Vegas Grand Prix Report: A First-Hand Fan Account

Day one at the Las Vegas Grand Prix

What a time to make my first trip to Las Vegas! I never had an occasion to go, though it feels like everyone and their grandmother has made the pilgrimage to the uniquely American wonder that is this city — an adult theme park. And on this blessed weekend in November, the most glitzy and glamorous stage for Formula 1 west of Monaco. Arriving on a Wednesday before practice and qualify commenced, I took a stroll from my hotel, The Paris, across The Strip — Las Vegas BLVD on your maps app — to watch the Bellagio fountain show before traipsing up and down the sidewalks flooded with people, drinks and live entertainment — whether you want it or not. Thursday afternoon, I decided to take my first gamble. We’ll talk more about it here at Xgtiger Casino.

Upon learning that limited edition Shoeys were popping up at a hotel in the city, I made the trek. With two hours until the giveaway for one of fifty shoes designed for the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix, an ode of Daniel Ricciardo’s celebratory drink from his racing shoe, I found myself striking up a conversation with not just F1 fans but Lewis Hamilton fans traveling from San Diego. Like me, this was their first GP, but I held little hope that Hamilton would win on Saturday, and then he topped the timing sheet in Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 2. 

 

 

A fleeting hope was what I felt from Club Paris as I watched his Mercedes career down the straight, marveling at the view from an outdoor patio at the corner of Paris and Las Vegas Boulevard.  Between FP1 and FP2, during practice for the Ferrari Challenge, I simply had to give the F1 simulator a go, and I was pleasantly pleased with a P4 finish and a clean race. A small group behind me clapped. “You didn’t crash! And you made cornering look easy.” I received an ovation and blushed. Of course, to watch this sport is to know finishing any race, even one that’s just five laps on a simulator, is not a given. This is one more way in which I knew I was around like-minded fans.

 

 

It’s a surreal feeling watching this sport for the first time, in person, alongside people who know and love F1 as I do. Over beer, nachos and pretzel, I shared stories with folks from Dublin, Hartford, Connecticut, Daytona, Florida and Toronto about how they first came to this sport and what it means to them.

“Max is my guy,” Kelly, a financial consultant, told me. “I’m drawn to the single-mindedness he brings to his job. He’s only about this — being the best racer in the world. And he’s uncompromising.”

“Carlos, he’s just so cool,” Joey, a sales rep from New York City, told me. “His father too. How can you not fall in love with the family Sainz?”

Joey told me he doesn’t hold a grudge against Ferrari or Hamilton, Sainz will move on to Williams Racing because Hamilton signed with Ferrari for the 2025 season. But that’s the future. At FP1 and FP2, the present is fast. The sheer speed of the cars is breathtaking. Under the lights, watching our long straight, I heard them before I saw them. And almost as soon as I recognized the papaya of McLaren, the blue of Red Bull or Aston Martin Racing Green, they were gone into the next corner. Perhaps that’s the thing I learned most in this Day 1 of three at the Vegas GP: There is no substitute for hearing F1 cars do 200 mph-plus down the straight on a street someone’s family road car trundled down mere hours before.

Day two at the Las Vegas Grand Prix

No, Phil Knight — I’m the Shoe Dog. I must be. For the second day in a row I stood in line for the better part of three hours for the chance to win a Las Vegas Grand Prix “Shoey.” This one, though, felt sacred, as it is the Vegas GP’s ode to the late great Artist Formerly Known as Prince. After the Vegas X account announced the location for the chance to win one of 50 — as there are 50 laps at the Vegas GP — of these sequentially number Shoeys was at the 99 Prince at the Disco Show at The Linq, just over a quarter of a mile walk from The Paris Hotel where I am staying, I took a chance. After bumbling up Las Vegas Boulevard, making a wrong turn onto Flamingo, and doubling back through The Linq’s heart, a kind security professional pointed me in the direction I must go. “The line is already long, though,” she said. And that filled me with dread.

As I entered the line, it began to grow in size, quickly doubling and then tripling within the hour. I did what many stuck in stasis with denizens of their ilk: I spoke. In front of me, Christian and Jasmin, a lovely couple from just outside of Mexico City, wore their driver allegiance on their heads and sleeves. Red Bull driver Sergio “Checo” Perez is theirs, and this is their second trip to the Vegas GP, which makes them as close to seasoned veterans for this race as the man they follow in their Formula 1 fandom. Over the next three hours, I learned this is what they do for themselves as their children — three daughters, all adults now — had left their nest. And Christian used his floor cleaning business and Jasmin her salary as a professor at the local state college to fund their three F1 GP annuals in Austin, Texas, Mexico City, and now Vegas. 

This being my first-ever GP and my first-ever trip to Vegas, they were keen to tell me where I should go, what I should do, and not to be so blue when Lewis Hamilton doesn’t win. Of course, after qualifying on Friday night, I felt a bit of heartburn as Hamilton’s teammate, George Russell, took pole. But I drew solace from knowing that I’d won. I’d learned enough about Christian and Jasmin that we exchanged information, promised to keep in touch, and toasted to each other’s winning one of these gorgeous driver’s shoes inspired by a musician the three of us love. Jasmin earned the 48th, Christian the 49th and me No. 50 — for which staff heartedly congratulated me but not before ushering me in before those behind could register what I know must be pain. But then I think about Hamilton “losing” the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

At Club Paris, for Free Practice 3, the Ferrari Challenge, and qualifying for Saturday’s GP, I met Kim, who was making her first trip to a Grand Prix like me. She suffers from multiple sclerosis and explained to me how difficult her day can be from day to day. Indeed, just summoning the energy and effort to attend an event like this is daunting. But she told me she felt she had to. Her father loved this sport. He raised her to love it, too. In her 40s, she’d committed to see this one, though. Tears welled in her eyes as she detailed what seeing those F1 cars go by between Turn 13 and Turn 14 meant to her. Hearing the sound of those robust V6 hybrids. Knowing how rare it is to see these cars, 20 of the world’s best drivers at the pinnacle of motorsport whip and wind cars that are on the cutting edge of what humanity’s engineering genius can muster.

I wept, too. This is my dream, to be here, now. That was my feeling as I ate steak, drank champagne, and conversed with F1 fans who knew as much and more as I do about this sport we love.

Day three at the Las Vegas Grand Prix

You see Club Paris, at the Paris Hotel, is really three restaurants. They’re made of the Alexxa, which features breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner on The Strip, a second-level restaurant, Beer Park, which features a patio and idyllic scenic view of The Strip amid games like foosball and an extended list of domestic and imported beers to choose from and finally a third level restaurant called Cheri, cloaked in red neon lighting and inside of a replica of the Eiffel Tower. I took in the festivities from all three levels at the second annual Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday. From an exciting Ferrari Challenge race featuring the best Ferrari 296 Challenge drivers in the world, while enjoying the fine dining experience, the Alexxa offered, to watching the Driver’s Parade a couple of hours later from the Beer Park to witnessing history made from the Cheri during the Grand Prix.

Dressed for the occasion in a buttoned-down Ferrari F1 team replica, black slacks, and custom Air Force 1s bespoke for my favorite driver, Lewis Hamilton’s, imminent move to Maranello to drive for the Scuderia, I watched the seven-time world champion scythe through the field with his trademark late-breaking, oversteer catching style as he hunted every competitor in front of him except his teammate, George Russell, who won the GP. Not only did I get to see Russell and Hamilton become the fourth pair of constructors to pull off a 1-2 finish this year but I got to watch Max Verstappen secure his fourth consecutive Driver’s World Championship, making him just the second person ever in the history of the sport to achieve that feat and earn one more title than the man many believe is the most talented driver ever to win three world titles, Ayrton Senna.

Having taken in four days of this Grand Prix weekend, walking as much of the city as I could, enjoying its shows, its embrace of F1 this week, and yet another unbelievably entertaining race, I can’t help but hope you get this opportunity, too. I’ve filled my phone with photos and journal memories and met some truly outstanding and inspiring F1 fans, all while soaking up this town built on hospitality, hope, and the chance to make yourself happy. If you have a choice and can experience the Vegas Grand Prix, I sincerely hope you’ll have an experience like mine. Stay at The Paris. Walk The Strip. Buy a ticket to the GP. And let yourself take the ride.

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