by Linus O'Howell
There is no doubt that Formula 1 has put a hell of a lot of resources and time into making the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix happen. The five lights go out on Saturday night (in Vegas) so I thought this would be a good time to help some of you learn about the penultimate round of the 2023 Formula 1 season.
The history
Whilst this might be the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, this weekend won’t be the first time that Formula 1 has headed down to Nevada as the Caesars Palace Grand Prix previously took place in both 1981 and 1982. However, the 3.650 km (2.268 mile) “carpark” circuit wasn’t particually popular with both fans, pundits, and drivers so the race was quickly cancelled.
The work
Usually, Formula 1 is paid by the circuits to host Formula 1 races, but that’s not the case here as like Miami, F1 is putting this round on itself as an event. What that means is Formula 1 has had to buy an area of land in Vegas for around 240 million dollars in order to be able to build a Pit Building and Paddock Area. However, that wasn’t all that F1 had to do as they basically had to dig up most of the roads that will feature on the Circuit in order to have the correct asphalt for Formula 1 cars. It’s certainly been quite the job, and that’s only bringing up two important things.
The circuit
The Las Vegas Strip Circuit is 6.201 km (3.853 miles) long which interestingly makes it the third longest Circuit on this year’s Formula 1 calendar (behind Spa and the Jeddah Corniche Circuit). The track itself has 17 corners and it goes past a bunch of famous things including the MSG Sphere, the Elevated Monorail, and the Wynn Hotel. We then enter the Las Vegas Strip (aka Las Vegas Boulevard) where we will see F1 cars reaching up to 342km/h (213mph) as the fly past the likes of Caesars Palace (funnily enough) and my personal favourite, Paris. Amazingly, because of the near 2 km long straight, it means that the average of this Circuit is one of the highest on the entire F1 calendar which means teams will be running pretty low downforce setups which should be interesting. Oh, and finally, not all of the grid boxes are straight!
I think it’s pretty fair to say that the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix is going to be a spectacle. Hopefully, the same can be said about the on-track action!
📸 Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, Red Bull Content Pool.
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