The owner of the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) says heavy rain and the scheduling of Mexico's return to the calendar meant the U.S. Grand Prix was "financially devastating" for the venue.
The Austin race weekend suffered numerous delays due to the heavy rain from the nearby Hurricane Patricia, which saw qualifying pushed back to Sunday. Many fans who attended on Saturday were locked out during FP3 for safety reasons before sitting in the rain without seeing a lap in the afternoon, though the circuit did open the pit lane to those who had stayed.
"It was a tough weekend," circuit chairman Bobby Epstein told the Austin-American Statesman, before going on to describe the race as a "financially devastating weekend for the company".
"We lost millions on concessions" added Epstein. "And we suffered from some fans having such a bad experience they won't be back, though I hope we can change their mind."
This year sees the return of the Mexican Grand Prix after a 23-year absence, with this weekend's race going back-to-back with Austin. The attendance on Sunday was 101,667, down from 107,778 last year and 117,429 for COTA's first race in 2012. Figures have dropped every year F1 has returned to Austin.
On this occasion, Epstein thinks the tight schedule must share some of the blame with the weather, saying: "The Mexico race hurt us."