Has F1’s Las Vegas gamble paid off? We went to the Grand Prix to find out

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Unless, of course, it’s the global travelling circus that is Formula One.

The marriage of the world’s biggest global motorsport series with the entertainment capital of the world was formalised last year when Formula One owner Liberty Media made the Las Vegas Grand Prix the third US-based race.

Walking down the Strip in the shadow of towering hotels and an inexplicable number of Gordon Ramsay-themed restaurants, this is a Grand Prix setting that feels unlike any other.

But last year’s debut event was not without its challenges as the unprecedented logistical demands often threatened to overwhelm organisers. It’s also important not to forget this was the first time Formula One had ever promoted a race itself.

Emily Prazer, the Las Vegas Grand Prix’s chief commercial officer, who now also holds the same role for Formula One, told BlackBook Motorsport in the leadup to the inaugural race that organisers had been “trying to survive and get the race ready on time”, describing the experience as “really hard”.

Growing pains were to be expected, though, and the fact the race was even pulled off on the streets of a city not necessarily built to host motorsport is an achievement in itself. That’s not to say all of the flaws have been ironed out, but the second Las Vegas Grand Prix felt more like a motor race compared with last year’s celebrity-dominated megaevent.

BlackBook Motorsport went along to this year’s race to see just how well Formula One is settling into its new surroundings.

Race day experience

Organisers have made an effort to make the Las Vegas Grand Prix feel like a more inclusive experience, but it still doesn’t feel like a race built for more traditional motorsport fans.

That’s not to say that spectators didn’t flock to this event in droves. Formula One merchandise was noticeable across the city all weekend and a free-to-enter fan festival on Las Vegas Boulevard ran for two days, bringing a more familiar feel to an otherwise atypical Grand Prix weekend.

The organisers also did a much better job of making more general admission tickets available this year. Even so, the cheapest weekend ticket still started at US$600, which puts the race among the most expensive on the calendar.

This is despite efforts to make the 2024 edition more accessible.

“We recognised the strong demand for a greater variety of pricing options and significantly more general admission tickets, so we prioritised the creation of new product offerings to appeal to a wider audience of our fans,” Renee Wilm, chief executive of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, previously told BlackBook Motorsport.

“This year, we have added over 7,000 more general admission tickets and two new, dedicated general admission fan zones – the Flamingo Zone by Caesars Rewards and the Caesars Palace Experience. We fully embrace all of our fans, from backpackers to billionaires.”

The latter of those general admission fan zones is where this correspondent spent race day. The three-day ticket, which at US$638 was at the lower end of the pricing structure, offered standing room only and a decent view of the back straight along the city’s famous strip, although this meant catching a mere flash of each car as they passed by at top speed.

In terms of entertainment, there were four simulators, a pitstop challenge, and a show car all in partnership with the Red Bull team, and an extensive food and drink offering.

Although the pricing of those refreshments was extortionate – a glass of wine would set you back US$26.83 or you could opt for a bottle of beer costing US$17.44 – this is Vegas after all.

Plus, this is Formula One racing on the Las Vegas Strip, and that alone is a unique experience that many punters feel is worth paying for.

F1 Academy drivers Lola Lovinfosse, Jessica Edgar and Bianca Bustamante (left to right) all made appearances in the Formula One fan zone (Image credit: Getty Images)

A commercial playground

A peek inside hospitality offers some insight into why Formula One was so keen to have an event in Las Vegas, which is the perfect playground to host both current and potential sponsors.

Several companies saw the Las Vegas Grand Prix as the perfect place to launch their partnerships for next season, as the two weeks leading up to the race saw the number of sponsorships skyrocket.

Aston Martin, for example, announced three deals with Puma, Xerox, and Glenfiddich. The latter two of those three brands are not officially coming on board until 2025 but specifically targeted the Las Vegas weekend to launch their partnerships.

This was also the case for the launch of online casino Modo’s partnership with Alpine and Haas’ deal to promote the University of Chicago Medicine. The Las Vegas weekend was also the first time the Mastercard logo was visible on the McLaren car ahead of the start of that partnership next year.

Williams also agreed a multi-year extension with Duracell which saw the brand turn the drag reduction system (DRS) flaps on the rear wings of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto’s cars into the look of a Duracell battery. This aligned with the brand’s move to sponsor a DRS zone at the circuit, the first sponsorship deal of its kind in Formula One, giving the company a highly visible presence at the race.

The team also partnered with Amazon-owned Zoox for Formula One’s first autonomous vehicle partnership, which saw the company’s robotaxi on show at Williams’ fan zone at the New York-New York Hotel.

Meanwhile Ferrari, who had a fan activation situated outside Caesars Palace with Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0,0%, agreed new deals with IBM and Chivas Regal. The Scotch whisky brand also opted to follow the Las Vegas launch trend.

This is just the new brands coming into the sport, let alone the existing sponsors that saw the race as a chance to make as much noise as possible, such as Mercedes partner Signify, which outfitted the lighting at the team’s Las Vegas Club hospitality offering.

The impact on local businesses

A lot has been said about the reaction from locals to having the Formula One circus come to town, and it remains an unpopular event due to the overall disruption.

A report claiming that the inaugural race generated an economic impact of US$1.5 billion was not enough to convince Las Vegas locals of the benefits of staging the race, but it is still very early on in the event’s life cycle, with an initial deal due to run until 2025.

Plus, the series has made noticeable improvements to minimise disruption when setting up for the race, including the Flamingo Road bridge being made much smaller to ease congestion. It shows that organisers have been willing to be adapt, but local businesses have seen noticeable disruption.

BlackBook Motorsport spoke to one local business owner of a bar on the Strip who claimed the Formula One weekend more than halves their daily revenue. On a normal weekend, they would generate US$40,000 per day, but this dropped to just US$15,000 over the Grand Prix weekend.

It’s difficult to know whether it’s the same experience for businesses across the city, but other informal conversations throughout the weekend echoed similar opinions about the race.

At the same time, it’s important to remember that this event is happening during a traditionally quiet week for Las Vegas, and MGM Resorts went as far as saying that Formula One delivered its highest-grossing weekend ever for last year’s inaugural race.

Ultimately, Formula One has invested a huge amount of money into this event – setup costs exceeded US$500 million in year one – but the full benefits are unlikely to be truly felt until years down the line.

Another good example of its commitment to the city is the Grand Prix Plaza, which cost US$240 million to build, and its new year-round programme starting next year. If Las Vegas can become an attraction for Formula One fans outside of just one weekend, then surely everyone stands to benefit.

The verdict

Las Vegas is not for the faint-hearted and the Grand Prix is unlike any other because of this.

It’s an entirely unique experience, but the fact Formula One is able to shut down a city like Las Vegas for a race weekend highlights just how far the series has come and the influence it now has. This is, at the very least, a seriously impressive logistical feat.

It’s hard to see Las Vegas ever becoming a destination for traditional motorsport fans, but Sin City’s Grand Prix is well on its way to becoming the most commercially attractive event of the Formula One season.

Money makes the Formula One world go round and sponsorships remain a vital revenue driver of the sport. In a 24-race schedule, having a handful of more commercially-focused races makes sense – and Las Vegas looks set to become the centre of this strategy moving forward.

Locals will likely warm to the event the longer this race exists, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if Formula One organisers take the Vegas model – whereby it promotes the Grand Prix itself – elsewhere once it is more established.

It’s too early to say if the gamble has paid off for Formula One, but it’s easy to see how the Las Vegas Grand Prix could eventually go down as one of the series’ finest achievements.

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