The staggering cost behind F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix big-money pit building

The Las Vegas Grand Prix - the standout date in the 2023 F1 calendar - is next weekend, culminating in a race which is on Saturday night (local time) and 6am Sunday morning (UK time).

The land that the paddock and circuit have been built upon represents a major new strategy by Liberty Media, the owners of F1.

They purchased the land for $240m and spent a similar amount on constructing a state-of-the-art pit building - meaning the total cost nears half-a-billion dollars.

The Pit Building is READY! #LasVegasGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/sqEAzEgF8O

— F1 Las Vegas (@F1LasVegas) November 10, 2023

Compare that with the $43.6m spent on Silverstone’s updated building a decade ago!

The Las Vegas Grand Prix pit building is a 39-acre site. On its roof, it is fitted with an F1 logo.

The main building is 300-square-feet and four storeys. It will become F1’s US headquarters after next weekend’s race.

The Las Vegas Sphere

The 366-feet-tall, 18,000-person Sphere is a remarkable sight, and is the largest LED screen on earth.

It reportedly cost a cool $2.3 billion to build.

It is fitted with 1.2 million LED lights making it an incredible spectacle in the heart of Sin City.

The Sphere was opened by a pair of concerts by U2, who went viral for mentioning F1 during an on-stage speech.

It is set to be a major part of the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, and has already posted huge messages in the countdown to the event.

But it’s not all good news…

The Sphere posted an operating loss of $98.4m in its first fiscal quarter ending 30 September, The Las Vegas Sun reports.