Las Vegas was the latest circuit to feature on the F1 calendar. The inaugural event in 2023 was hyped to the Max with an opening ceremony where the drivers were presented rising up through the stage like an old fashioned whirler organ.
But come the first day on track, the show flopped, as a lose drain cover practically destroyed Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari just minutes into the first practice session. FP1 was abandoned as the circuit was checked for other huge loose pieces of metal.
The knock on effect saw FP2 begin at around 2am but by then the ushers had completed their daily working hours allowance and there was the farcical sight of the fans who had stayed up, being evicted from the grandstands.
F1 year 1 Vegas chaos
Further, there were rows with a number of hospitality venues along the route who had not partnered with the F1 road show. They were hit with big cash demands for each seat in their property otherwise they were threatened with F1 building a temporary scaffolding in front of their venue or having bright spotlights shine into their windows to prevent people from seeing the race.
The cost of buying an entire block of Sin City just one street back from the famous strip was believed to be in the region of $250m. Then in year one the setup costs which included building a permanent pit lane facility was in excess of $500m along with three months major disruption to Las Vegas which the locals did not appreciate at all.
The ticket prices were eye watering and the number of cheaper general admission tickets was severely limited. That said the economic impact for the city was said to be in excess of $1.5bn, even greater than the NFL Super Bowl held in Vegas just two months later.
Yet two FOM accepted they needed to do more for the ‘ordinary fan’ and so released an additional 7,000 general admission tickets. The pricing model used meant the early tickets on sale were the premium packages with guests paying up to $25,000 for the top product.
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Whilst F1 has proven to be good for Las Vegas which now sees the weekend as one of its top annual earners for the restaurants, hotels and casino’s, FOM now admits they may have got the marketing wrong and so will change the way the tickets are sold.
Now on sale are general admission tickets for as little as $50 and a three day basic package is now just $400. In the first two years the tickets prices began high and as the race drew closer, the cheaper tickets were offered. Now F1’s chief commercial officer, Emily Brazer, admits they are switching tactics due to disappointing final coal results from the event.
“We’ve taken quite a hard look at the product mix and decided to make the race a little bit more accessible to a wider audience,” explained Prazer. “We’ve lowered the prices and created flexible payment plans, which will be interest-free, quite normal in US sports.
“And we are going to be guaranteeing our on-sale prices as the lowest possible price. I think everybody’s seen that we’ve kind of flipped the model somewhat, where we’ve been lowering the prices closer to the race. This year, we’re saying this is the absolute bottom entry price.”
Lessons learned from two years in Sin City
Of course for those folk where money is no object to anything, there are still the celebrity packages on sale for ten of thousands like the Gordon Ramsey at F1 experience. Prazer admits that F1 may not have understood the fans requirements when they first began to market Las Vegas, believing for many that money grew on trees.
“The challenge we’re always going to have in Vegas is there are so many options outside of just our race track for people to enjoy the grand prix,” she said.
“I know that Singapore and Monaco and others have the same issue, that you can have a very, very VIP experience by staying in a hotel room. So adjusting the product and the pricing is more lessons learned than it is supply and demand.”
The two years of promoting its first ever F1 race has taught those in charge a number of lessons. Oil Europe the proposition is food and drink first, in Vegas the product must be entertainment led, revealed Prazer who leans on the fact that F1 had no prior experience of this.
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“Starting this we had zero data, zero database,” added Prazer. “So everything we’ve done, we’ve had to acquire. We thought that that would be easier. So understanding what the demographic is for this grand prix is something that we now completely get, hence why there’s a shift in product mix. But it’s not necessarily less hospitality, it’s probably more like what goes into the package.
For its third running of the GP in Vegas before the initial contract with the city expires, F1 have made a significant change to how the race weekend is run. F1 academy will be on the bill and the start time for each of the on track sessions has been moved forward two hours.
Initially the city officials were concerned about closing the world famous strip too early in the evening, and so a start time for the race was agreed to be at 10pm. The drivers and teams also complained about the late hour of the on track sessions particularly as in November its very cold in the Nevada desert.
Further, feed back from a number of the city’s establishments has led to them allowing F1 new time slots. “We wanted to put the Formula 1 community first as it relates to the driver feedback and how taxing it is on the teams,” added Prazer. “That being said, we’ve had full support from each of the different stakeholders in Vegas.
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“Obviously, we couldn’t make the decision in isolation, we had to take the idea to them, and all of them approved it. The challenge is, if everything shifts two hours earlier, it just means that the roads are closed two hours earlier every day.
“That being said, it means they open two hours earlier every night, which means that, from their perspective as it relates to shift changes and restocking and everything else, it will be easier for the casinos as well.”
Formula One have not revealed the exact details of the financials from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but to make such drastic changes to their marketing approach suggests the financial predictions were not hitting target.
The Las Vegas event is treated as mere income and expenditure in FOM’s accounts and so it is difficult to separate out what profit F1 is really making from the landmark event.
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Esteban Ocon has had a journeyman Formula One career. He started his time in the sport with the soon to be bankrupt Manor Racing in 2016 before moving to Sarah Force India the following season. There he experienced the Mercedes V6 turbo hybrid for the first time, although his Silverstone based team did not have the success of their engine supplier.
Ocon was dumped by the newly named Racing Point for the 2019 season and became the reserve driver of Mercedes. The following year Renault picked up the French driver to race alongside Daniel Riciciardo, who eclipsed his team mate scoring double the points of Ocon.
The following year Ocon scored a famous victory for the French owned F1 team with Fernando Alonso holding off the charging Lewis Hamilton in Hungary over the closing laps to secure a victory for Alpine. Yet Esteban is not the easiest of characters to work with and his long standing grudge against fellow Alpine F1 driver, Pierre Gasly in Monaco last year, saw the pair come together on the opening lap after the red flag had been thrown…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
