Las Vegas Strip Circuit

How it began

Formula 1 had been to Las Vegas before: in 1981 and 1982 a Grand Prix was held on a temporary track marked out in the car park of one of the casinos on the Strip. Both races decided the title: Nelson Piquet became champion in 1981 and Keke Rosberg in 1982.

The current street circuit arrived in 2023, and for the first time Formula 1 itself is the race promoter rather than a local organiser. Max Verstappen won the first race for Red Bull on 18 November 2023, while Charles Leclerc snatched second place from Sergio Pérez on the last lap.

The track

The 6.201 km lap with seventeen corners runs along Las Vegas Boulevard — the Strip — past the casinos and hotels. The straight along the Strip, about 1.9 km long, is one of the longest on the calendar, so teams run their smallest wings.

The race runs on Saturday night local time, which is Sunday morning for most of the world. November nights in the desert are cold, and getting the tyres up to temperature on the slippery street asphalt is a challenge of its own at this round.

Memorable races

In 2023 the first practice session was stopped after eight minutes: Carlos Sainz’s car ripped up a drain cover at speed. The second session was run in the middle of the night with no spectators, and Sainz received a grid penalty for replacing the damaged parts.

On 23 November 2024 George Russell won, while Max Verstappen finished fifth and wrapped up his fourth consecutive title with races to spare.

The 2026 season

The 2026 race is scheduled for Saturday 21 November, local time. The season runs under the new rules: new power units with about half of their power coming from electricity, active aerodynamics and eleven teams — Cadillac joins the championship, and Sauber is taken over by Audi.