Formula One bets big in Sin City: the good, the bad and the ugly of the Las Vegas GP Premium

F1 expands to US, Liberty Media pushes for 'Destination Cities' & street circuits. Las Vegas Grand Prix is F1's biggest gamble, a mix of permanent track & existing streets. High-speed track w/ walls close by, racing at night. Could be glamorous but risks pricing out hardcore fans. Event could determine F1's direction in coming years.

Since its beginning, Formula One has been seen mainly as a European sport, with most races being staged on the continent. Slowly, over time, the sport has expanded across the globe, with races in Asia and the Arabian Peninsula popping up. 

However, one market F1 has struggled to break into has been the USA. It has had multiple starts in the world’s largest economy, but none of the venues has become a fixture on the calendar. 

However, over the last few years, F1 has found its stride, with its popularity booming stateside thanks to the Netflix documentary series, ‘Drive to Survive’. 

The series offers viewers a slice of what happens behind the scenes. It really took off during its second season, which dropped towards the end of February 2020 when people were confined to their homes because of the pandemic. It was a blessing in disguise for F1, which found a sizeable captive audience with time to kill.

The series was one of the key steps taken by the US-based Liberty Media, F1’s commercial rights owner since 2016-17, to broaden the sport’s appeal and make it more accessible. 

F1’s new owner has expressed a preference for holding races in some of the world’s most happening cities or what they term ‘Destination Cities’. More importantly, there’s a push for more street circuits, which take racing to the people, rather than purpose-built venues on the outskirts of cities. 

In the US, Austin (Texas) has staged a race since 2012, but the quest for taking the sport to the people and capitalising on the growing interest in the wealthiest country on earth meant another race was added in Miami last year. And this weekend, F1 will make its biggest gamble in the city of casinos, hosting a third race in the US at Las Vegas.