Last month, Formula 1 embarked upon its eagerly anticipated to Las Vegas for the first time in 41 years amid heightened fanfare and expectation.
While the event started under marred circumstances, the grand prix venue, which incorporated a 1.9km blast past the eccentric Strip scene, produced a thrilling racing spectacle.
Andy and Rachel were two spectators in attendance throughout the weekend, and they took the time to document their experience in the Nevada city to Motorsport Week.
“It was so late that even the sports bar in one of the strip’s premier hotels was taking no more bets for the night, the bar was closed, still quietly churning out its round-the-clock content. We stood a little dazed, staring at the screens in disbelief.
Some seven hours earlier we had been in our seats at the end of the final straight, revved up for the first-ever Las Vegas Grand Prix. We had seen only a handful of cars cruise by, trying to get some heat in their tyres, when the marshal directly in front of us began to waive his red flag.
Unbeknownst to us at the time, Carlos Sainz had survived a near-fatal collision with a drain cover. Free Practice 1 was cancelled… just four minutes after on-track running had commenced.
When the cars finally got back out on track for FP2, there were only a handful of hardy race fans with us in the lobby, staring into the bar where we were not allowed to sit, sharing the surreal experience of seeing cars on screens, racing by in front of completely empty grandstands, whilst we could hear the roar of the engines just a few metres away on the other side of a revolving Vegas door.
Frankly, this was not the best or most ideal way to launch a half-a-billion dollar investment looking to create a 10-year legacy in F1.
Rachel and I have been fans of F1 since the early 90s, and my first experience at an F1 GP was when Senna overtook Hill and Prost on the first lap of the damp European Grand Prix held at Donnington Park and the three of them raced almost side by side down the pit straight with the great Ayrton proving fastest (and bravest) on that particular day in history. From that moment, I was hooked.
Meanwhile, Rachel has been pretty much an ever-present at Silverstone over the last 15 years and even joined the incredible ‘Silverstone Race Maker Program’, where we have served to help enhance the fan experience (as volunteers) across the last two seasons.
We have also been present at Grands Prix across both Europe and Asia, so we have seen the good, the bad and the ugly; the ugliest of which probably has to be the complete lack of signage at a very wet Imola in 2021, which led to Rachel walking miles across muddy fields to try and find her seat in the unmarked not-so-grandstand.
Las Vegas 2023 was a hit. A spectacle, a show and a race. Even Max managed to get rid of his miserable face for a moment and admit he enjoyed the weekend. For the fans, it was just a refreshing change to be two-thirds distance and still not know who the eventual winner would be.
The fan experience throughout the whole weekend was mixed and could either be better priced or better value for money and without making some significant changes the incredible sphere might need an image of a white elephant projecting from it by 2032.
Forget Thursday. I think that Las Vegas, the FIA, the teams, drivers and everyone involved in the safety and integrity of the sport did pretty well. It could have been better communicated at the time and hopefully the paying customers will eventually be compensated for the loss of FP1 and FP2 as a spectator event.
Las Vegas itself was spectacular, well organised for a sporting crowd, discreetly policed and an excellent family atmosphere all around the strip with loads of F1-related things to see and do, although none of the usual supporting races or complimentary concerts.
The biggest frustration away from the track was the official F1 store. The one and only official F1 store, located at the beautiful Venetian Hotel, was wholly insufficient. For some reason, very little Vegas Merch had been provided to resellers around town, and so if you wanted to buy an official Las Vegas 2023 cap or hoodie you were faced with queues of more than two hours. On Saturday morning we were told we could not even join the queue as demand was so high…. oh, and whoever decided to close the store at 6pm, some two hours before any track action was to take place should get a ‘Razzie’. So much for 24 hour Sin City!
Getting to the track and seated was straightforward. Admittedly we stayed at the Flamingo so we began inside the track, thus we didn’t need to battle with trying to get taxis with a $15 surcharge around the multitude of closed roads. The pedestrian signage was, for the most part, excellent and accurate. This was augmented by the Guest Services team, (Vegas’ version of Silverstones’s Racemakers), who cheerily and energetically helped guide people to where they needed to be.
Access to the grandstand was swift and even though the ‘zoned seating system’ meant large numbers of tickets being checked in a very short time window, the volume of staff and number of ticket machines was more than sufficient. Security was largely well organised and polite, although one overzealous bag checker irked some people in our zone, but I imagine he could have an argument with himself in an empty room.
Oddly, there were no general admission areas and all tickets were ‘Hospitality packages’ arranged in zones, so food and soft drinks were included in the ticket price. The queues were manageable and often there was no queue at all. That may have had something to do with the extortionate cost of alcohol and the fact that the ‘Wolfgang Puck Culinary Experience’ food was little to write home about. Tasty enough if it had been served hot but trying to serve 5000+ people small plates of ‘tapas style’ food was never going to work.
It is the first event ever, not just in F1, and not just in sports, where I didn’t have to queue for the toilet. However, the quality of the porta-loos did not match the quantity. Now, I am not a prude and let’s be honest, every festival I have ever been to has been much, much worse. I wasn’t expecting 8-ply tissue and personalised handtowels, but for the price we paid, they were certainly not on par. Dark and dirty doesn’t really explain it well enough. By Saturday, the strategy was to hold on until you could get to one of the hotels close by!
The biggest disappointment in Vegas was the “zone entertainment”. We are used to paying handsomely for tickets at F1 and at most races, the concerts are accessible to all and make a massive difference in reconciling the cost. Given the zoning system of the track, unless you had T-Mobile zone access you could not see the concerts. This left some world-class performers playing to a handful of people and tens of thousands of us watching it on the screen in our zone.
Add to this the fact that there was absolutely no track action except for F1 and it meant that for many there wasn’t enough to keep them occupied when the F1 cars were not on track.
It was a truly incredible spectacle, we loved Las Vegas and F1 in Vegas. And whilst a huge amount of the event was done brilliantly there is so much to learn for the event organisers for next year. We need more track action (a Sprint race here would be awesome), better in-zone entertainment, more choice on packages for the punters and the polishing of some of the gnarly edges that would have been more painful to rub up against if the racing hadn’t been quite so amazing.
Viva Las Vegas…we will be back.”
To the motorsportweek.com administrator, You always provide great examples and real-world applications.