The $560M Challenge of Turning the Las Vegas Strip Into an F1 Race Track
Revamping one of the most well-known streets in the world — the Las Vegas Strip — into a racing circuit might seem an impossible challenge. But the inaugural Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix, set for Nov. 16 to 18, is hustling to do just that in a $560 million civil-planning and engineering feat that is currently underway before the track goes hot.
“This is one of the most aggressive programs of construction and design I’ve seen, certainly in Vegas, as well as sports,” says Terry Miller, project manager for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
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In June 2022, John Malone’s Liberty Media, which owns Formula One Group, bought 39 acres of land on the northeast corner of Koval Lane and Harmon Avenue for the Paddock Building. Miller says that before they even had a design, the purchasing of construction materials began to avoid supply chain delays. In November 2022, F1 and Liberty Media hosted a groundbreaking ceremony. At the beginning of October 2023, they are expected to earn an occupancy permit.
“[Liberty Media] acquired Formula One about seven years ago. I was the lead mergers and acquisitions lawyer on the transaction. I got to know a lot about Formula One and their process,” says Renee Wilm, chief legal and administrative officer of Liberty Media and CEO of Las Vegas Grand Prix. “Then fast forward a year later to a phone call from my colleagues in London. They are very interested in holding a race in Las Vegas in 2023. They asked me if I would start going out to Vegas and begin the dialogue to get to know the regulators and the local stakeholders.”
From that point forward, things began to move rapidly, with Wilm rallying the support of business owners, Clark County Commissioners, the public works department and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).
An extensive street-paving project required to create the 3.8-mile raceway (which runs from Koval Lane to Sands Avenue and then down Las Vegas Boulevard to Harmon Avenue) started in April, affecting the Strip and adjacent roads and disrupting driving for resort guests and casino employees who service the resort corridor’s 150,000 rooms. Locals once boasted that it only took 15 minutes to get anywhere within the easy-to-navigate city. That narrative has been replaced with gripes about gridlock and orange cones.
“We are holding an event that’s never been done before,” Wilm says. “There are other street races on our calendar, such as Monaco and Singapore, but even when you consider those, this is a living, breathing city, that’s 24 hours, nonstop action. To bring an event of this magnitude and shut down the roadways at the same time; there’s just no playbook for this.”
The road work involves taking out some medians as well as removing 5 to 10 inches of road that is then replaced with a denser pavement, followed by the application of a racing layer that “is smooth and has no ripples,” says Miller. The race track surface should hold about six years without having to be redone.
“The level of inconvenience that’s been caused this year is not going to be repeated,” Wilm says.
Miller notes the Las Vegas Grand Prix is doing what it can to minimize traffic disruptions, working one-on-one with each resort to address concerns.
“With our paving routines, we’ve tried to avoid shift changes [at resorts] and paving all the way across service drives so we can keep business functioning. It’s not just a civil engineering process. It’s a planning process. It’s a logistics process,” he says.
Completed in record time, the multistory Paddock Building — the length of three American football fields and located just off the Strip, behind Planet Hollywood resort — will cost an estimated $480 million.
In ground-floor garages adjacent to the starting line, each racing team will have three days to completely build out their space, constructing two cars on site for the night race. Upstairs, there is the Paddock Club and suites as well as the Wynn Grid Club.
On the roof, there is an additional viewing area as well as a 28,000-square-foot video screen that sits on the roof horizontally and is visible from the air. Outside, across the track, the main grandstand accommodates 18,000 people with skyboxes set atop.
“There’s no other F1 facility like this one, it is going to be the largest. The accommodations we’ve given the teams are unprecedented because we went beyond what their requirements are. We gave them more because it’s Las Vegas. It’s going to be the North American headquarters for F1,” Miller says.
The Wynn Grid Club — which is being positioned as a “first-of-its-kind, year-round membership program” — sits overlooking the first turn with an outdoor terrace. According to the Las Vegas Grand Prix (LVGP) website, there will be “an intimate chef’s table and cocktail experience … spectacular food presentations and drinks by expert mixologists.” Among other perks, it also includes a five-day ticket and exclusive F1 experiences like meet-and-greets.
“There will be a private elevator directly from the Wynn Grid Club into the Paddock in the center of all the drivers and action,” says Wynn Resorts North America COO Brian Gullbrants. “You’re going to see more than just the pits on the starting grid; you’re going to see the whole first turn.”
No retail price for this experience has been released yet.
Gullbrants tells THR that an F1 alignment is exactly what his guests wanted: “A team of people walked in the door about 18 months ago — Stefano Domenicali [CEO of Formula One Group], Emily Prazer [chief commercial officer, LVGP] and Renee Wilm and a whole team of people — and we sat down in a boardroom, and we said yes. And then we had a whole lot of details to figure out,” Gullbrants says. “We’re going to be the epicenter of all things F1. We will have the who’s who of the Formula One World staying with us.”
There will also be an additional non-branded-Wynn Paddock Club offering all the same amenities.
While Formula One provided a general specification manual that sets the size, area and track of the race, Las Vegas Grand Prix will exceed the experience found at the 22 other races around the world for the estimated 105,000 daily attendees, boasting the largest custom-built permanent Paddock building, more licensing agreements with venues, more major corporate partners and a plethora of A-list events.
Outside of the hospitality suites and luxury clubs, tickets range from general admission (at the new Sphere Las Vegas) and grandstands with food by Wolfgang Puck Catering (located on East Harmon and West Harmon and atSphere and the Mirage) to premium clubs (Skybox, Heineken House, Legacy, HGV Clubhouse, Club Paris, Sports Illustrated Club SI, Red Bull Energy Station) with 10 zones throughout the track. Pricing per person on Heineken House starts at $8,000 plus taxes and fees; Club SI is $7,000; and Club Paris is $5,500.
Bellagio is building out its own Fountain Club and grandstands adjacent to its iconic water feature with food and beverage from restaurateurs Mario Carbone, David Chang, Michael Mina, Masaharu Morimoto, Bryan and Michael Voltaggio, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The Mirage will do the same on its water feature. J Balvin, Major Lazer and Mark Ronson will headline the T-Mobile Zone at Sphere stage with Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil making appearances.
The launch of the Grand Prix in Vegas is part of a U.S. growth plan by Formula One Group, which already runs the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, and last year launched the Miami Grand Prix. One boost to the popularity of F1 in the States has been the ratings success of the Netflix docuseries Formula 1: Drive to Survive.
Another challenge for organizers is how guests and employees will access the 23,000 hotel rooms within the circuit when the race closes four streets from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. for three days.
These resorts include The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, Harrah’s Las Vegas, The LINQ, Flamingo Las Vegas, The Cromwell, Horseshoe Las Vegas, Paris Las Vegas, Planet Hollywood, and Elara by Hilton Grand Vacations. To that end, the Grand Prix is installing three temporary bridges over affected roads. For example, the Flamingo Road bridge will be four lanes and about 800 feet long and take eight days to erect and tear down.
“One of the things that is significantly different is the city in which we’re building. When F1 approached Las Vegas, business owners, elected officials recognized how important it would be to have the circuit in the heart of the resort corridor. That’s not a small undertaking,” Miller says. “We had to make sure every [resort] understood the implications because when we put the track in place, there is disruption. We have to pave that entire circuit. Customers are disturbed, services are disturbed. We’ve been working for the last four months through all of those headaches, what those disruptions are going to be but more importantly, when we run this event, unlike Abu Dhabi or some others that are enclosed in their own area, we have to reopen the street after every race so that it can still be public thoroughfare.”
Wilm says that this dilemma has been one of the biggest ongoing challenges. “There were some people that had a visceral reaction to shutting down the Las Vegas Strip, but the LVCVA was instrumental in helping to navigate those choppy waters and also to help us tell our story about what kind of benefits we bring to the town.”
Adds Gullbrants, “Two things our team members are really excited about are how many celebrities and drivers and stars are going to be here because they’re excited to take care of the best, and the other is where are they going park for work.” Wynn’s employee garage is located within the race circuit. “We have alternative parking plans,” continues Gullbrants. “We have made temporary arrangements to put parking in nearby locations with transportation for our employees.”
The project has been wholly funded by Liberty Media, but in June, Las Vegas Grand Prix asked Clark County to cover $40 million of the $80 million needed for roadway infrastructure. The county is considering the proposition. For Vegas businesses, the bet is that the disruption will all be worthwhile. Research done by Applied Analysis estimates the race will inject a staggering $1.2 billion into the Vegas economy in the first year.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had an event with this much exposure from a media standpoint and reach globally. It repositions and establishes our destination in the minds of people outside of America as more than just a place to gamble with flashing lights. Las Vegas is an unbelievable backdrop for global events,” Gullbrants says.
Formula One and Las Vegas are committed in a decade-long deal. Las Vegas will also host the Super Bowl just three months after the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix.
A version of this story first appeared in the Aug. 16 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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