How Las Vegas GP's 'complex masterpiece' comes together

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Unless you are building a temporary circuit to host a Formula 1 grand prix, that is.

Even before the first practice session had started at this year’s season-opening race in Bahrain, preparations were well under way for this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, with the set-up, installation and dismantling of the 3.8-mile track throwing up unique challenges.

With 7.6 miles of track barriers, 3500 track barrier blocks and 1750 temporary light units required, it is a process that began well before the first car takes to the Strip this weekend.

“Every year we have the authority to close down what are the most significant streets and avenues in the city,” explains Las Vegas GP general manager Terry Miller. “That 3.8 miles is right in the heart of one of the most significant resort and entertainment districts in the world. It goes from in front of the mainstays of MGM and Caesars, and it goes around the new creation of the Sphere, so it captures every moment of the heart of Las Vegas.

“Our process is such that we have to begin somewhere around January, February in what is all the regulatory process, even though we did it the year before. It’s a new year and we have to go through and show them all of our engineering information, all of our logistics information. Show all of our safety components that are in for the installation of the track. Then we have to show the same for the actual race event, and then we have to show how we’re going to dismantle everything. All three of those are unique.

“Unlike some other F1 races, we can’t just shut everything down and do a race, so we have to go through the painstaking process of making sure that we’re connecting with everybody that comes around that circuit, making sure that they understand our installation process.”

Vegas race is unique among F1 street races for re-opening the track to traffic between sessions

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

The regulatory process means dialogue between race organisers and the agencies, politicians, community, emergency services and properties regarding what the upcoming strategy is for the track build, and how disruption will be minimalised. Once that stage is complete, assembly of the track can begin across what is a three-month building period. A circuit preparation page has been created on the race’s official website, built as a resource tool for the local community and businesses for reference and information on the works taking place.

The unique nature of the Las Vegas Strip Circuit geography means there are 42 locations on the track that open and close each day, between sessions. Three such locations require the extra installation and dismantling of safety protection. Approximately 140 members of staff are needed to open and close the track each day of a race weekend, a process that takes around two hours to complete.

Such an undertaking, with special attention paid to keeping the hotels, casinos and restaurants happy, presents yet another challenge for Miller and his team to overcome. Asked if collaboration is required with the fabled names, Miller says: “Collaboration is a unique word. I would say we take direction from them as to what we have to put in place.

"When you look at Miami, it is obviously all centred on the Hard Rock Stadium property; in Singapore, they shut the city down, basically. We did not have that luxury here"
Terry Miller

“We must do everything from an exit analysis that looks at their past history, the amount of volume they have coming in in any given hour of the day so that we can begin to assess what’s the worst condition that we have to solve for. It doesn’t do us any good to look at 4am and say they only need half of that opening when in reality at 2pm they need the whole thing. So we sit with their operations team, we sit with their security team, and, to a property, they have impact on what we do.”

The Las Vegas GP is, as CEO Renee Wilm puts it, “a masterpiece of complexity”, but the city is not the first or last to host a street race and is one of seven on the current calendar alone. Saudi Arabia, Australia, Miami, Monaco, Baku and Singapore also stage their grands prix on street circuits, while Canada uses some public roads around Notre Dame Island. Similarly, Madrid will make use of streets for part of the circuit when that joins the schedule.

With that plethora of temporary track building, logistical challenges and a need to keep the city moving, surely Las Vegas tapped into the wealth of knowledge from some of those fellow street-race hosts before staging their debuting 2023 event?

“So each of those conversations were, ‘Well, we don’t have to do any openings and closings, we don’t know what you’re talking about’,” reveals Miller. “They would say, ‘We don’t allow people [hotels, casinos etc] to tell us how to build. I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

A huge amount of work has gone into ensuring there is no repeat of last year's track problems

Photo by: Francois Tremblay

“So we are unique. When you look at Miami, it is obviously all centred on the Hard Rock Stadium property; in Singapore, they shut the city down, basically. We did not have that luxury here and that was part of the caveat of coming to Vegas, that you have got to keep operations going. Nobody has done what we have done in terms of preparing for the track and then the conditions that happen on race week.”

The months of planning and execution meant it was all the more galling when the 2023 Las Vegas GP weekend ground to a halt due to a loose drain cover. After laying a new surface for the track’s inaugural race, organisers were caught out when the event got off to an inauspicious start with the first free practice session called off after a cover that broke free was struck by two cars. No one could have predicted the issue and the ensuing delay, but this time around Miller is determined to make sure there is no repeat.

“Those occurrences happen around the globe, there’s some little moment of a drain cover or a utility lid that pops, but I can tell you that we had such scrutiny on Vegas,” he adds. “The amount of effort that we have gone through just on utility lids alone this year. I doubt that anybody goes through what we have gone through.

“We have been making sure that all of the lids will be bolted down – no welded lids, everything gets bolted down. We went through and checked every one of them the second week in November, we’ll check them again a week before the race.

“We’ll then check them again the morning of the race and we’ll check them during the intermissions between P1, P2, P3, ahead of qualifying and after qualifying. It is front and centre on our whole effort of making sure everything works the way it’s supposed to work.”

If there is one thing the hundreds of staff, hours of effort and months of planning for such a mammoth enterprise deserves this year it is for just that – everything to work the way it’s meant to.

Will this year's event go without a hitch?

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images