Formula 1 held its first official practice session on the Las Vegas Strip Circuit on 16 November 2023, beginning the championship’s long-awaited return to the city.
The moment was symbolic before it was sporting. F1 had turned one of the world’s most recognisable streets into a temporary Grand Prix venue, complete with cold night air, fresh asphalt and enough neon to make tyre-temperature data feel underdressed.
A new circuit with awkward questions
For teams, the opening session was supposed to answer basic questions. How quickly would the tyres warm up? How much grip would the new surface offer? How much downforce could teams afford to remove for the long straights without making the slower corners miserable? Las Vegas presented a strange mix: enormous full-throttle sections, heavy braking and low temperatures rarely associated with desert racing.
The session’s practical value was limited because the drain-cover incident stopped running early. Even so, those first laps marked the beginning of F1’s Las Vegas experiment as a live racing venue rather than a render, launch party or commercial promise.
The Strip becomes a circuit
The first practice running showed both sides of the project. The setting was spectacular and commercially powerful. The operational challenge was very real. Las Vegas was not simply another street race; it was Formula 1 trying to make the city itself part of the product.
That ambition would eventually produce a competitive weekend, but FP1 made clear that glamour does not reduce the checklist. If anything, it makes the loose drain cover more embarrassing.
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