Inside F1 Las Vegas’ plans for a successful sequel — and no drain cover drama

LAS VEGAS — The start of Formula One’s Las Vegas residency last November was a major moment in the 73-year history of the sport.

F1 spent over half a billion dollars to put on one of the most-hyped races in its history, taking over the reins of promoting and organizing the entire grand prix.

Despite a bumpy start — a loose water valve cover canceled first practice and severely delayed FP2 on a lousy opening night — the event was a huge success. On the track, the fight for the win went down to the closing laps as Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez and Charles Leclerc scrapped back and forth for position. The fast-flowing layout, incorporating a long straight down the Strip, proved a hit with the drivers and made for the most entertaining race of the year.

The grand prix was a money-spinner, even with locals’ frustrations resulting from the disruption of having F1 in town. November is typically the city’s eighth-best month of the year. In 2023, it was the second-best month in its history.

“We knew it would be big, but the attention … frankly, F1 did a fantastic job of building up that race,” said Steve Hill, the CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA). “It was two or three times more marketing value than we would have expected going in. We would have been happy with a third of what we got.

“We were going to be thrilled with what we expected, but what we got was eye-opening.”

As F1 returns for its second shot in Las Vegas, there is a new dynamic. The novelty factor has diminished, but in its place comes experience and, for the organizers, a playbook to work from. There is a bar to try and meet once again.

The spotlight on the race action in Las Vegas has only increased thanks to the closer competitive picture through 2024. By this point last year, Verstappen had already long been crowned champion; now, there is a chance he could clinch his fourth title Saturday night, so long as he finishes ahead of Lando Norris.

The potential of F1 crowning a champion at its glitziest event is appealing for the sport and something the race organizers know would offer a unique chance to put a Las Vegas twist on the celebrations.

“I’m sure that we would be able to pull some ideas out of our hat, maybe pre-arrange some pretty exciting opportunities,” Renee Wilm, CEO of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, said of a potential coronation, noting the high-end hospitality options at the properties along the Strip. “There’s so many opportunities to highlight the drivers, and particularly if we actually do have the benefit of being able to get a champion.”

While the organizers of the race may not be able to influence the sporting spectacle, the success of last year’s Saturday night race was enough reassurance that no changes were needed for 2024. The circuit remains unchanged, but they anticipate heightened fan interest with a late-season championship fight underway.

“In the U.S., we love to see good competition, and it’s less about who the particular team or driver is,” Wilm said. “So to know that there is still so much on the line and that the championship is going to be up for grabs, and the fact you’ve had so many different drivers on the podium is itself creating a lot of excitement and buzz.”

A different approach has been taken to appeal to fans for the second running of the race. In the lead-up to the 2023 grand prix, there was scrutiny of high ticket prices and how unaffordable it would be for people to attend. This year, over 10,000 extra general admission tickets have been made available across three fan zones as part of rejigging the ticket inventory. The hope is to make it a race that can cater to everybody, not just those chasing high-end experiences.

The Las Vegas Grand Prix also changed how it marketed the race, starting the build-up around 100 days out instead of over a year in advance. Wilm said in October that ticket sales had been “pretty consistent with what we did expect” and that she anticipated a surge closer to the race due to Las Vegas’ reputation as a last-minute town. She also believed many fans would wait until after the U.S. presidential election, which may have left some “a little hesitant to know what their November is going to look like.”

According to a statement issued by the race last week, 300,000 attendees are expected “based on calculated data from ticket sales and bookings for race-related programming.”

A more concerted effort has also been made to connect with the local community ahead of the second year. A free fan festival will take place Friday and Saturday, giving attendees a chance to get a flavor of what F1 brings to Las Vegas, with tickets quickly being fully reserved. Hill thought it would help “build both goodwill in the community and an additional fan base in the southwest” of the United States.

Developing goodwill with the community was particularly important after the frustration many locals in Las Vegas felt about the level of disruption last year. The requirements of repaving the sections of the road for the circuit — taking 10 inches off the surface and replacing it with one suitable for F1 cars — led to significant road closures and traffic issues. With so much of the construction work already completed last year, there wasn’t a need to repeat it this year.

“This year, the community knows more about what to expect, and what we’re doing is not building the circuit,” Hill said. “We really didn’t start any kind of lane disruption until the first week of October, where last year, that started in the middle of April. It just wears you out after a while.”

Wilm said they were “just light years ahead of where we were October of last year, in terms of local sentiment. This is the Las Vegas Grand Prix. It’s also Liberty and Formula One’s grand prix. So it is so important to us that everyone embraces this event as much as we do.”

Communication with locals is one area the organizers of the race felt there was room for improvement. “We communicated, but we didn’t communicate with the level of sophistication that this race demands,” Terry Miller, the general manager who oversees the track construction, told The Athletic. In 2024, the race improved a bespoke, interactive website to provide all the information about road closures and any possible disruption. It introduced a texting program, giving locals a “week ahead” view, and met with over 900 stakeholders to ensure no surprises.

Another surprise from 2023 that F1 will be keen to avoid is the disruption caused by the loose water valve cover Thursday night that destroyed Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, caused FP1 to be canceled after eight minutes and delayed FP2 so long that police asked fans to leave the track by that point. While it was hardly the first time a utility cover had come up at an F1 street track, it was by far the most infamous incident.

Miller explained that new protocols are in place for this year. “Due to what occurred last year, we do have, in fact, a protocol and a process that we’ve gone through over the last five months to secure the lids, even to the point where we will do three or four visual checks of what’s going on in the roadway before and after a race event,” he said, confirming there were extra checks after what happened last year.

“You can never guarantee that nothing is going to happen,” he said. “But you can certainly have the mitigating efforts in place to reduce the risk, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Even with the frustration felt by some in Las Vegas, the commercial success of the race was significant. A report by Clark County estimated the total economic impact of the grand prix to be $1.5 billion, $884 million of which came through visitor spending. It raised $77 million in tax revenue and turned what is normally the second-worst weekend of the year into “one of the best weekends we’ve ever had,” according to Hill, surpassing all expectations.

Matching that in 2024 is going to be a big ask, nor is there an expectation it can be repeated in quite such spectacular fashion. “We’re not probably going to be able to compete with year one numbers again, and (we) don’t need to in order for it to be successful,” Hill said. “If the numbers were half that, it would still be a game changer.”

It means a successful second running of the Las Vegas Grand Prix is more about sustainability — putting on another spectacular show with fewer issues or frustrations. Not everything will be to everyone’s liking. The start time of 10 p.m. PT Saturday remains unchanged, and it will inevitably bother drivers and their team personnel; a fresh dose of time zone confusion to kick off a tripleheader that continues with two weeks in the Middle East to see out the season.

While there is a desire to reduce the demands placed on drivers for the “spectacle” around the grand prix, the show versus sport debate will also likely reignite when they get to the paddock Wednesday.

But now it’s about reaching what Hill thought was “an equilibrium point” between excitement over something new and the uncertainty or concern it could cause locally, proving this can be an event for the long term.

“That kind of sustainability matters a lot,” Hill said. “It’s a tough race to put on, it’s down one of the busiest streets in the world and putting that on is not an easy thing to do. But it’s going to be a fantastic week.”

(Top photo: Bob Kupbens / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)