The race, in one circuit

A 3.8-mile, 17-turn street circuit around the Strip, raced at night in late November — Saturday race at 10 p.m. in the 2024 running, roads closing around 3 p.m. on race days while sidewalks stay open. Three runnings in, the resident coverage on this page is unusually complete: a full pre-race brief and fan guide for 2024, a best-and-worst scoring after the third running, a first-person record of the chaotic 2023 debut, and a drive of the October 19, 2026 build — grandstands and lighting already rising around Harmon and Koval a month out, the Hard Rock's guitar tower now in the backdrop, the local's concession that construction has at least gotten faster. With the race locked in for the next decade, every autumn will look like this.

EVERYTHING You Need to Know About FORMULA 1 LAS VEGAS in 2024

Norma Geli

Norma Geli's complete pre-race brief for the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix (November 21-23; practice and qualifying from 6:30 p.m., the race Saturday at 10 p.m.). She compares year two against the chaotic 2023 debut: construction started in September instead of April, Bellagio's grandstands were replaced by suites only, the Mirage's closure removed its viewing options, and Ellis Island and Mon Ami Gabi dropped their parties, while Giada and Ole Red ($500 packages, Ole Red's rooftop table 777 the premium seat), Caesars' three-day tickets and the Cosmopolitan's Boulevard Pool deck joined the list; Flight Club at Palazzo stayed her $500 indoor pick with a three-hour food-and-drink package. The essential warning: since January 2024 it has been illegal to stop on Strip pedestrian bridges, and the bridge glass is filmed over during the race, so there is no free bridge view. She closes with the free downtown alternative — the Neon City Festival with nightly Plaza fireworks — and a teardown promise of normal by December 24.

Key takeaways
  • 2024 race ran Nov 21-23 with a 10 p.m. Saturday start, earlier than 2023
  • Viewing parties: Flight Club and Giada around $500; Ole Red balcony/rooftop; Cosmo's Boulevard Pool deck
  • Stopping on Strip pedestrian bridges is illegal since Jan 2024 — and the glass is filmed over on race nights

F1 Fan Guide to the 2024 FORMULA 1 LAS VEGAS Grand Prix Weekend

Jaycation

Jaycation's fan guide to the 2024 Grand Prix, filmed from his own race-night base at Flight Club in Palazzo. The $500 Flight Club package (two hours of all-you-can-eat, three hours of all-you-can-drink, unlimited darts) overlooks Turn 12 and the fastest straight toward Caesars, with big screens carrying the ESPN broadcast and its audio — the advantage over grandstands he keeps coming back to. He runs the full weekend schedule, then tracks resale prices in early November (Thursday practice about $188, Friday qualifying $250, Saturday's race from $381 and still dipping — waiting can pay), and prices the alternatives: Ole Red packages from $200 to $10,000, the Cosmopolitan Boulevard Experience from $150 a day, Strip-view hotel rooms including Paris' Versailles Tower balconies, and resort packages running into tens of thousands. His transport rules: no rental car, minimal rideshare, and get dropped on the west side, at the Forum Shops' back entrance.

Key takeaways
  • Flight Club's $500 package: food, drinks, darts and a Turn 12 view with ESPN on big screens
  • Resale tickets dipped as race week neared: about $188 Thu / $250 Fri / $381+ Sat in early November 2024
  • Free views are basically obstructed glimpses — bridges are whited out and policed

The BEST and WORST of Formula 1 LAS VEGAS

Norma Geli

After the third running of the race, resident creator Norma Geli scores the best and worst of F1 in Las Vegas. The worst starts with construction — eight months of it from April 2023, now compressed to an early-September start — and the losses around Bellagio, where the Fountain Club and grandstands never returned and the fountain-front trees were swapped for smaller removable ones. The bridges escalated from white film to blacked-out panels with scaffolding by 2025. The best is what the race built: Grand Prix Plaza (opened spring 2025 in the paddock building, with DRS go-karts and simulators; it closes for the race and reopens January 30, 2026) and the 21,000-square-foot F1 Arcade, the chain's biggest, with 87 simulators (three races from $26 by day, $32 at night; 21+ after 7 p.m.) and a terrace facing Caesars. Her four viewing spots, ranked by experience: the Sphere-zone grandstand (cold, repetitive without TVs, and her 2023 practice session died after seven minutes in the manhole-cover incident), Flight Club (her favorite — indoors, packages, TVs everywhere), Club Paris' Beer Park and Chéri rooftops, and a premium restaurant party on practice night.

Key takeaways
  • Construction shrank from 8 months in 2023 to a September start by year three
  • New permanent builds: Grand Prix Plaza (2025) and the 87-simulator F1 Arcade
  • Bridge view-blocking escalated from white film to black panels and scaffolding

Where to watch — and the bridge rule

The verdict across films: indoor viewing parties with TV feeds beat grandstands in the November cold. Flight Club at Palazzo (~$500: food, drinks, darts, a Turn 12 view, ESPN on big screens) is two different creators' favorite; Club Paris splits three ways (Alexxa's for noise, Beer Park for the main straight, the Chéri rooftop for the bird's-eye fountain view); the Sphere-zone grandstand is the best seat with an asterisk (constant Sphere show, all-you-can-eat — and 2023's Thursday practice died after ~8 minutes on a drain-cover strike). Resale math from 2024 rewarded patience: roughly $188 Thursday / $250 Friday / $381+ Saturday in early November, still dipping. The essential warning, repeated every year: stopping on Strip pedestrian bridges has been illegal since January 2024, and the glass is filmed over — by 2025, blacked-out panels and scaffolding. There is no free bridge view. The free alternative is downtown's Neon City Festival with nightly Plaza fireworks.

What the race built — and removed

Permanent gains: Grand Prix Plaza (opened spring 2025 in the paddock building — DRS go-karts and simulators; it closes for the race and reopens in late January) and the 21,000-square-foot F1 Arcade, the chain's biggest, 87 simulators. Permanent losses, stated plainly: Bellagio's Fountain Club and grandstands never returned after 2023 (suites only), the fountain-front trees were swapped for smaller removable ones, the Mirage's closure removed its viewing options, and construction — eight months in 2023 — has compressed to an early-September start. The 2023 Strip-changes film closes the page as the ground-level record of year one: scaffolding rising, trees coming down, November flipping from quiet month to one of the busiest.

Sources: the seven videos on this page — two 2024 guides, a post-third-running best-and-worst, a 2024 race-week film, an October 2026 build drive, a 2023 debut account and a 2023 Strip-changes record — summarized from their entries in our catalog.

FORMULA 1 Las Vegas is BACK!!... But was it Better?

Norma Geli

Norma Geli's race-week update for the second Grand Prix in November 2024: a drive of the finished 3.8-mile, 17-turn circuit two days out, past the $10,000-plus Paddock Club, the Sphere-zone grandstand she rates the best seat (constant Sphere show, stages, all-you-can-eat — despite 2023's seven-minute practice), and the Venetian's new grandstands added as the Mirage side went dark. She documents the bridge coverings hardening from white film to opaque metal, notes the roads start closing around 3 p.m. on race days while sidewalks stay open, and spends practice night inside Club Paris — where Alexxa's ground floor is for noise and people-watching, Beer Park frames the main straight, and the Chéri rooftop gives the bird's-eye fountain view, with food, beer and wine included, TVs on every level and heaters against the 45-degree night. Her verdict: more fun than the grandstand.

Key takeaways
  • The circuit: 3.8 miles, 17 turns, two DRS zones around the Strip
  • Roads close around 3 p.m. on race days; sidewalks and bridges stay open for walking
  • Club Paris splits three ways: Alexxa's (noise), Beer Park (the straight), Chéri rooftop (the view)

Driving Around Las Vegas Checking Out The Progress Of 2026 Formula 1 Race Track

Vegas Ready

The most current film on this page: on October 19, 2026, Vegas Ready drives the circuit a month before the 2026 race to check the build. Grandstands and VIP sections are already rising around the Harmon Avenue and Koval Lane paddock, lighting rigs line the Strip, the route past the Sphere is taking shape, and the newly remodeled Ellis Island frontage sits inside the track footprint — with the Hard Rock's guitar tower now part of the backdrop. His running commentary is the local's reality check: the big perimeter fences and pedestrian-bridge block-offs are still to come, enforcement of the free-viewing spots varies corner by corner and year by year, and with the race locked in for the next decade, every autumn will look like this. Construction, he concedes, has at least gotten faster.

Key takeaways
  • Filmed Oct 19, 2026: grandstands, VIP sections and lighting already up around Harmon/Koval
  • The perimeter fences and bridge block-offs go up last, in the final weeks
  • Free-viewing enforcement varies by corner and by year

I Went To Formula 1 Las Vegas And It Was ... NOT A DISASTER!

Pompsie

A first-person account of the very first Las Vegas Grand Prix on November 18, 2023, hosted at Wynn with seats in the Sphere zone. Pompsie recaps the rocky debut — Thursday's practice ended after about eight minutes when a car hit a drain cover — then walks race day from the Wynn pop-ups (a McLaren store, the Takashi Murakami × Lewis Hamilton collaboration) past the caged pedestrian bridges to a steakhouse dinner at SW and the race itself, marveling that the track converts back into a public road every day. His headline verdict gives the video its title: despite six months of construction misery for locals, the night was not a disaster — the event worked, the Strip looked unbelievable on the LED screens everywhere, and his only complaint was wanting more than one race that truly counted.

Key takeaways
  • First-person record of the inaugural Nov 18, 2023 race from the Sphere zone
  • Thursday practice famously ended after ~8 minutes for a drain-cover strike
  • The track converted back to a public road every day of race week

Watch: Las Vegas Grand Prix Guide, guided

1 videos · summaries from the actual guides

F1 Las Vegas & Crushing Strip Changes You Won't Believe (Must See Images!)

Turn It Up World

Filmed weeks before the first Grand Prix in November 2023, this Turn It Up World tour walks the Strip south to north cataloguing what F1 — and the building boom around it — was doing to Las Vegas: the bridge scaffolding and view-blocking going up, the Bellagio sidewalk trees coming down, and November flipping from a quiet month to one of the busiest under the race contract. The F1 story is woven through the wider 'crushing changes': the Tropicana marked for implosion to make way for the A's stadium, the Travelodge becoming The Boulevard luxury retail, Tilman Fertitta's new-hotel parcel, and the 63 Las Vegas development at Aria with Ocean Prime. Dated in its details but unmatched as a ground-level record of how completely the race remade the Strip's streetscape in year one.

Key takeaways
  • Ground-level record of F1 scaffolding and bridge view-blocking going up in 2023
  • Bellagio's sidewalk trees were removed for the race build
  • November went from quiet month to one of the busiest under the F1 contract

More Las Vegas essentials

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