Last year, the Las Vegas Grand Prix was about the spectacle first and foremost. The racing was secondary.
This year, it might be the exact opposite.
There will always be a high level of pomp for as long as Formula 1 brings its globetrotting phenomenon in for a stop at the 3.8-mile road course through the Strip, but nothing can match last year’s debut.
Fewer jaws will drop every time one of the $20 million cars turn towards an F1-themed display on the exterior of Sphere. The novelty of a 217 mile per hour straightaway in front of a backdrop of the Fountains of Bellagio also wears off.
Images of those flourishes dominated discussion and social media at the outset of last year’s event but diminished by late Saturday night as the final runs of the 50-lap race took place.
That’s partly because the racing was so compelling. And it only figures to get better in 2024.
There’s much more on the line in Version 2.0 of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships were already clinched ahead of F1 arriving in Las Vegas last year.
They’re both still technically up for grabs with three races left to go this season, though McLaren is poised to win its first constructors’ championship since 1998, barring complete collapse.
Similarly, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen will almost surely claim his fourth straight drivers’ championship, but there’s a big question of when it will happen.
Verstappen will win the title in Las Vegas if he finishes higher than McLaren’s Lando Norris, who’s currently in second place and 62 points behind in the standings.
But, in another break from the pre-race perception going into 2023, that’s no guarantee.
Verstappen was a -300 (i.e. $300 to win $100) favorite going into the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, implying better than a 70% win probability after accounting for the house’s hold percentage. This year, he’s all the way down to +250 (i.e. risking $100 to win $250)—the same oddsas Norris—and therefore only about 25% to win after calculating for hold percentage.
Ferrari’s pair of drivers, Charles Leclerc (+300) and Carlos Sainz (+585), are also priced as primary contenders.
A battle between Leclerc, Verstappen and Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Pérez (82-to-1 this year) ensued in last year’s inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix and has now enhanced the expectations for this year’s race.
No one expected much from a competitive standpoint in 2023, with Verstappen being perhaps the most outspoken detractor of adding a Las Vegas race. He referred to it as “99% show, 1% sport,” complained about the track and said he felt “like a clown” by being forced to participate in the pre-race pageantry.
He ended up eating some of those words after passing Leclerc with 13 laps to go and holding on for a victory that had him singing “Viva Las Vegas,” and later regarding the whole experience as “fun racing.”
Complaints about the fan experience persisted, but no one had any gripes about the on-track action. It went better than Verstappen and anyone else could have imagined with seven lead changes and 82 total overtakes, the second-most in any of F1’s 22 races in 2023.
Leclerc passed Pérez for second place on the final lap in a thrilling moment to secure the podium spots next to Verstappen. Fan favorite and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton also had a strong night and gained new fans wearing an LGBTQ-supporting rainbow helmet. The Mercedes driver finished in seventh place to lock himself into third-place for the overall 2023 season.
Hamilton’s resurgence has climbed higher in the 2024 campaign as he broke a three-year winless drought with a pair of victories, at the British Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix in July.
Seven different drivers—Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Oscar Piastri and George Russell—have won a race so far in 2024. Only three—Verstappen, Sainz and Pérez—managed the feat in 2023.
Verstappen won 19 races a year ago as opposed to only eight this season, with a victory at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix earlier this month snapping a near five-month downturn.
“It was definitely an emotional win,” Verstappen said afterwards. “I was really motivated and put everything into this race, and I surprised myself today as I wasn’t expecting to finish in P1. This was a really strong result for us today and I’m really proud. Simply lovely.”
It would appear Verstappen will arrive in Vegas with a cheerier disposition this time around. All the drivers may.
The visuals of the Las Vegas Grand Prix were always going to be stunning, but the racing needed to deliver for the long-term viability of the event. It happened in year one, and looks even better set up to do it again in year two.
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