IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
On a recent Sunday morning, Samantha Sczepanski and Alicia Johnson left two separate New Jersey towns and made their way into Manhattan before 8 a.m. It was the day of the Italian Grand Prix — the century-old race on Formula 1’s fastest track.
A little more than an hour after sunrise, Sczepanski and Johnson showed up at Féile, an Irish bar near the Empire State Building that has become New York City’s primary destination for F1 watch parties. Team flags hung in the rafters around the bar; fittingly, under the Ferrari flag were a few bottles of Almave, Sir Lewis Hamilton’s non-alcoholic agave spirit. Sczepanski and Johnson were decked out in Ferrari-brand gear, eager to watch their favorite team’s performance on its hometown track.
The prospects were not good for Ferrari’s drivers, a reality begrudgingly accepted by the Tifosi, who made up the majority of spectators at Féile. Charles Leclerc would start fourth on the grid and Hamilton would begin in tenth position after a penalty from a previous race.
“We’d be satisfied to see Lewis finish sixth,” Johnson said before the race.
“We’re mostly rooting for the McLarens to take each other out,” Sczepanski said.
The pair met at Féile earlier this year and have been showing up together to watch races ever since. The scene at the pub is mostly for the die-hards — attendees are advised to make table reservations in advance, the service staff knows the regulars, and the ultra-passionate fans claim the bar seating like it’s the first row at a fashion show.
This is not for Drive to Survive-ers. These are the obsessives.
“When you ask ChatGPT where to find an F1 watch party in New York City,” said David Dukenik, a Mercedes fan who was visiting from Miami. “Féile is the bar that comes up.”
But though Féile hosts NYC’s most well-known (and, apparently, most generative engine optimized) F1 watch party, other gatherings are beginning to pop up in Brooklyn, and around the country, too. Formula 1 itself has even begun investing in creating these fan spaces — called “F1 Arcades” — in six U.S. cities. In the spirit of the furious pace at Monza that day, Esses sent me racing across New York City, checking in on three different parties that summer morning.
Full disclosure: Formula 1 is not exactly my area of expertise. I’ve spent more than a decade covering major American sports, but European sports — mainly due to scheduling — have evaded my investment to this point. I know the major drivers, some of the controversies, and the general drama around vehicle construction, but I had only watched a few races in full and carry no allegiances. This was my opportunity to learn about F1 from its biggest fans — the best way to learn about anything.
Right away, it struck me that Formula 1 fandom is different from other sports fandoms, because of the dual (and sometimes discordant) allegiances to driver and team.
A bar catering to Pittsburgh Steelers fans makes a lot of sense to me. It’s straightforward, and everyone there is ultimately rooting for the laundry. But what if a bar had taken up an F1 allegiance and tied its profits to Hamilton and decked the place out in Mercedes gear? Would it still be a home for Mercedes loyalists? Or would it become a Hamilton bar — and for how long?
For now, Formula 1 fans at watch parties across New York City seem happy just to be in community with their fellow fanatics. More than that, these watch parties have become a place for fans to carve out space for their own specific styles of fandom. It would certainly be easier for them to watch a crack-of-dawn race from home, but they eagerly suit up in F1 gear and go out to enjoy pancakes, beer, non-alcoholic margaritas, and each other.
“I don’t know what’s happening, but it’s exciting,” said one first-time F1 party attendee as Max Verstappen and Lando Norris duked it out at the start of the race. After 10 laps at Féile, Verstappen had extended his lead to 2.7 seconds, and it was time for this reporter to hit the next watch party.
Google Maps said it would take 20 minutes by subway to get from Féile to the next location — Roebling Sporting Club — across the East River in Brooklyn. It took 27 minutes and 41 seconds, actually, including two four-minute penalties while waiting for trains to downtown and to Brooklyn. In the meantime, Max, Lando, Oscar, and co. were speeding through laps at Monza.
At Roebling Sporting Club, in Williamsburg, a few Ferrari fans had their eyes glued to the race, which was streaming on a projector. They held an official party there a few weeks prior, and a bartender said it had been “packed” for the advertised event, but it was quiet this morning. I peeked in just long enough to learn that Hamilton had somehow jumped to fourth place in the race by lap 30. There was no time to figure out what had happened at the top of the standings, though. I was going to see the end of the race at a third and final watch party.
The final commute was on-theme; a rideshare driver was outside of the bar within two minutes of being hailed. It was still just 9:53 a.m. and mid-race. The caffeine and adrenaline from the exciting start at Féile bar had faded and this reporter began thinking about a post-race bagel.
The driver’s dashboard screen said the car’s average speed after start was 15 miles per hour. In New York City, that’s at least good for a podium. We arrived at Bilt Bar, in Prospect Heights, at 10:10 a.m. while the race was drawing toward its final laps. This crowd resembled more of a Super Bowl–style party — knowledge-inclusive and a mix of newcomers and regulars.
The watch party was hosted by Formula 1 Brooklyn, who promotes Bilt Bar live watches and replay watches at Sixpoint Brewery, in FiDi, at 12 p.m. most Sundays. They had packed the room, and Almave had sponsored the morning, providing two types of non-alcoholic cocktails — the Pole Position Carajillo (Almave Ámbar, cold brew, agave nectar, N.A. bitters, salt) and the Parabolica (Almave Humo, lemon juice, honey syrup, N.A. bitters, orange and lemon zest) — to the fans for free. The F1 Brooklyn and Almave pairing makes sense: Hamilton, the sport’s most iconic driver, has developed a means for American race fans to rip tequila cocktails while watching morning racing.
Formula 1 Brooklyn was started by Kaleah Horton and Kat Harriman, who wanted to be able to watch races in Brooklyn, but couldn’t find many options already in existence. So, they decided to start their own, with the intention of keeping their parties casual, inclusive, and a celebration of all of the off-track drama and fun while the races ran.
“We just have an all are welcome mentality. I think that that is just huge,” Harriman said. “A lot of people in New York or in the United States are alone when it comes to F1 and they don’t have any other F1 friends yet.”
Mirella Nappi, decked out in Mercedes gear, had created and distributed F1 bingo cards ahead of the race. She made 20 copies for Monza that were snatched up quickly.
“I should have made more,” Nappi said. “I definitely should have made more.”
“Mirella is one of our die-hard fans,” Harriman said. “So now I’m like, ‘All right, how do I get prizes for these bingo cards?’”
The bingo cards helped illuminate what makes F1 such a cultural phenomenon beyond the on-track results. Spaces for this race included “Chaotic Pit Stop”, “Liam (Lawson) Annoys Someone,” and Charles Leclerc’s iconic “Nothing, just an inchident.” Mercedes driver George Russell holding out his arms in a “T-pose” is the free space in the center — he strikes the pose during the overly theatrical driver introductions, making it an entertaining certainty.
The race at Monza made for a difficult game of bingo, though. “Max Complains” didn’t get crossed out — he started in pole position and finished a near-perfect race in record-breaking time. “Lewis Throws Shade” didn’t hit either; it’s a bit tougher to do that from the middle of the pack.
“Some race days we get so many boxes checked that we all have to start rooting to check off the entire card,” Nappi said. But to her surprise, no one got bingo that day.
The diversity of potential race events (“Safety Car Mention,” “Cries in Ferrari,” or “We Can’t Understand Leclerc”) and the Formula 1 fanbase’s knowledge of them is what makes an early morning at the bar worth it. The racing is good, sure, but Formula 1 is as much about spectacle as it is about the competition.
Rolling out of bed and throwing the race on your television with social media fired up on your phone may be the easiest way to watch.
But even though taking the train is a pain, who wants to fill out a bingo card alone at home?
