Equal parts hype and horsepower, this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix is the most talked about sporting event of the year. For the first time, Formula One will take to the strip, with 20 cars screaming past the floodlit Venetian Caesar’s Palace and the faux Eiffel Tower at 200mph.
Certainly, it lost its shirt on Thursday when a loose drain cover damaged the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and the Alpine of Esteban Ocon. The first practice session was cancelled after just eight minutes while someone went to fetch some fresh concrete. The second and final of the night’s practice sessions was delayed and extended, finishing at 3.30 a.m. on Friday and waking up anyone who wasn’t in a nightclub or at a card table. Racegoers who had paid thousands to see some track action were moved on from the grandstands hours earlier. There are concerns that this embarrassment, somewhat reminiscent of the 2005 F1 race in Indianapolis where the American crowd saw only six cars race due to a tyre issue, could hamper F1’s recent and dramatic growth on this side of the pond. However, the boss of the Mercedes team, Toto Wolff, angrily insisted this is not ‘a black eye’ for the sport, and no one really cares about practice sessions anyway. ‘They’re going to see the drain covers and nobody’s going to talk about that tomorrow morning anymore. This has happened before [in Monaco]. It’s nothing. Give credit to the people that have set up this Grand Prix, that have made the sport much bigger than it ever way.’
If proof were needed that the high rollers are in town, Hill reveals they’ve run out of places to park private jets
Las Vegas, which last hosted a Grand Prix in the Caesar’s Palace parking lot in 1982, now has the highest ticket prices of anywhere, ever. While general demand is a little lower than expected – hospitality prices have been slashed in half in the last couple of weeks, and ticket prices for practice sessions were slashed by almost 90 per cent – the prices at the top end remain eye-watering. Three-day Paddock Club passes start at $23,000, while the Wynn resort is offering an accommodation and hospitality package for a cool $150,000 per head. And that’s not the top tier. The Wynn is also offering a $1 million package for six friends that includes access-all-areas passes, four nights in a huge three-bedroom suite, and all the Michelin-starred food and vintage champagne you can consume.
I spoke with the CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Steve Hill, to find out what the city stands to make from the Grand Prix. ‘Not even counting the revenues that will go to Formula One, this will be the highest ticket sales event in Las Vegas’s history. The city stands to make $1.3 billion as a result of the race. It’ll be a record week and November is normally one of the slower months.’
Formula One isn’t much of a betting sport, because it’s generally the same teams and drivers that win each weekend – this year, it’ll likely be Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. But that doesn’t mean the gamblers are staying away. ‘Our biggest gamblers are also huge Formula One fans,’ says the tourism chief. ‘So, they want to be here. And while they’re here, they can spend the other 22 hours of the day doing whatever they want. They can game on the gambling floors, have great meals, go shopping, take in another type of show and do it all on the same day. By far, this will be the biggest gaming week Las Vegas has ever had.’
If proof were needed that the high rollers are in town, Hill reveals they’ve run out of places to park private jets. ‘All the spaces are taken, on the ground and in the air. The airport is full. There are a few smaller airports nearby, and they’re full too.’
On Wednesday night, the start/finish straight played host to an opening ceremony which included singers John Legend and Kylie Minogue. It felt like the Super Bowl halftime show, with the drivers appearing via lifts in front of the cheering crowd. The Red Bull drivers, Verstappen and Sergio Perez, popped up right in front of where I was standing, appearing on a stage where minutes before Journey performed ‘Don’t Stop Believin’. After the introductions, Verstappen took a selfie with Perez and the Alpine duo of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, and he looked happy, but the world champion didn’t sound it in the press conference afterwards. ‘For me, you can skip all these things,’ he complained. ‘It’s not about the singer, it’s just standing up there, you look like a clown.’ Asked if this race is about sport or entertainment, he replied: ‘99 per cent show, 1 per cent sporting event.’
Liberty, the company which owns F1, is counting on the Vegas community to grow to love the sport. They’ve spent nearly $300 million on land and construction of the pits and paddock (which, uniquely, also features a small casino and wedding chapel just in case some passing mechanics decide to roll the dice). With negative press around ‘greedy’ prices and a lower-than-expected turnout, there have been rumours online that despite the investment – both bricks and mortar and promotional – the 2023 Las Vegas race might be a one-off. Steve Hill calls this suggestion ‘silly’. He says of the $300 million: ‘That’s not a one-time expense. We have a three-year agreement, and the plan is to learn in the first couple of years and then work on a longer-term agreement. This first year will be the hardest by far; we had to build the circuit and learn how to put up the temporary infrastructure. The payoff is going to be just a fantastic week. We’ve had all the investment and construction and disruption, and from here it’s going to get better.’
The race itself may take a back seat to all the hoopla, but the signs are it could be a classic. Evening temperatures of around 10C will make this one of the coldest races in F1 history, and with walls rather than run-off and very little simulation intel, we could see drivers struggling for grip and hitting barriers in every session. Verstappen is the favourite, but the top speed of the McLarens and Ferraris makes a Red Bull win far from certain.
The timetable for this race is unlike any before, with the Grand Prix on Saturday night at 10 p.m. Viewers in the UK will need to tune in at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning. Qualifying is set for tonight at midnight local time, 8 a.m. tomorrow in Blighty. Drivers and teams are having to adopt nocturnal working hours even more extreme than is required at Singapore’s night race.
I myself nodded off shortly after midnight, following the opening ceremony, only to be awoken by Nile Rodgers strumming his guitar to China Girl in a club residency he’s hosting here. That felt like a pretty Vegas opening, and if anyone can beat Verstappen over 50 laps they will get an even bigger standing ovation.
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