How the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix promises to set the gold standard for F1 races

Skeptics abounded when Formula 1 announced its intention to race on the Las Vegas Strip in 2023, but the Grand Prix quickly became one of the most captivating events of the year, thanks to both its on- and off-track action. Still, there was room for improvement.

Those improvements are already on the way for 2024, setting the LVGP up to be not only a great race, but also the gold standard by which every other Formula 1 race can be measured.

Las Vegas Grand Prix: An exercise in evolution

Speaking to Motorsport.com , Emily Prazer, the Chief Commercial Officer for F1 and Las Vegas Grand Prix, Inc., said that the first year of the LVGP was all about setting manageable expectations and learning by doing. But it also made clear just how much the event could evolve for 2024.

“I think the first year, none of us knew how the racing was going to turn out,” Prazer said of the event, speaking to Motorsport.com .

“So we wanted to overcompensate because we wanted to make sure that it was a full, until you see those cars go around the track and see what actually happens it’s very hard to just watch it on simulators going ‘oh, it’s going to be a good race’.”

Prazer goes on to note that she wanted to go all-out for the 2023 event, tying in partnerships with casinos and kicking off the weekend with a hugely expensive Wednesday pre-race show. It made a splash — but it also showed the Las Vegas Grand Prix crew what they could do in 2024 to better allocate their resources.

And the answer to that question is multifaceted. Prazer admits to “scaling back” some of the huge activations with the casinos, but that has come alongside the introduction of a free fan festival taking place across from the Wynn resort.

She admits she would likely never gain clearance for a similar Wednesday pre-show, but that fans will be encouraged to hit the race track for longer periods of time anyway thanks to the addition of Ferrari Challenge as a support series.

And it all points to a new direction for Formula 1 and its Grand Prix events.

More conclusions from the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix:

👉 The four clear areas F1 must address after first Las Vegas Grand Prix

>👉 Four things F1 actually got right during chaotic Las Vegas Grand Prix

While many fans were surprised by how much they enjoyed the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, many still had concerns about the event: Ticket costs were too steep for the amount of on-track action, and there were few opportunities for fans on a budget or for local communities to engage with Formula 1.

But there were also plenty of positives. Many teams partnered with hotels, casinos, and resorts to offer free activations of their own, while F1 itself took control of promotion for the event and targeted a slew of new markets.

F1, the LVGP, and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has seemingly done an exceptional job of taking that feedback into account and proposing a revamped Grand Prix experience.

One of the initial concerns in 2023 was the fact that F1 seemed to exclusively be targeting high rollers and enthusiasts of luxury lifestyles as opposed to more hardcore fans. This year, there are still plenty of high-cost ticket options for those looking to spend the big bucks for a one-of-a-kind experience.

Even more fascinating, though, is F1’s embrace of the fans on a budget — a demographic that was largely excluded from the inaugural event. But thousands of fans without race tickets still turned up to the Grand Prix just to hear the sound of an F1 power unit, or to catch a glimpse of their favorite car, or to travel between resorts taking advantage of free fan activations.

F1 itself is now providing those free experiences in the form of a fan festival; fans only needed to reserve tickets to the free event, and they’d be able to turn up to Las Vegas to check out display cars, attend driver Q&As, and secure autograph from their favorite driver. But once those fans are on the festival grounds, they’ll likely be spending money on Formula 1-related merchandise — which means F1 has actively captured a market it didn’t touch in 2023.

For the fans who did spend their money on race tickets but who felt as if they didn’t quite get their money’s worth, the LVGP will now feature Ferrari Challenge as a support series — and with former hospitality sites being transformed into General Admission areas, the number of fans who can afford to attend will only increase.

And for the folks who did shell out the big bucks? Well, you’re getting more for your money, too — including the addition of an ice skating rink built atop the Paddock Club.

That’s a truly impressive amount of year-over-year evolution for an event. I’ve personally attended multiple successive editions of the US Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas, the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, and the Miami Grand Prix — and none of those aforementioned events have ever introduced such stratospheric growth. That isn’t to say progress doesn’t happen; it’s just that the progress is much slower.

While the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix looks set to become the gold standard of what an F1 event could be, there’s still work to do behind the scenes. Countless local businesses have filed lawsuits alleging the race cost them money, and there’s a strong chance similar issues could arise this coming year as well.

Read next: Huge $1.5billion impact reveal as F1 strengthens Las Vegas partnership with key announcement