The Las Vegas GP is the dream project of Formula 1’s owners- Liberty Media. The inaugural race at the newly constructed street track will be the penultimate race of the 2023 season, and the hype around it is colossal. Therefore, Liberty Media, according to Business F1, has spent over $400,000,000 to make the race happen there. However, the same report states that in the process, there has been overspending of $200,000,000. But Liberty Media isn’t worried as they are predicting a record revenue from the race which will be highest in F1’s history.
For long, F1 was eyeing to optimize its presence in the United States. After Austin and Miami, the Sin City is the third chapter of their expedition across the Atlantic.
For Lewis Hamilton, seeing the potential of the market in the US, a third F1 on the calendar race makes sense. However, the difference is that this is the most ambitious project by Liberty Media, and seeing the expense, which is over double the original budget, makes it obvious.
Liberty Media not bothered by expensive Las Vegas
The source states that the original cost of staging the race was around to be $210,000,000. However, that got easily exhausted and now the expenses are well over $400,000,000.
“Despite inflationary cost pressures, we expect no change in revenue and profitability assumptions. We remain confident of our return profile of this incredible project which will support the incremental capital investment that we are making,” said Greg Maffei, chief executive of Liberty Media, as quoted by Business F1.
It is further revealed in the report that Liberty Media is predicting a revenue of $500,000,000 in the first year of the race. If achieved that would be historic collection in F1’s history. And after that, Las Vegas is set to be on the calendar for years to come. Thus, it could be F1’s golden goose. Meanwhile, the local economy will also benefit
Bumper boost for Las Vegas’ revenue
Later in the report, Business F1 quoted Rene Wilm, who is leading the project at Las Vegas for Liberty Media. He has commissioned external experts to assess the economical impact from the event and it’s estimated that the event could boost a mammoth $1.2 billion in the local economy.
A similar case study has been observed in Miami that received $350 million boost in local economy after hosting an F1 race. Vegas could bring four times the amount, considering how much more anticipated it is.
Therefore, F1 would only be anticipating the arrival of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. In terms of racing, it could give some breathtaking moments, as the layout is projecting some high speed racing on straights.
