Formula 1 racing, the glamour sport that has gained popularity since the Netflix documentary series Drive to Survive launched in 2019, is coming to Las Vegas in 2023. The date for the Las Vegas Grand Prix will be November 18, a red-letter day for both high excitement, large crowds, and some potentially convoluted logistics as the Strip turns into a high-speed raceway.
Las Vegas hosted F1 events in 1981 and 1982, but this will be the first time the $20 million cars will race on the Las Vegas Strip, with the 50 laps sweeping past hotels and casinos. The 3.8-mile course starts east of the Strip with a straightaway on Koval Lane, curving around the MSG Sphere, then turning at The Venetian Expo to get onto Las Vegas Boulevard near Wynn Las Vegas. From there, the course runs straight down the Strip, past Caesars Palace, Bellagio, and other big casino resorts, finally turning east just past The Cosmopolitan to complete the loop.
For any incentive planner with an auto-loving audience, this first-time F1 experience seems made to order, if challenging to execute. Tickets aren’t on sale yet, but you can be sure that hotel availability will be tight, the best seats hard to secure, and transportation difficult. The city’s destination management companies will be essential partnerships.
If the Las Vegas Grand Prix isn’t in the cards, it’s just one of three F1 races in the United States next year—Miami Grand Prix is May 7 and the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, runs October 22—and just one of 24 around the world, from Monaco to Abu Dhabi to Shanghai.
