★ Las Vegas Grand Prix

01Why it matters

This is Formula 1's own commercial statement about the United States, made with its own money: the sport did not license the race to a promoter, it built the promoter. The agreement runs through 2037 and the paddock building is a fixed asset. Las Vegas also supplies a host city whose economy already exists to sell three nights to visitors. In our reading it is the most commercially engineered weekend in the sport.

02The week around it

The build is visible for weeks, with barrier foundations sunk into the roadway and grandstand scaffold rising on the lots behind the Strip. From Wednesday the closures begin, and by Thursday night the central Strip belongs to the circuit after dark, reopening to traffic in the daytime. Crossing the lap is done on existing pedestrian bridges and through the resorts, which is slow but air-conditioned. The resorts run the surrounding programme: ticketed viewing from suites and terraces, restaurant takeovers and a full nightclub calendar.

03When to arrive

Arrive Wednesday or Thursday, which is a running night, so Thursday afternoon is the latest that works. The race finishes late on Saturday; a Sunday evening or Monday flight lets you see the city in daylight.

04Where to stay

The choice is between being inside the circuit and being able to leave it. Resorts on the lap, along the central Strip and on Koval Lane, put the event outside the window and sell viewing accordingly, at the cost of long walks through casino floors. The south Strip and convention district are quieter and walkable by day. Downtown, Summerlin and Henderson are cheaper and need a rideshare, a real penalty on race nights.

05Access and hospitality

Tickets are sold directly by Formula 1's own promoting company, in grandstands and club areas around the lap and in premium zones attached to the resorts, with the Paddock Club in the permanent building at the top. Separately, the resorts sell viewing from rooms, suites, terraces and restaurants overlooking the circuit; those are hotel products rather than promoter tickets and their sightlines vary. General admission in the ordinary sense is limited.

06Where the social activity happens

The resorts are the venue. Bars, restaurants and terraces overlooking the circuit on the central Strip carry the racing nights; the nightclubs run their fullest programme of the late season; the fine-dining rooms take the corporate entertaining. Away from the Strip, the Chinatown corridor and the downtown Arts District are where visitors go to be somewhere the event is not.

07Getting there

08Practicalities

09History

Formula 1 raced in Las Vegas in 1981 and 1982 on a circuit in the parking lot of Caesars Palace, an arrangement remembered without affection. The modern event was announced under Liberty Media's ownership and first run on 18 November 2023. Its debut went badly in public: opening practice was abandoned within minutes after a loose drain cover destroyed a car, and spectators sent home when the second session ran overnight were later offered vouchers.

10Who is there

American and Latin American followers, sponsors entertained inside the resorts, the technology, gaming and drinks industries that use Las Vegas year round, a European contingent making a long-haul weekend of it, and a domestic audience arriving by road.