F1's Las Vegas Grand Prix success exposes need for improvements

A Red Bull Racing driver passes the Sphere during the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. Photo by: Wade Vandervort

Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.

Steve Hill, the president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, is one of the most vocal supporters of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

And yet he seemed surprised Tuesday when discussing the scale of success of last month’s race.

The third running of the Formula One race drew a record-breaking 1.5 million American television viewers, a 68% increase over last year’s race, according to ESPN. The authority is waiting for global viewing numbers, noting in an email to the Sun that “the U.S. broadcast is the smallest portion of viewership.”

Along with ads promoting the destination, the LVCVA tracked 38 A-listers in attendance showcasing the race to a combined 1.8 billion followers, it said during Tuesday’s board meeting.

The event “achieved a level of maturity that we weren’t really sure it was going to be able to achieve this year,” Hill said. “It’s one of the reasons we looked at just a two-year extension several months ago, because we thought it would take potentially into Year 4 or Year 5 to get to the point that they actually got this year.”

While the LVCVA “certainly” wants the race as a permanent fixture on the Las Vegas sports calendar, Hill said making that happen will require significant capital investments — largely in new infrastructure to address quality-of-life issues the race has created.

Chief among his concerns is the temporary bridge erected at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane.

Liberty Media, the racing league’s owner, has poured hundreds of millions into road upgrades at the resort corridor. The authority had a $19.5 million sponsorship with the race over its initial three years; Clark County has approved a resolution to keep the race here through 2032.

“We’d like to relocate that,” Hill said of the bridge. “And if you put a permanent bridge in, then you don’t have that disruption of putting it up and taking it down, which would be really beneficial for everybody who uses that resort corridor.”

He also discussed potential ways to reduce, or in some cases eliminate, lane closures prior to the race.

Last month, light stanchions on the track closed some lanes due to concrete barriers holding them up. However, Hill said that could be fixed with moving the structural support to the median and having lights overhang the circuit.

“There’s going to need to be maintenance along the way,” Hill said about the track, “but understanding what that might look like, how it might be phased, so that it doesn’t cause that type of congestion in a single year … is an important part of that conversation.”

kyle.chouinard@gmg vegas.com / 702-990-8923 / @Kyle_Chouinard