VIVA LAS VEGAS?
Forty-one years after the last grand prix in Sin City, Formula 1 heads for The Strip. As Edd Straw reveals, it’s a comeback that promises to outclass Miami for glitz and glamour but for Liberty Media much is riding on its success
ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS RATHBONE
The Las Vegas Grand Prix will be the first Saturday race Formula 1 has seen since South Africa in 1985 – with a 10pm start
The house always wins in Las Vegas. That’s why Formula 1 is the house for its return to Sin City, four decades on from its forgettable first foray to the Nevada desert for two unloved races around a dull track mostly in the north parking lot of the Caesars Palace Hotel. F1 is in full control and banking on its dream race fuelling the latest phase of its growth.
Today, Las Vegas is the self-styled ‘Sports and Entertainment Capital of the World’. Liberty Media has gone all-in by promoting the race itself at vast expense, in harness with Live Nation Entertainment, which it part owns. Headed up by CEO Renee Wilm, inset right, who has worked across a wide range of Liberty Media’s activities, the race has got up and running in double-quick time.
In August, F1 confirmed the creeping costs of building the track and the permanent facility that includes the pits and paddock complex, which will host F1-related attractions all the year round, are “close to $400m [£330m]”. Investment in the event is set to be over half-a-billion dollars, so the stakes are high. And that means it must not only bring in money for Las Vegas, with the predicted economic impact of £1bn, but also cash and eyeballs for F1, not just in the USA but globally.