'We didn't get one challenge right' - F1's high-stakes Vegas gamble

F1

F1 and Liberty have moved mountains to make a grand prix work in the Nevada desert – it shows just how important the race is to the sport, but also what hinges on it being a success

Las Vegas GP 2023

Las Vegas spectacle seems to have no bounds – but comes with hard practicalities

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Author

Chris Medland

Something tells me you might have noticed that it’s the Las Vegas Grand Prix this week.

The huge amount of promotion, excitement and discussion that has been taking place is pretty hard to ignore, and might even have many of you already feeling a bit fatigued ahead of what is set to be certainly the most brash event of the season.

That’s honestly not meant as a dig at the race. The fact that I’m writing this column on a plane to Las Vegas where the iconic Strip is going to be a central part of the grand prix circuit, for a race on a Saturday night, is still wild to me.

What I keep coming back to is how outrageous and unrealistic it would have seemed even five years ago, in a way that you might only have come up with the concept during one of those discussions about dream race locations if you didn’t have to consider the limits of money or logistics.

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F1 teams have been adding to the hype themselves

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And you could argue that that’s exactly how this race is taking place. Liberty Media’s involvement as a race promoter – and therefore with a significant vested interest – means that money is less of an issue. It’s not about an organiser only being able to put the race on if the numbers add up, as it traditionally is with many other races that don’t have state backing, and where local government support might have wavered given the level of disruption – Liberty’s presence maintains that driving force.

Las Vegas is also unique in the way that its tourism industry makes it essentially a glorified theme park for adults, masquerading as a city. And that means there are many different businesses with significant influence that needed to be brought on board to help the race gain approval, but once involved also ensure there is an even greater desire to maximise the impact and return of the event.

“From day one, it’s been a balancing act of embracing legacy fans and welcoming a new generation”

The timing of the race start itself is testament to that. Las Vegas as a venue is about primetime entertainment, and the grand prix becomes another such offering on the ground with its Saturday night slot, but where the massive reach will be – on television – it avoids being too late on a Sunday night for viewers in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.

“From day one, it has absolutely been a balancing act of ensuring that we are embracing our legacy fans that have been with us for decades, while also welcoming a whole new generation of fans that we have been able to attract,” the race’s CEO Renee Wilm told me recently.

“And of course that’s through Drive to Survive. It’s also through opening up social media to the drivers, they are fabulous on social media. You now have a whole younger demographic, a more female demographic in our fan base. And we are really looking to balance our interests in both of those demographics to really bring everyone together in celebration of our sport.

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“An example is our race time. It was carefully negotiated to be 10pm so that we could allow our legacy fans in Europe to wake up and watch the race – have a cup of coffee, as we do here in America for overseas races – while also having a time that was early enough or late enough in America that we could really get as many fans both present in person as well as viewing as we could.”

Does that mean it will work for everyone? Not at all. In fact, it’s Vegas’s likely failings that could prove to be some of the most important aspects.

The impact of Liberty being a race promoter should not be overlooked. The aim is for the event to be bigger and better than anything seen before – the word “epic” was used by Wilm as well as stating: “We are looking to set a new standard of fan experience in a race weekend” – but that is easier said than done.

Existing promoters will be looking on with serious interest. Partly with jealousy in their eyes of what is possible when F1 itself is directly invested, but partly with a knowledge that their respective hands could be strengthened.

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Race organisers have admitted the significant difficulties in putting on an event like Vegas

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Liberty is certainly not a stranger to major events, but it is learning first-hand of the challenges that face race promoters. Remember I said how outrageous and unrealistic it would have seemed in the past? Well the roadblocks don’t just disappear with money, even if it helps them to be overcome.

“I don’t think I have a single [obstacle] that I can say to you was handled correctly or that we’re proud of,” Emily Prazer, the race’s chief commercial officer, told BlackBook Motorsport. “We’ve been trying to survive and get the race ready on time. It’s been really hard.”

Who’d have thought it? Especially when you take into account the speed with which the Las Vegas race has been prepared. Wilm admitted 2024 could have been the target for an inaugural event on the Strip but “we really did not want to miss this wave of excitement that was building”.

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To create a track and a major global event in just 18 months would have been a challenge regardless, but to do so in the middle of a city that really doesn’t ever switch off and have a quiet spell is something else. That’s all added up to huge capital expenditure to meet deadlines — totalling $280m (£225m) on track preparation and the pit building this year — as well as significant local disruption that couldn’t be staggered as easily as if the race had been 12 months later.

Despite all that, Liberty Media’s president and CEO Greg Maffei is confident the benefits to F1 will outweigh the expense.

“On the initial costs, we’ve got an opening ceremony that’s grand – we won’t have that in future years,” Maffei told CNBC. “We had a bunch of initial start-up costs around security, around temporary bridges, around optimising the fan experience in a hurry that over time is going to be optimised both for the quality of the fan experience, but also for probably improved profitability.

“But the impact, not just of the race, but what it will do to our interest among sponsors, what it will do to our interest among fans, we think that is going to be enduring from this year forward.”

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City has been severely disrupted by a new event which has been set up in 18 months

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Ultimately, interest among fans and sponsors is what is going to matter. The fanbase is what helps make F1 such an attractive platform to sponsors, who in turn can be convinced to invest significant sums. Vegas might well be a window into the world where the most passionate of fans are more excited for a race in rural Belgium, but it needs to hit at least a certain level of sporting challenge and intrigue to avoid being ridiculed by sections of that core.

Get it right and it could prove an immensely lucrative undertaking that raises the bar when it comes to the spectacle of an F1 race, although it risks raising the cost too. Get it wrong, and while it would hit F1 in the pocket, the knowledge and experience might lead to better collaborations with existing promoters to the benefit of every other race, and hopefully fans as a result.

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