When Formula One threw its weight behind promoting a grand prix in Las Vegas, the sport was taking no little gamble on success and on the bigger picture of finally breaking America. With the race in its second year, hosting a potential championship decider and the streets full of enthusiastic fans, every indication is that they have backed a winner.
There was an enormous risk in hosting a grand prix, especially one that required a $700m investment and involved agreements between casinos, businesses and local government to allow it to run through the heart of the Nevada city. They pulled it off last year, albeit once past the initial PR disaster of a loose water valve cover smashing into Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, prematurely ending first practice. The race that followed was one of the best of 2023, praised by drivers and fans.
There is now a sense the event is special, an atmosphere that boundless petrodollars simply cannot buy, and everyone feels it. For all the late start times and wearing schedule, the teams are energised by the setting. The track, lit by the landmarks of Las Vegas Boulevard, the Strip, lends it a unique backdrop, a world away from almost every other race.
What F1 will be buoyed up by is immediately noticeable in Vegas for this second outing, particularly the volume of fans who create an exuberant atmosphere in a place that all but exists to party, with the sporting element part and parcel of an entertainment spectacle envisioned for the race.
This is not to everyone’s taste, but if F1 is to embrace the hoopla it makes sense to do so in Vegas. There must be a place for classic race circuits but also for the future of the sport, something that engages new fans. If Max Verstappen claims his fourth consecutive title just before midnight on Saturday, local time, the celebratory atmosphere will not be more perfect than in a city where every win matters.
It is also a shop window for Formula One in the United States, which Emily Prazer, chief commercial officer for F1 and for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, describes as the “key strategic growth market”. To that end it must also be considered a success since the race has retained a sense of occasion after the initial flush of its inaugural year.
Purists may flinch at it all but trackside the Las Vegas Grand Prix feels like no other. The cars look superb hurtling through the streets. Night races are no longer a novelty but the cityscape here is the star, fittingly for a town that is about show and business.
Floodlights crisscross the sky in competition with the shining pixellated bauble of the Las Vegas Sphere and the lights of the hotels and casinos. Too much sensory overload? It is right for Vegas, not for Silverstone perhaps, but, as Dorothy observed, we’re not in Kansas any more.
There were problems last year and the locals were not as easily placated as the drivers. Road closures and the inconvenience that came with shutting off major parts of the city centre, increasing commuting times, and circuit restraints funnelling customers away from their businesses left many Las Vegans wondering whether it was worth it.
Renee Wilm, the chief executive of Las Vegas GP, cites “a turnaround in local sentiment” and that they are beginning to “get” F1, but even cursory conversations with cab drivers and casino workers suggest there are many still to be won over.
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However, the bottom line has made a strong argument that they will be. A revenue of between $1bn and $1.7bn had been predicted for 2023 and a report post-race by the Clark County local authorities put the economic impact at $1.5bn. That translated into an additional tax revenue of $77m, of which $22m went into local schools, an income from a weekend that was previously quiet, with the lowest hotel room takeup of the year for Las Vegas. That’s a important metric to everyone working in the city, not just the owners of casinos.
“Once you really look at the numbers, it has absolutely hit home with locals,” Wilm says. “We’re here to stay. We’re here to be part of the community and to give back both economically as well as in other qualitative ways as well.”
F1 has responded to criticism, too. There was furore over ticket pricing, with the high-end hospitality packages into tens of thousands of pounds last year attracting negative headlines. It is all but impossible to compare like with like, given there are no suites at the Bellagio to purchase at the Hungaroring after all, but the average price for a three-day ticket last year was $1,667. F1 has increased the volume of general admission tickets to 13,000 at the expense of some the more expensive hospitality packages. Tickets for Thursday’s practice were available from $99 (£79).
Formula One is clearly willing to bend, then, as it finds the best ways to manage what remains a work in progress on the Strip. Fine-tuning still needs to be done but, with an intent to host a grand prix here for a decade at least, F1 has a strong hand in Vegas.
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