Why F1 decided to hold the Las Vegas Grand Prix and how the city is preparing for the race

LAS VEGAS — When Stefano Domenicali took over as the CEO of Formula One in January 2021, he questioned whether the European-based company needed to stay in the United States. F1, founded in 1950, had no shortage of interest, expansion opportunities and money coming in from its international racing circuits. At that point, the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, was the series’ lone representation in the U.S.

”We were thinking, ‘Well, do we need to stay in the U.S.?’” Domenicali told The Athletic in April. “It’s difficult to grow.”

F1’s U.S. popularity, however, was in the process of taking off. Netflix’s documentary series “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” premiered in 2019 and had become a massive hit. In 2022, F1 averaged 1.21 million American TV viewers a race, its highest mark ever. Along with DTS, that was partly fueled by F1’s inaugural Miami Grand Prix in May 2022, which had the largest U.S. audience with 2.6 million viewers.

Even before the cars hit the track in Miami, F1 was looking ahead to its largest U.S. race yet: the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The buzz in the U.S. surrounding F1 now has the sport believing there’s plenty more room to grow.

“In the blink of an eye, we are getting bigger,” Domenicali said. “We wouldn’t have invested such a large amount of money if we didn’t believe that this is the place to stay for a long time.”

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With the still-in-construction, three-level, 900-foot long, 300,000 square-foot Las Vegas Grand Prix paddock building as a backdrop, the major players behind F1’s most significant foray into the United States congregated this April for a celebratory affair. The centerpiece of the gathering area was a rectangular “Formula One” branded arch that had a podium and five red chairs underneath, F1 flags on either side and several rows of white chairs sandwiched between two rows of renderings of the layout of the upcoming race.

The political and F1 dignitaries present made their way over to sign a large white cinder block that had American and F1 flags hanging from it. Nearby, construction workers paused to watch. Following several speeches commemorating the topping off of the paddock building, a crane lifted the cinder block into the air in a gesture that signified F1 making Las Vegas its U.S. headquarters.

Though the partnership between the city and F1 was indeed official and F1 had already pledged over $500 million to pull it off, the infrastructure of the race remained incomplete just seven months before lights out. The structure of the paddock building was in place, but the interior — including the car garages, pit lanes and hospitality experiences — was far from complete. The grandstands didn’t exist. The race track remained a work in progress.

F1 had come to Las Vegas before — the city had hosted the Caesars Palace Grand Prix in 1981 and 1982 — and failed. F1 knew it needed something bigger and better — and that wouldn’t be easy to pull off. This new race is easily the most audacious of the three F1 events in the U.S., but the series long ago deemed the effort to be worth it as part of its quest to gain a foothold in this country.

F1 is no stranger to grand races in major cities, but the site of the Las Vegas Grand Prix — the Las Vegas Strip — is a particularly complicated one. It hosts millions of visitors annually who explore an endless array of hotels, casinos, clubs, restaurants, shopping areas and other entertainment opportunities year-round. The ongoing construction of the 3.8-mile race track has led to numerous disruptions — multiple major roads up and down The Strip have had to be shut down at times — and the three-day race will do more of the same.

“There’s demands we’re putting on the city and on the county and on the state to help us get things done in a short timeframe,” said Greg Maffei, CEO of Liberty Media, which purchased F1 in 2016. “We’re building fast and we’re building in a highly expensive environment, but I think the result’s going to be awesome.”

Acquiring 40 acres of land in the middle of the city for about $250 million was the most expensive piece of the puzzle for F1, but figuring out how to navigate the building of the race track is the most complex. It would’ve been much less of a headache to build the race track elsewhere, but F1 saw The Strip as the best place to make it work.

“When you consider the glamor and sophistication that exists in the sports and entertainment capital and what we are as a sport of F1, which is glamor and entertainment, it was a perfect match,” Las Vegas Grand Prix CEO Renee Wilm said. “And, yes, we understand there’s going to be inconveniences, whether it’s laying asphalt or shutting down The Strip for the track, but we’re doing it for the betterment of the entire area.”

George Russell drives down the Las Vegas Strip during the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix Launch Party last November. (Ray Acevedo / USA Today)

The planning process started in 2019 when F1 approached local leaders about doing a race, but it was derailed when the COVID-19 pandemic paralyzed the world in early 2020. When travel restrictions began to ease in 2021, Domenicali, Wilm and other F1 executives launched a second attempt.

“They didn’t really have to sell the city on the benefits of having a Formula One race here; those were pretty obvious,” Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO/president Steve Hill said in May. “The issues that we really addressed were around the potential disruption, how long that would last … (and) how to work with Clark County and make sure this was a race that could functionally be put together.”

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For the city to be willing to engage in the extensive collaboration the race would require, F1 had to take on a new kind of challenge. Typically, F1 works with a race promoter that takes on the financial risk that comes with constructing a race track, producing the race and promoting it. In this case, F1 and Liberty Media are doing it themselves, which is something the companies had never done.

“Frankly, if they weren’t willing to do that and didn’t see that as a real opportunity for Formula One moving forward, I don’t think it would’ve happened in Las Vegas,” Hill said.

With Vegas onboard, the next step for F1 was getting the same commitment from the resort owners and local property owners on and adjacent to The Strip. Essentially, they were asking them to shut down The Strip, inconvenience themselves and displace their workers each year when the race takes place. It took six months to reach a consensus.

“One of the biggest challenges is, ‘Where are we going to have the race? What’s the track going to be like?’” Steve Zanella, Chief Commercial Officer of MGM Resorts International, said this summer. “It took a lot of planning and trying to figure out, ‘How can we make this work?’ But we all wanted to get it done. It just took some time.”

Much like F1, Las Vegas is used to hosting major events. That includes music festivals, conventions, boxing and UFC fights and a myriad of other sporting events. The Super Bowl is coming to town in February.

But F1 was bringing something different to the table. The timing of the event — at a dead period for the city the week before Thanksgiving — was appealing enough to Vegas’ business partners to secure an agreement.

“The city’s built for it,” Zanella said. “The city is behind it. And when all of our partners get behind something that goes on in the city, it’s a big, ‘Wow.’ … We’re doing something that we haven’t done before.”

An artist’s rendering of the paddock building and a section of the racetrack. (Courtesy of Formula One)

In early June, the expansive plot of land Formula One purchased was crawling with construction workers. Progress had been made on the interior of the paddock building, and the foundations of the grandstands and race track were coming together. Wilm and Miller Projects Management owner/CEO Terry Miller — wearing hard hats and neon safety vests — guided a group of media members through the premises. With the race just five months away, the construction of the race track had become the top priority.

“First of all, we have to design the actual detail of the pavement in accordance with what Vegas has,” Miller said. “It’s arid. In November, it’s a little cooler than it is in the summertime, so we have to design a paving that meets that criteria in terms of weather. Then, secondly, we’ve had to go around and basically take up all of the paving that doesn’t meet the density requirements of an F1 track.”

The race track, which will have three main straights and 17 turns, has to be fit to endure numerous cars simultaneously racing 50 laps at speeds exceeding 212 miles per hour. That meant digging up six to 10 inches of pavement throughout the track and then repaving it.

“That’s been unique and it’s been, obviously, disruptive,” Miller said. “We’ve had to lay the base of the asphalt down, and we can’t do that in one big pour, so we have to attack it piece by piece and property by property. …

“We’re doing this in the most significant world-class resort community that there is, and it’s not an easy logistics process, but it’s one the team has dealt with well. … They’ve been very supportive of some of the changes that we’ve had to make in terms of shifting the track here or there in order to complete it.”

For example, there was an issue that emerged with part of the track that runs near The Sphere at The Venetian Resort.

“When we were looking to race around The Sphere, there were just too many G’s being pulled on the drivers in that true half-circle,” Wilm said. “So, you’ll see we added a chicane, which is an additional turn, just to slow things down.”

Beyond those sorts of complications, F1 has to ensure that the roads they build hold up for the regular vehicles that will use them throughout the year. That weighing of performance and practicality has been a constant back-and-forth.

“So, you have the drivers’ health, and then you have the asphalting,” Wilm said. “You want top-quality asphalt that will be great for racing, but then you also need to ensure that it works for the year-round operations: the taxis, the buses, the cars. So, really, the balancing of interests was the key to this whole project.”

The paving for the race track was finished in September. Throughout October, the track barriers and fences are being installed. The expectation is that by Nov. 1, the entire setup will be finished — well ahead of the start of the race on Nov. 18. Once that’s complete, F1 will shift its primary focus to its last major challenge: getting people to the race.

Driver George Russell spins on the track during last November’s launch party. (Ray Acevedo / USA Today)

The Las Vegas Grand Prix is expected to draw over 100,000 attendees on each of the event’s three days. The Strip will be closed to the public from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. on each of those days, which raises a natural question: How will spectators get to the race? The race circuit encircles about 27,000 hotel rooms, and F1 is urging the guests residing there to use their feet. It’ll be clunkier for those outside the circuit who want to get in, but there’s a plan for that, too.

“This is going to be the first walking circuit of the Formula One calendar,” Wilm said. “We are going to encourage our fans to walk. For those who need shuttles, we’ll be providing shuttles. We are installing four temporary vehicular bridges to get people in and out of where it will essentially be the landlocked island. And we are working very closely with the locals to ensure we are taking into account shift changes for employees as well as those who are coming in and out.

“But we’re doing so in a very organized and safe way because what we do not want is gridlock. Gridlock leads to problems, and we want to make sure we have an extremely safe and enjoyable event for everyone in the town.”

Formula One and Las Vegas feel they’re up to the task, but that’s a lot of moving parts. Although F1 fronted the costs for the event, shutting down The Strip for three days will still be a significant inconvenience for workers, locals and visitors alike. Even off The Strip, the congestion will inevitably create significant traffic on the surrounding roads.

F1 coming to Vegas has brought a lot of excitement, and the group’s financial commitment has eased the burden on local taxpayers, but it’d be hard to blame any detractors who still questioned whether all of the disruptions are worth it.

Nonetheless, F1 and Las Vegas have signed a 10-year agreement for a race both sides hope runs into perpetuity. After all, F1 made the paddock building a permanent structure, whereas in most cities, they use temporary facilities. Vegas also agreed to permanently alter the roads surrounding The Strip.

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There will undoubtedly be bumps in the road. F1 and the city leaders hope that, moving forward, they will be able to reduce the frequency with which they emerge.

“It’s part of living the life of racing inside the community,” Domenicali said. “Of course, in the days of the race, we’re going to have some logistic management to be done, but that’s part of the game. We’re going to do it and make sure the system will not be stopped.”

F1 clearly expects its new event in Vegas to be more successful than its previous attempts at a race in the city, but it also hopes the event goes a long way toward boosting its American fan base.

“There are many Americans who have come to love Formula One, but there are many who still don’t know it,” Maffei said. “I think having a night race down The Strip on a Saturday is going to change that.”

(Top illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; photos: Dan Istitene / Formula 1 via Getty Images and courtesy of Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix)