Las Vegas Strip Circuit
Las Vegas Grand Prix
Is the Las Vegas Grand Prix Good for Racing?
Better than its street-circuit label suggests, because the Strip gives cars about 1.9km to line up a move before the slow corners at Harmon Avenue, and the 0.8km run down Koval Lane offers a second shot on the same lap.
The lap on the right needs a caveat. Lando Norris took the 2025 pole in the wet, so its 49% full-throttle share undersells a dry lap. Kimi Antonelli‘s race tells you more. He climbed from 17th on the grid to fifth even after a five-second penalty for a false start, then inherited third.
Las Vegas Strip Circuit
Strategy Factors
2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix
What to Look Out for at the Las Vegas Grand Prix
Watch the first corner on lap one. Pole is only 150m from the braking point, and in 2025 Lando Norris ran wide there trying to cover Max Verstappen, handing him a lead he kept to the flag.
Cold night air makes tire warm-up hard after every stop and restart, and a green-flag stop costs about 20s. The Safety Car appeared in one of the first two races. Then keep an eye on scrutineering, because both McLarens were disqualified after the 2025 race for skid block wear below the 9mm minimum.
Current circuit length, lap count, race distance and the 1:33.365 race lap record.
Wet qualifying, Norris running wide at Turn 1, Antonelli's penalty and the skid block disqualifications.
Las Vegas Grand Prix Tire Strategy
The 2025 race was run almost entirely on one stop between the C4 medium and the C3 hard. Max Verstappen won with an even split of 25 laps on each, and most of the top 10 followed the same medium-to-hard order.
Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton flipped it, starting on hards and finishing on mediums. Antonelli went the other way, ditching his softs after two laps and running 48 on the hard. Pirelli avoided a softer selection because of graining risk, and earlier session times in 2025 helped temperatures after heavy medium wear in 2024.
Pit loss, the two-race Safety Car sample and Pirelli's reasons for avoiding a softer 2025 selection.
Stint lengths and compounds for the top 10 finishers of the 2025 race, used in the chart.
Las Vegas Strip Circuit Sector by Sector and Corner by Corner
The figures below are from Lando Norris‘s 1:47.934 pole lap in 2025 qualifying, which was run in the wet, so speeds are well down on a dry lap. He was at full throttle for 49% of it and spent 20.4 seconds on the brakes across 10 braking zones. The longest flat-out run was 1,649m up the Strip, and the slowest point was 69 km/h at Harmon Avenue.
FastF1 timing data for Lando Norris's 1:47.934 pole lap, used for the speeds, gears, braking points and sector figures
The low-grip quote and the braking reference points around Turn 7 and Turns 11-12
Passing at Turn 12 and in the tight Sphere corners
Turn 14 as the longest braking distance of the 2025 season
History of the Las Vegas Strip Circuit
Formula 1 raced in Las Vegas twice in the early 1980s, but on a different track. The Strip circuit only arrived in 2023, and it’s now signed up to stay on the calendar through 2037.
Corner-by-corner layout, the 14-corner announcement, the added chicane and the land bought for the pit building.
Winners of the 2023, 2024 and 2025 races and the June 2026 extension through 2037.
How Much Does the Las Vegas Strip Circuit Cost?
F1 has put about $640m into the circuit, going by Liberty Media's own figures. That's $240m for the land in 2022 plus capital spending on the paddock building and track work that Liberty put at close to $400m in 2023. There's no hosting fee, because F1 promotes the race itself. The main public money is sponsorship from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, $10m a year for 2026 and 2027, and the paddock building earns $33m a year in rent.
How Much Did the Las Vegas Grand Prix Paddock Cost?
Liberty Media paid $240m in 2022 for 39 acres east of the Strip, using Formula 1 Group cash, to hold the pit, paddock and hospitality areas. In August 2023 Liberty's chief accounting officer Brian Wendling said capital spending on the paddock building and track work would be close to $400m, with $155m spent in the first half of that year. The four-level building covers about 300,000 sq ft and earns rent as an events venue outside race week. The public roads also needed an $80m repaving and utility job. F1 asked Clark County to pay $40m of it, then dropped the request.
Does the Las Vegas Grand Prix Pay a Hosting Fee?
No. Las Vegas is the only Grand Prix that F1 promotes directly, so there's no promoter paying it a fee. Liberty Media's results say F1 books the event's ticketing, sponsorship and hospitality revenue and carries its costs. The closest thing to a fee is sponsorship from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which paid $6.5m a year for 2023-2025 and approved $20m for 2026-2027 in August 2025, with $7.5m a year of that as race sponsorship. Clark County has never asked F1 to pay for using 3.8 miles (6.1km) of public roads. A 10-year extension announced in June 2026 runs to 2037.
F1 promoting the race directly and $33m of rental income from the paddock building in 2025
$33m of rental income from the paddock building in 2024
F1 booking the race's ticketing, sponsorship and hospitality revenue and its costs
The $240m purchase of 39 acres funded from Formula 1 Group cash
Brian Wendling on capex close to $400m and $155m spent in the first half of 2023
Capex for the paddock building and track close to $400m
The size of the four-level paddock building
The $80m repaving and utility job and the $40m request to Clark County
F1 dropping the $40m request and the county's $463k net loss on the 2023 race
LVCVA sponsorship of $6.5m a year for 2023-2025 and $20m for 2026-2027
Clark County never charging F1 for 3.8 miles (6.1km) of public roads
The 10-year extension to 2037 announced in June 2026
How Much Are Las Vegas Grand Prix Tickets?
Three-day Flamingo general admission on Koval Lane launched at $492 with taxes and fees included, and it has sold out, so T-Mobile GA at the Sphere, $809 at launch, is the next standing option. Grandstands start at $925 in the Heineken Grandstand at Turn 4 and top out at $2,051 in the Main Grandstand. Hospitality starts at $2,542 for Club Paris. That makes Las Vegas the 22nd cheapest of the 23 races in our ticket price table, with only Miami's cheapest ticket costing more.
Las Vegas Strip Circuit Questions
Cold tires matter in Las Vegas because the race runs at night in late November, when the desert air is cold and the long straights give the rubber little chance to build heat. Grip suffers as a result, so the laps after a pit stop or a restart are the riskiest of the race.
No, the Las Vegas Strip Circuit is a separate venue from the Caesars Palace layout used in 1981 and 1982. The modern track uses public roads including Las Vegas Boulevard and a permanent pit building, so records and results from the 1980s races don’t carry over.
Turn 12 is the exit that sets up the Las Vegas Strip straight. It’s a slow left from Sands Avenue onto Las Vegas Boulevard, and the traction a driver finds there carries through roughly 1.9km of flat-out running to the braking zone at Harmon Avenue.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix runs 50 laps of the 6.201km Strip circuit, a race distance of 309.958km. Verstappen covered it in 1:21:08.429 in 2025, and the event runs Thursday to Saturday, so the 2026 race is on Saturday, November 21.
Max Verstappen holds the Las Vegas race lap record with 1:33.365, set on the final lap of the 2025 race. It replaced the older records from the circuit’s first two races, and Norris’s 2025 pole of 1:47.934 was far slower because qualifying ran in the wet.
There’s no hosting fee, because F1 promotes the race itself and keeps the ticket, sponsorship and hospitality revenue. It has never published the race’s own profit or loss, but it paid $240m for the land and expected close to $400m of spending on the paddock building and track work before the 2023 debut.
Not from the first race, by its own count. Clark County said the 2023 race brought in $3.8m in tax revenue against $4.4m in staff costs, a net loss of $463k. The county has never asked F1 to pay for using 3.8 miles (6.1km) of public roads.
