Why F1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix will be ‘bigger and better’ than last year

On By Littum

The Formula 1 circus descends on the Vegas Strip this weekend for the second annual Grand Prix of Las Vegas.

Last year’s race was plagued by complaining residents and businesses over traffic, city obstacles and a race track that damaged Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari when a manhole came loose, requiring a very expensive repair. Nevertheless, the race itself was quite exciting, with screaming F1 racing cars creating the look and feel that Las Vegas and F1 owner Liberty Media were hoping to create.

With a more closely contested championship among drivers and teams at the top this year, anticipation is growing.

Liberty Media’s ( FWONK ) bet on the US, and Vegas in particular, where Liberty has spent a whopping $600 million developing for a 10-year race deal, appears to be worth taking.

FILE - McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia drives during the final practice session for the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix auto race Friday, Nov. 17, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
FILE – McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia drives during the final practice session for the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix auto race Friday, Nov. 17, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File) · ASSOCIATED PRESS

While experts predict this year’s race will draw slightly less than the $500 million or so in revenue for Formula 1 and the $1.5 billion economic impact in Las Vegas achieved in last year’s race, the competition and its week-long festivities will still be a boon for all involved.

The approximately 300,000 participants who are expected for the race tend to do so use almost four times as much as regular Vegas visitors, the city said.

And it’s good for F1, the city and of course the teams that actually race.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - NOVEMBER 21: Kevin Magnussen of Denmark drives the (20) Haas F1 VF-24 Ferrari on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit on November 21, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada . (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – NOVEMBER 21: Kevin Magnussen of Denmark drives the (20) Haas F1 VF-24 Ferrari on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit on November 21, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada . (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) · Mark Thompson via Getty Images

“It’s going to be bigger and better than last year,” Williams F1 team principal James Vowles told Yahoo Finance.

“There were some childhood illnesses; it’s quite normal when you try to put together the operational scale that Formula 1 is and you have to say that the three American races, but especially Las Vegas, it’s just this jewel in the crown of what we have across the entire calendar, and it may be that we have decided a championship this weekend. So it’s … kind of a tension that brings it all together,” Vowles added.

BWT Alpine F1 team principal Oliver Oakes believes that Liberty Media is the main driver behind F1’s recent success in Vegas and the sport in general in the US, which really took off during the pandemic and after the release of the Netflix F1 series, “Drive to Survive.”

“(Liberty Media has) done a great job of bringing the sport to everyone. I think everyone talks about ‘Drive to Survive’ and the impact it’s had, but actually I think it goes a long way.” .. wider than that,” Oakes told Yahoo Finance. “You can see now that every event in F1 is a three- or four-day weekend, whether it’s sprint races thrown in, whether it’s gigs at events , it’s fantastic. And they have been the ones who have driven this growth.”