The inaugural Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix was held from 15 November to 18 November and it caused a bit of a stir in the Sin City, to say the least.
Most regularly scheduled entertainment evens on the Strip were canceled, and the only performer that went ahead as planned was David Copperfield. Many tourists chose not to go to Las Vegas this weekend at all, so everyone moved to clear the way for the octane circus to go through. This comes as a culmination of eight months of construction work in the city to create the racetrack and the surrounding facilities in the first place.
Max Verstappen won the inaugural F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, and quickly changed his stance after the action-packed win, saying it was “a lot of fun”, after going on a rant before the Grand Prix when he said it’s 99% show and 1% sporting event. He also added that the track doesn’t have enough corners and that the drivers, that emerged from giant boxes and were instructed to wave during the opening event, looked like clowns, himself included. Verstappen hasn’t attended the official VIP opening party that all drivers are expected to attend.
The Grand Prix shut down most of the regularly scheduled entertainment events on the Strip. No vehicles were allowed on Las Vegas Boulevard, Koval Lane, Harmon Avenue and Sands Avenue from 5 PM Thursday to 6 AM Saturday. This also resulted in detours and significant delays of surrounding traffic.
The octane circus displaced, among others, Wayne Newton, Donny Osmond, Penn & Teller and Cirque du Soleil shows, while Rod Stewart moved his show an hour earlier and Keith Urban, who performed at the F1 event, moved his two hours earlier. U2 was available to perform this weekend’s scheduled residency at The Sphere, but couldn’t as F1 used The Sphere to display pole positions in real-time instead. “We’re giving back Las Vegas to F1”, Bono Vox said of the canceled show. U2 is to return on 1 Dec.
David Copperfield is the only performer that didn’t move his show. He ran his regular schedule at the MGM Grand, which means he did seven shows from Thursday to Saturday.
The homeless people that live in the Las Vegas tunnels were not as fortunate and had to move as tactical units swept through the tunnels to clear them of any human presence for the duration of the race event. There are around 1,000 unhoused people who use the flood tunnels as their home because they provide daytime shelter from the hot sun and a break from the police officers that clear the Strip of homeless persons at night.
Last week, the CEO of F1’s parent company apologized to Las Vegas. “I want to apologize to all the Las Vegas residents, and we appreciate that they have their forbearance and their willingness to tolerate us”, Greg Maffei, CEO of Denver-based Liberty Media, told KVVU-TV/Las Vegas. He also added that the event would “bring $1.7bn” to the city.
The math doesn’t check out, especially as the interest in the F1 event was so slim that the tickets were being sold for less than their face value, and many people who planned on visiting Las Vegas this weekend simply knew enough to steer clear while the F1 is in town.
This resulted in rooms actually being available for booking one day before the main event, and the asking price was reduced by 90% in some cases. Fans who were making last-minute bookings were able to stay the night for as low as $62. One lucky fan even managed to stay at a hotel for $18 – plus fees and taxes that raised the price to over $66 – while the price for the same room on the same date last year was $899.
In the end, around 30,000 fans attended the Formula 1 event, but as many people canceled their Vegas trips for this weekend the net result is probably negative.
Long-term effects of the event are likely to be positive but numerous businesses suffered not only this weekend but for the previous eight months of construction of a racetrack in the city. This resulted in a significantly reduced revenue for many businesses simply because of construction blockages, and there was nothing they could do about it.
On Thursday, the event started with a problem that saw the first practice session last for only eight minutes. Carlos Sainz drove over a loose manhole cover, his car sucked it up and suffered extensive damage. The second practice session, scheduled four hours later, went through as planned as the repairs were done, but the fans with valid tickets were ejected from the stands much sooner, causing an outrage in the F1 fans community.
Earlier this month, 35,000 hospitality workers were threating to enter a city-wide strike just before the F1 event, which prompted the casinos they’re employed at to give them the best deal ever, just hours before the deadline for the strike that would make the F1 event impossible.
Formula One and the city of Las Vegas have signed a ten-year agreement for the race, with the intent being for the race to continue into perpetuity. Like it or not, Las Vegas will have to learn to live with the event.
Las Vegas previously hosted two F1 races, called the Caesars Palace Grand Prix in 1981 and 1982.
In 2023, there are more city street races in the F1 calendar than ever before, 7 out of 23. The others are taking place in Jeddah, Melbourne, Baku, Miami, Monaco and Singapore.
Recent Posts
Daniel Horvat 
November 20, 2023 
