that, we're like, let's go as high as we possibly can and build up a hospitality product

where you can actually start to see much more than just one turn. And so with the height that,

you know, we're going to go on it later and you get to see it yourself. If you're at all

scared of heights, we should talk about that before we go on this thing. But it is, you know,

from the, from the top, you can see all like a 360 angle around turns four, five, six, seven,

eight, heading into nine, which is, you know, the only spot on campus that we are now able to offer

that. And who, who, how did the, this idea come in? Yeah. It's like, it was, it was really, we

were sitting around the room after every Grand Prix, we, you know, our, our fan experience team,

our Venops team, our ticket sales team, our sponsorship team, we grab a small team and we

sit around and for hours, we start talking about the campus again and we're like, what, what worked,

what didn't, and big part of it was like, what do we need from a ticketing perspective? And it was

like, we need an opportunity to show more than just one turn. And that was something that we

had not yet created in the last four years of Miami Grand Prix. So that's kind of what sparked the

like, how high can we go? And there were ideas thrown out there like, should we do a lighthouse or

should we do, you know, something else that's iconic to Miami? And we're like, no, we've got to

continue to lean into these yachts that we've brought in since year one. So. Of course you have

a yacht that's Miami. You have to, you have to. And so we're like, okay, at first we're like,

should we bring in an actual real one? You know, but that was going to limit the ability to offer

the track views that we wanted. So we're like, you know, let's just build one temporarily. And it

goes back to what I was saying earlier, like the, the opportunity to build this kind of stuff for

a three day weekend. I mean, it's a, it's a massive, massive hospitality structure is over 30,000

square feet, five stories high. So it's, we started building it end of February. And it's,

it's still in progress. So we'll be, we'll be wrapping up and learning loading and furniture

here in the next two weeks. Yacht builder on staff now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've got a full,

well, it was an interesting conversation with the temporary, you know, the structure provider

that, that does this, they're like, I'm sorry, you want to do what? And we're like, yeah, we want,

we want, you know, the curves of the boat and we want, we want all those aesthetic designs. And,

you know, the hardest part was actually making the bow of the boat because, you know, and the,

everything has to be custom fabricated because of the fact that, you know, temporary structure

providers, they don't normally create these types of curves and these aesthetic design needs that

we needed to have because we were adamant on the fact that like, when you zoom out and you look

at this on race weekend, especially from an aerial view, it needs to look like a super yacht.

Incredible. Incredible. And I guess the option wasn't there to make it more permanent,

given its location. You know, it's actually, it's actually something that we look at a lot of like,

okay, if we're going to invest in something like this, you know, is there an opportunity to look

at it permanently? And I think ultimately, we also really like the flexibility on our campus to

continue to innovate. And so we decided that not only for, you know, the sake of Hard Rock Stadium

and the other events that they've got going, we've got going on here. So, but also for the

flexibility that we can have in the future years. So yeah, it was, it was the best decision ultimately

to go temporary. 19 corners, three straights, fast sections, technical sections, but it's

really a city. It's a city. Yeah, we call it eight cities in on one campus. And so each of the,

each of the fan experience zones that we have are called zones, right? And so they each have their

own lead on execution from event operations, from F and B, all that kind of stuff. So we really do

call it eight cities on one campus. After the break, I'll continue my conversation with Kathy

Novak, president of the formula one crypto.com Miami Grand Prix. To see more cars and culture

interviews, visit the cars and culture YouTube channel, subscribe, comment, check out hundreds

of conversations with the creators, collectors and culture makers who are driving the industry forward.

Welcome back to Carson culture. Now the continuation of my conversation with Kathy Novak, president of

formula one crypto.com Miami Grand Prix. To see more cars and culture interviews, visit the cars and

culture YouTube channel, subscribe, comment, check out hundreds of conversations with the

creators, collectors and culture makers who are driving the industry forward. Let's get to a bit

more of your history or some history that perhaps people may not know. I mean, you, you grew up in,

in, in central Europe. I mean, as the bullseye in terms of, you know, where Europe is geographically

Vienna. And then you moved to the United States and your parents still now, now they're back in

Austria after, after being here. Your perspective, I guess, is different than, than most Americans,

North Americans. How does your, how does your background shape what you, what you do and who

you are? Yeah, it's, it's a good one. I mean, I think I grew up in, I was born in Austria and then

moved here at a very young age to Miami and actually went to school here and all that kind of stuff.

And it was growing up, my, my friends always, you know, would comment, oh, don't worry, like,

you know, Kathy doesn't understand this kind of stuff because she's foreign. You know, it was always

kind of like, in, in the US, I always felt very Austrian. And in Austria, I always feel very

American. So it's kind of balancing that, that, that double act. And I think I grew up in a very,

very Austrian household, even in living in South Florida, you know, I think my first interaction

with a fast food chain was when I finally went to college, because that was absolutely not

acceptable for an Austrian mother. It was always home cooked meals and was very spoiled in that way.

So, you know, I think the biggest impact that my background has had in the career that I have

today is honestly the language. The amount of times that I use German in my day to day,

just given the fact that, you know, motor sports, very heavy in Austrians and Germans.

And so I actually use it and it actually gives me a little bit more of a leg up in terms of

relationships because they kind of feel like I'm one of them. And so that helps a lot in terms of,

you know, executing some of the things that we do here and the relationships and building on those.

And, you know, I think it's been an interesting look in terms of, okay, I have this seat now

and I look at how we execute the race and I'm looking at it from more than just the lens of

Miami, but, you know, taking that to a global scale and saying, okay, how does the, how do we look

to this audience from a global perspective? And it's been, it's been an interesting challenge,

kind of balancing the two. So, if Total Wolf has an issue, you can sort it out with him in

truly Austrian German. Yes, yeah, in Austrian dialect, for sure. You can say, you know what,

we're going to handle this this way and then pull you aside, no one else will know what you're

talking about. Yeah, that's fascinating. Was motorsport a part of your life early or even

sports business? Yeah, it actually, it wasn't necessarily, I was, I grew up actually,

I wasn't an athlete and in the common athlete terms, I was a dancer, which I still consider an

athlete. But I actually remember very early on, every summer, I spent in Europe, in Austria,

with my family. And I remember my uncle having on every Sunday, having on this like F1. And at

that point, I didn't know it was F1, but I just remember, like him listening to a really loud

sport. And I was like, gosh, like this, he's like every Sunday at the TV. And he was a massive

Michael Schumacher fan. And so, you know, grew up with my, my cousins all wearing Ferrari. And so,

I understood what it was from that perspective. And then, and then starting to, you know, my

first real introduction to it was actually drive to survive in the sense that like, I did become

that person that like, understood more of the sport once I actually took the time to watch

drive to survive. And then at that point, it was been documentaries. You were the rest of the world.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I had an introduction to it early on, but I didn't actually spend my Sundays

watching Formula One growing up, until I got much older and started sitting on the couch with him,

but didn't understand the sport in the way that I obviously do now. So it's been an interesting

reintroduction to the world of Formula One. And walk us through a little bit of how you

got to where you're sitting today. I mean, Loyola, Chicago, and, and then, you know, the getting

into the Miami sports ecosystem, to some extent. So I knew I wanted to work in sports when I was

in high school. I had the opportunity to support and executing one of the sporting events in our

high school. And I was like, this is the energy, you know, the people getting goosebumps because

of what's happening in sports is was really something that drove me. And so I knew I wanted

to work in sports and took every opportunity to intern in different different sporting events.

And so when the Super Bowl was coming to Miami in 2020, that was I just graduated from college.

And I was like dead set on the fact that I needed to work here for I needed to come work at Hard

Rock Stadium because the Super Bowl was coming. And that was like the biggest sporting event in

the world, right? And it was in my backyard in Miami, Florida. And so I made a couple phone calls

and did what I could to to get a job here. And luckily, I was able, unfortunately, it was just

a timing thing that they ended up having an internship opportunity available. And so I jumped

in on that as a as an events intern in 2019. So that was my start here at Hard Rock Stadium.

Yeah, right before it and then had the opportunity. My first project as our events intern here was

the Super Bowl owners party. So in terms of like lucking out, it was or or goal. Yeah, yeah,

it was it was come work this get to work the Super Bowl. And then my first project was the

Super Bowl owners party. So that was an incredible experience that I'll never forget. And and then

COVID hit right after that a month later. Yeah, right. And so then you can imagine that there

probably weren't as many events happening at Hard Rock Stadium. So I jumped in at a couple

different roles around Hard Rock Stadium to help execute how we were going to do COVID football

games. And so I was part of a group that helped make sure the stadium was ready and in a position

to welcome fans in a COVID friendly environment. So that was that was early on. And then I moved

into the sponsorship world after that, and was able to work on Dolphins sponsorship. And then

when we brought the F1 race, I was in my first two years was leading sponsorship for both Dolphins

and F1 back then. And then the call comes to make this happen. Yeah. Former show guest Tyler

moves on to Cadillac and Formula One and a large commercial operation ahead of all that. And then

the call comes to you. Yeah. What was your thinking at that point? Well,

it was I mean, it was a absolute overwhelming of emotion. It was, you know, I had was lucky enough

to work for Tyler up over the last two years prior to me getting this opportunity. And I think

the the lessons I learned from him over the last two years in terms of every meeting I sat in,

it gave me the exposure that I needed to be in the best position possible now. And so, you know,

couldn't be more grateful for the things I learned over the last two years. And then, of course,

also, the the opportunity that Tom Garfin-Glancy Ross gave me six months ago. So it's been a

wild journey here at Hard Rock Stadium seven seven years in. And if you if you asked me in 2019,

if I would be if I'd be running the F1 race here, I'd probably tell you no, there's no way.

So it's been a it's been a wild ride, but couldn't be more grateful. In turn to running the race.

And I mean, one of the few extremely prominent powerful positions in the Formula One racing

world. Yeah, I mean, it's this is not like you're not just taking tickets, although you are taking

tickets. Yeah, we do. We do still sell tickets for this event. No, it's it's a true pinch me

moment. And you know, a lot of people have asked me if I've taken the time to celebrate this yet.

And my answer has always been I need to get to I need to get to the race. And we can celebrate

after once we deliver and hopefully another exceptional weekend, we'll we'll pop the champagne

then. You worked across events and partnerships, business operations, a bit of an unusual training

ground, but a very quick one. Obviously, that forces you to understand not just the show,

but the economics behind the show. How important has that been? Yeah, I mean, it's been critical to

my job now. I think, you know, if I didn't have the experience on the commercial side of the business,

I think the way that I lead today is would be in a very different mindset. And I think,

given the opportunity to have both an operational mindset and understand how we execute things here

at Hard Rock Stadium, but then also a commercial mindset. And, you know, the relationships with

the with the big sponsors that we have here has truly been, you know, the best training ground I

could have had for this job. And then not to mention the last two years in business operations,

where I just got to see everything from soup to nuts and the way that we execute was was, you

know, basically the best, you know, one on one to how to do this job that I could have asked for.

Are there others who are within the Formula One world? Obviously, Tom and Steven Ross have provided

their own support. But outside of Miami, are there others who have lent a hand and, you know,

that sort of mentorship role to say, look, this is this is what you'll need to think about. And

these are the opportunities challenges. Yeah, we've we've got a really strong promoter network

in the F1 community, which is really, you know, kudos to F1 for organizing the environment that

way that the promoter community can really bounce ideas off of each other and have a relationship.

And I think, you know, it's been overwhelming how accepted and just how awesome every promoter has

been in terms of like, when there was, oh, you know, you guys did a fan fest a couple years ago,

how did that work and the learnings that I got from there and reaching out to our other promoters

in North America, you know, given the fact that we're all on one one one continent here, we're

closely bound in decisions that we make and trying to figure out if there's other efficiencies

that we can find within each other. But overall, the promoter community has been super supportive.

And and I've got my own what I call my board of directors in terms of just the women role models

that can help kind of chart a path forward in terms of decision making and, you know,

things that you you don't normally have in if you're not a woman in this in this role. So

balancing that, I've been able to learn from a lot of successful women. And I'm very lucky to have

a mother who is also very successful in a business in her own way. And so that role model has been

with me since, you know, I've been very young. I've realized that I've got an awesome role model

in my mom and herself. What's the biggest what have you had to juggle the most that maybe

has been unanticipated? I don't know if it's your own personal time effort, you know, you don't want

to burn out on a job that could be all consuming. Yeah, that's actually a really good question. I

think I'm massively passionate about what I do. And so it's very easy to dive all in and dedicate

all your time towards this because of how naturally it comes in the terms of like, you just love

doing what you're doing, right? And so I think the balance has been how I how I use my time. And

I think the hardest part of the transition into this job was actually to learn when to step back

because I was always naturally the person who would try like jump right into a problem,

find the solution, organize it, move on. And now I kind of have to step back and let the team do

that and jump in when I need to and support and provide direction rather than actually being the

person that's going out there and, you know, whatever the problem is going up to fix it myself

and getting my hands dirty. So that's been the biggest, I think, like mentally challenging

thing for me is to like remind myself that I'm in a different role now than I was six months ago

and that I need to let the team step up and support and execute and kind of my support

looks different now than it did six months ago. How many people are directly involved with what

you have to decide on a regular basis? So we've got 70 plus full-time people working just year

round around the GP. That's incredible. And then we're super grateful for the opportunity to use

then the shared resource that we have within Miami Dolphin to her rock stadium. So when we,

you know, switch gears after the Miami Open, it looks like more of 500 because everyone steps in

and supports what we're doing here. And then, you know, after the race and we go back to Dolphins,

that number shrinks again back down to 70 plus. But yeah, it's a big team. It takes a large operation

and it's the best part of the team that we have now is that the majority of them have

the team knows each other. There's a playbook there. Yeah, there's a playbook

and there's just wisdom that comes year after year. If you learn every year going into another

Grand Prix, you know what you have to fix for next year. And how much time, I know you came in at a

time where, you know, the season was basically nearly over or over. But now the following 12 months,

how much time will you spend going to other locations? I know Tyler spent a lot of time

going to other races to understand how they do things, how to improve things. What will your

schedule be like related to that? Yeah, I mean, I haven't, I have not been able to travel too much

leading up to the Grand Prix. So it will leave this building. No, no, no, I spent a lot of hours here.

But the next, you know, eight months of the year will be around really traveling to probably

eight to 10 races. It's probably on the docket. And I think most importantly, it's meeting F1

where they're at. And you know, this is ultimately a massive traveling circus. And if we want to get

a lot of work done, we found a lot of success in meeting them at the circuit to continue to work

through planning for the next year's race. It's a little hard to grab someone's attention in July

for May 2027, right? So we found a ton of success in actually going to the races. But also for me

personally is just seeing how other races show up and how they execute. There's always something

to learn from every single one of them. And so mostly excited about looking at it from a new

perspective and going to see these new races and really identifying, okay, like how can Miami

continue to learn from what the other races are doing too? Yeah, for sure. You're making

your own task here that much more challenging because you're adding things to this race weekend

that we haven't talked about yet. So Formula Two is just announced, is also going to be here.

So you have a sprint race, you have McLaren and Porsche Cup, right? Of course you have the GP

and now you have Formula Two. How does that change things here? I mean, there's nothing more you

could put into the schedule. Yeah, I mean, it was, we're already maxed out in terms of how we execute

the Grand Prix weekend in terms of track activity, right? And so when we got the call that F2 would

like to look at racing here to offset what they will be able to do in Bahrain and Saudi,

it was an interesting challenge for our team, especially because at that point our schedule

was baked, our plan was baked. When we got the call, I think it was probably like

four weeks ago, five weeks ago now, it was truly an execution challenge of like, okay,

if we were to do this, what would that look for the GP weekend? How much of that would shift? And

the biggest impact is truly the track schedule and how you fit in another support series that also

has qualifying and feature races and all that kind of stuff. So it was an operational feat

to get that done as quickly as we did. And it's also crazy to go into a race weekend

two months out and not have a track schedule confirmed. So in every meeting that we were in

for about four weeks, it was like, we're stalled because we didn't have a track schedule confirmed

because ultimately the track schedule is dictating the entire programming for race weekend. So

there was a really intense couple weeks going into that planning. Of course, our campus was

already baked at that point, permitting was submitted. And so we had to find a location for

then another 22 cars to get an, you know, add a support paddock. And so we found a space on site

while not, you know, inside our gate perimeter, it's outside in the exterior parking lots,

and we'll have to work with Miami Fire and police to make sure we're closing the roads to be able

to get them onto the track. So it will be an operational feat to execute, but no one better

than to take on this challenge than our team. So we're excited about it. And now we've got a

track schedule. We're actually opening gates a little longer than usual to be able to accommodate

the additional track activity. So fans will see our gate times increase a year every year.

And then we'll also be running McLaren and Porsche, their first practice session on Thursday.

And we'll do that during our opening night party. So we've had an opening night party for the last

two years in terms of just getting the campus open and including a select group of people,

about 5,000 fans that get first access to the track. And last year we opened up the track.

They were able to do a bit of a track walk and have, you know, entertainment and performances.

And we had, we had F1 personalities talking about what to expect around the weekend last year.

And this year, Thursday night, we'll look a little differently because those 5,000 fans will

actually be able to experience action on track. So all at the end of the day, like it all worked

out and we couldn't be more excited to be able to offer our fans more track activity than ever

before. But it was an interesting couple of weeks to get here. Not a minute that will not be

accounted for. It will be an exciting track. It will be hot all week and long. So fans can

definitely expect to be sitting in their seats for longer than I think they're used to.

A few final things. What's the honest answer on why Miami works? Is it, was it timing? Was it the

market? Was it the vision that was executed here? Was it the rise of Formula One in America? Or was

it all of those things? Yeah, it's a bit of a, it's a bit of a perfect storm, right? I think

the credit goes to Steven Ross and Tom Graffin go on our ownership in having the vision to bring

it to Hard Rock Stadium. I wasn't part of those conversations early on, but I know that there

were ideas of bringing this track to Miami downtown. Yeah, Tom talked about that. Yeah,

exactly. And so I think looking back at it now, I can't even imagine what that would look like

because of how well it works here, you know? And so, yeah, that's probably fair. That's probably

fair. But so I think the vision absolutely, I think it's also, you know, when Drive to Survive

came out and what that did for the US audience, I think you also have Miami, the market in itself

is just exploding right now. And I think that also has a lot of to do with the fact that Miami is

just doing really well and why Miami works is because of the city of Miami, right? So I would

credit it to the vision, the timing was impeccable and ultimately the market that we're in. Yeah,

all of the above. Yeah. What does Miami mean to Formula One globally? Look, I won't speak for

F1, but I think what I hope it means is a drive to the future, right? We want to be the race that

continues to expel this luxury environment and continue to make sure that we are growing

motorsports in a new direction. And I think there is absolutely room for every race on

the F1 calendar. And we want to continue growing in the direction of that new fan and, you know,

balancing the purest motorsport fan with the new fan and making sure that we continue to drive what

experiencing a motorsport race could look like and pushing that into new heights.

Yeah, I guess related. What does Formula One mean to Miami now?

I mean, it means it's changed everything. I think it also, you know, has brought a global event to

Hard Rock Stadium, which, you know, many people couldn't imagine happening a couple years back.

So it now being a staple of, you know, the global events calendar in terms of what event you have

to come to. Miami Grand Prix being part of that in first weekend of May is just, I mean, I'm sure

Tom would tell you that he knew that this would be the way because he had the vision from the

beginning. But I look at it and I'm like absolutely in awe of what has been built here over the last

couple years. And I think our hope and our responsibility actually is to continue to grow

that and make sure that year after year we continue to deliver that for Formula One.

We're a long way from what Tom told me about sitting up in the upper stands at Joe Robbie Stadium

baking in September for football and no roof, no race, no Miami open, none of these things.

And now when you look around, it's a complete transformation. And what you'll be doing here

in 21 days is that it's one of the jewels of all of that. There are Coldplay concerts,

there are Super Bowls, there's CFP. And Miami Dolphins, of course. And of course it all starts

there. But it's also Formula One now, right? There's a phrase that's used a lot at world class event.

It's often overused with world class events. What makes this a world class event?

Oh gosh, there's so many things that I can go into. I think one of the, I think the core part of it is

ultimately the experience that it delivers for the fans. I mean, the detail that goes into

every moment of a fans experience here at the Miami Grand Prix, but even like before they even show

up, how we're communicating them beforehand, with them beforehand months in advance to tell them what

their experience is going to be like at the Miami Grand Prix and then also how we deliver it in that,

you know, luxury way. It doesn't matter if you're sitting in the luxury hospitality product or if

you're just walking around the campus. I think that ultimately drives that. But I also would say

we've been lucky enough to drive a certain level of audience and a certain level of decision makers

here to this event. I think that's also what would qualify this as being a world class event,

is that, you know, the people we bring together on a race weekend I think is unlike you have at a

lot of other events around the world. Yeah. You're 21 days from hosting a world class event.

This deserves that distinction. Congratulations on your role. Good luck. Thank you. And I know we

will catch up with each other when it's all over to talk about the success of it. I'm looking forward

to that. Yeah. Thank you for being on this program. Thank you, Jason. Thanks, Kat. Thanks again to my

guest, Kathy Novak, president of the Formula One Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix. To see more cars and

culture interviews, visit the Cars and Culture YouTube channel. Subscribe, comment, check out

hundreds of conversations with the creators, collectors and culture makers who are driving

the industry forward. That's episode 246. I'm Jason Stein. We'll see you down the road.

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Episode 246: Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix President Katharina Nowak

About this episode

Formula One (F1)

Formula One's future in America

Race Control

Hard Rock Stadium

Miami Open

Miami GP

Miami Grand Prix

FOMO attendee

F1 paddock

accessibility

single day tickets

fan fest

grandstand ticket

hospitality product

track views

three day weekend

custom fabricated

F and B

sponsors

Formula 1

Formula Two

track schedule

support series

qualifying and feature races

Porsche

McLaren

track walk

fan experience

race weekend

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