F1: Red Bull races F1 car thru Vegas Casino floor

Ahead of Saturday’s F1 Launch Party in Las Vegas where the Red Bull and Mercedes F1 teams will be front and center, Red Bull moved from doing promotional films outside to now inside a casino.

Imagine minding your own business in a Las Vegas casino and an F1 car drives past 😅

(via mlee211/TikTok) pic.twitter.com/KgWiYqutLg

— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) November 4, 2022

Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said Friday in Las Vegas that the spectacle of racing on the famed Las Vegas Strip at night, with resorts towering in the background, was too enticing for his racing circuit to pass up.

“That was always my and our intent,” Domenicali said of hosting the Formula 1 race in Las Vegas, set for Nov. 16-18, 2023. “If you come to Vegas you know the emotional attachment of having the race during the night. I think we’re going to have that magic at full scale. … I can already see the first shot of the opening of the Saturday night race. It will be just amazing. The lighting, the intensity of what is Vegas on the Strip. I would say it will be the picture of 2023.”

“Vegas has been on F1’s radar for a very long time, just given the marquee nature of the town,” Renee Wilm, Las Vegas Grand Prix CEO, said Friday. “When we saw just how successful the town had been in bringing sports to this geography, we really did think it was the ideal time to pursue the venture.”

Plans for the 3.8-mile, 50-lap race are centered around the Strip, with the MGM Zone, a fan area to be constructed over the Fountains of Bellagio, Domenicali confirmed. Race officials expect that around 100,000 people will attend each day of the three-day race weekend next November.

100,000 people paying an average 3-day ticket price of $2,500 = a $250 million revenue for just this one race.

To say F1 is the hot ticket in motorsports today is an understatement. These revenue numbers are sure to get the attention of Long Beach GP President Jim Michaelian as well as the Long Beach City Council.

After their IndyCar contract expires, does it make sense for F1 cars to return to Long Beach and become the 4th GP in the United States?

There would be some infrastructure investment needed, but in time the huge revenue generated by today’s F1 events, would result in the LBGP and the city realizing a much larger profit than they do today.

Mark C. reporting for AutoRacing1.com