Apparently the City of Miami were sending a possee of their people to the forthcoming Singapore GP on a fact finding mission. (aka taxpayer funded wank)
Anyway the Mayor has had doubts re the trip and cancelled plans for those thinking they were going.
The mayor of Miami-Dade County has intervened to cancel a delegation's fact-finding trip to the Singapore Grand Prix, in a fresh blow to plans for a Miami Formula 1 race.
The Miami Herald reported on Saturday that the delegation of county administrators, including police and fire department chiefs, would travel to Singapore and get first-hand experience of how an F1-standard street race is operated, in a trip costing around $18,000.
But on Tuesday, county mayor Carlos Gimenez - whose son CJ has been lobbying in favour of the race - lifted a self-imposed recusal on the matter and intervened.
In a statement, Gimenez said: "Upon further reflection, I've asked the directors of PortMiami, Miami-Dade police and Miami-Dade fire to cancel their departments' trip and to look for a venue closer to Miami-Dade County."
I guess that last line means take a trip in a Fire/Police vehicle to Austin for the COTA event.
However those going at the invitation of Liberty / F1 are still heading off.
Although the county delegation's trip is off, a group of Miami city officials - including event administrators and Police - will attend the Singapore race as planned at the invitation of F1.
Plans to run the Miami Grand Prix in 2019 were shelved in July, and the next city-level discussion was pushed back until later this month.
October '20 is now the targeted date for the inaugural event.
Plans are still progressing for an F1 Live fan event to be held in Miami on October 17-21. The latest idea is to base it in the city's Bayfront Park area, with an F1 demonstration planned to run along 700 metres of Biscayne Boulevard.
That event, as well as the planned race, continues to face opposition from downtown residents, who are concerned about the noise and disruption they would cause.
If we ever get to see a GP at Miami I will be very surprised.