The last time Formula 1 raced in Las Vegas, it didn’t end particularly well. The track was basically in a hotel car park and it didn’t produce great racing.
But a return to the United States city is being eyed up by F1’s new owners Liberty Media, who want more races in the country.
Liberty made it very clear when its takeover of F1 was announced that it’d like to expand the current calendar, including more races in the US.
New chairman Chase Carey said he’d like to see F1 racing in Los Angeles, Miami and New York and now we can add Las Vegas to that list.
A grand prix in the city has been reported on numerous times over the years, but Liberty CEO Greg Maffei has admitted he’d like to see F1 race there again alongside the current US Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.
“I particularly like the idea of a night race in Las Vegas,” he explained during a technology, media and telecommunications conference in Spain.
F1’s current calendar is the biggest it has ever been and teams are being stretched to their limits, but Maffei feels there is more room to expand and add more rounds to the schedule.
“Obviously there is a limit on how much you can do. Just getting the cars around the world, but I think we can expect to grow the amount of races to a mild degree,” he explained.
“There is a general line of interest if you increase the number of races to a point. The FIA makes more money, the teams make more money, we make more money. But new entrants tend to pay more.”
A night race in Las Vegas would certainly be pretty spectacular, but there’s got to be a limit to the number of F1 races per season and we seem to be getting pretty close to that as it is.