America promised land for Formula 1: Las Vegas final race | Sports car

It will probably be the penultimate race of the season, before the usual closing in Abu Dhabi. The Grand Prize of Vegas also takes place on Saturday evening, early Sunday morning in Europe. The street circuit will be over 6 kilometers long, with three long straights and fourteen corners.

“A third race in the United States shows the enormous appeal and growth of our sport”

Formula 1 has been owned by Liberty Media, an American media conglomerate, since 2017. For the owner, the United States is very interesting from a commercial point of view. Thanks in part to the bloody title battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton last year and the popular Netflix documentary Drive to survive Formula 1 is also gaining popularity across the ocean. At the beginning of May of this year, Miami entered the calendar and this race was quickly sold out.

Last season’s Grand Prix in Austin was the most attended race ever with 400,000 spectators over three days. And recently the opening race in Bahrain on the American ESPN the most-watched Grand Prix on cable TV since 1995. With an average of 1.5 million viewers, that’s not bad in absolute numbers, but it’s clear that the sport is on the rise in America.

Las Vegas Racetrack.

“A third race in the United States shows the enormous appeal and growth of our sport,” said Stefano Domenicali, CEO of Formula 1. Las Vegas is a destination known around the world for its excitement, its hospitality, its thrills and, of course, the famous Strip. There’s no better place to race in Formula 1 than in the entertainment capital of the world and we can’t wait to be here next year.”

The management of Formula 1 therefore chooses next year to go to America at three different times, probably in May (Miami), October (Austin) and therefore November (Las Vegas). In Las Vegas, a Grand Prix has already been contested twice, in 1981 and 1982.

With the arrival of Las Vegas, the return of China and the permanent “nomination” of Qatar – which will probably also return to the calendar this year in place of Russia – the calendar is full. It is certain that at least one of the races which is still on the calendar this year will disappear. The French Paul Ricard and the Belgian Spa-Francorchamps are becoming in this regard.