Advice issued to F1 fans as cold Las Vegas temperature fears addressed

Oliver Harden 14 Nov 2023 1:00 PM

Snow sets on a Pirelli F1 tyre during 2018 pre-season testing in Barcelona.

The chief executive of the Las Vegas Grand Prix has advised fans to “bring hoodies” or invest in “F1 swag” to keep warm during this weekend’s race in Nevada.

Having visited Miami and Austin earlier this season, F1 will make its third and final trip to the United States this weekend for the new Las Vegas GP.

The race has been described as a major milestone in Liberty Media’s ownership of F1 and is expected to pose a unique challenge for drivers and teams.

F1 fans told to bring a hoody to Las Vegas Grand Prix

With qualifying set to start at midnight and the race scheduled for 10pm on Saturday, temperatures are expected to plummet into single figures in Vegas with former F1 managing director of motorsports Ross Brawn recently admitting that the cold conditions did not come into consideration in the early planning of the race.

Appearing on the F1 Nation podcast, Las Vegas GP CEO Renee Wilm is confident that the spectacle will not be adversely affected by the cold – but has advised spectators travelling to the event to come prepared.

She said: “I think there’s a range of temperatures that we could experience.

“Right now we are having a pretty warm fall here in the western half of America and [in] the evenings it will cool off, but we know that the cars can probably race down to 32 degrees Fahrenheit [zero degrees Centigrade].

“We do not think it will be anywhere near that that temperature, but I would encourage our fans to bring hoodies and maybe buy some Formula 1 or LVGP swag to keep warm.

“It will be a little chilly, but I think the energy and the excitement that will be coming off of every inch of this track will keep everyone quite toasty.”

With various famous faces set to be in attendance at the entertainment capital of America, Wilm is promising an event like no other.

She explained: “When you consider a location such as Las Vegas, which is known for the pinnacle of entertainment, and then you marry that with the glamour that is Formula 1, our weekend is going to be off the charts.

“Think about the various types of talents that we have engaged for different parts of our circuit. We have the T-Mobile Sphere Zone, which will have Mark Ronson, Kylie Minogue, J Balvin, Major Lazer and more.

“Our opening ceremony on Wednesday night will absolutely rival a Super Bowl half-time show – and I would assure you I am a big fan of American football. We are going to absolutely set an entirely new standard here.

“We have an extremely unique podium setup. We did not want to take views away from our Paddock Club guests and attach the podium to the pit building. Rather, our pit building stands alone as the VIP opportunity to enjoy the race weekend.

“So how do you create a podium from it? Well, what we did was take the trucks that had been created for this epic stage for opening ceremonies and we will be reusing them right on the grid to celebrate the winners of our race.”

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Wilm claimed that the pit building is the largest on the F1 schedule with the teams and FIA catered for every need in Las Vegas, with the paddock containing a chapel for fans to get married over the course of the race weekend.

She revealed that the track layout was altered multiple times as the organisers tried to include as many Las Vegas landmarks as possible including the Sphere, a newly launched music and entertainment arena featuring a wraparound LED screen.

“This building is the largest club facility on the calendar and we looked to create a building as large as possible to enable our fans to enjoy this race weekend at a level that’s never been done before,” she said.

“It is sustainable, it is LEED certified. It also has state-of-the-art equipment for the benefit of the teams. The garages have been fully equipped with whatever the teams could request. The FIA could not have been happier when we toured them last week.

“So we have truly tried to tick every box on the list so that this building reaches the expectations of the entire ecosystem.

“There is also a surprise wedding chapel to be found in the paddock area. If you’d like you could get remarried and it’ll be an amazing selfie opportunity for all of our fans.

“This track was not the original layout. The key was to be able to race down the Strip with the iconic Vegas Strip landscape behind the drivers, but exactly where the track would weave from there changed quite a few times.

“We needed to find a location that allowed us to establish the pit building and the garages and the grid and now required Liberty Media to purchase the 39 acres of land. And then the rest really got built around it.

“We also wanted to highlight the Sphere – just an incredible new venue, amazing the work that MSG has done. We’ve all seen it on [social] media, some of us have been there in person.

“To be able to highlight that new icon of Las Vegas and basically race around it, having tremendous entertainment as well as a lot of fans on property, it just all came together through a lot of collaboration.”