F1 has offered apologies for the inconvenience the Las Vegas Grand Prix caused to the residents while highlighting the event’s expected benefits.
Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei apologized to the locals for their “forbearance” during the Las Vegas Grand Prix preparations, saying that the work done over the year to prepare the pit building and the street circuit had severely disrupted their daily lives.
The Grand Prix organized by F1’s Liberty Media will mark the series’ return to Las Vegas. This event has been marked and highlighted on the calendar for Formula 1 2023 for many since it was announced.
Over the course of several months, work to renovate the Strip, construct the paddock, and set up pit facilities has been carried out in Nevada. This has caused delays and diversions that affect both locals and visitors.
The construction of the pits and paddock on brownfield land that Liberty purchased for $240 million, along with extensive road resurfacing, has not been ideal for the residents of Las Vegas.
There have occasionally been cases of local opposition to the event, such as the tearing apart of privacy barriers that were erected to prevent people from viewing the circuit through the overhead bridges.
The roads that make up the circuit will close at 1700 local time every day during track action and reopen at 2am compromising access to the Strip.
Maffei shared apologies for the inconvenience and expressed gratitude to the people of Las Vegas for “their willingness to tolerate us,” emphasizing that they will ultimately gain from Formula 1’s presence.
“I want to apologise to all the Las Vegas residents and we appreciate that they have their forbearance and their willingness to tolerate us,” said Maffei speaking to Fox5. “We’re going to bring something like $1.7 billion of revenue to the area.
“So it’s not just for the benefit of fans who want to view. We hope this is a great economic benefit in Las Vegas.
“We hope this is the most difficult year with all the construction that went on and things will be easier in the future.
“There will be a 105,000 people, so the sheer scale of it, even for Las Vegas will be the largest event Las Vegas will have,” he added. “There’s a launch party from Wednesday to Sunday, almost a week of events and musical acts.
“You know, you’re seeing sports figures from other sports having their own kind of side viewing parties. A lot of [the high prices] frankly comes from costs that are not entirely ours.
“I’m not begrudging our partners, but, you know, five-night minimums in hotels and things like that helped push up the costs. Not all of it’s just the pricing of the tickets.
“The experience of that and, frankly, the fact that there’s so much demand is what drives it.”
CEO of the Las Vegas Grand Prix Renee Wilm acknowledged that managing transportation has been the largest challenge associated with the event, citing temporary bridges for cars and pedestrians as part of the steps taken to keep the city moving during the Formula 1 event.
“I would say the biggest challenge is really just transportation planning,” she told Sky Sports. “We are essentially encapsulating 60,000 hotel rooms, workers, guests and visitors of Las Vegas.
“And how do we ensure that we are able to keep traffic moving, keep people moving when the track is hot?
“And in that regard, we have installed three temporary bridges which will allow vehicles to access the interior of the track while we are during race time.
“And working with the locals hand and glove to figure out how we continue to move the employees and how we get guests into the interior of the track.”
