F1 Tract in Entertainment Capital Of The Planet – Las Vegas.

 

Las Vegas Grand Prix News.  What happens when you take the world’s most exciting Motorsports and host it in the entertainment capital of the planet.

That’s right Sin City is becoming Spin City. So buckle up as we get ready for the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix there’ll be Thrills spills Glitz and glamour.

But beyond all that is something even cooler a massive construction project more specifically a project that took a Non-Stop Party City and turned into a racetrack for some of the fastest cars on earth.

All in just over a year start your engines this is the story of ‘How Las Vegas was turned into the world’s greatest racetrack’.

F1 History In Las Vegas

 

 

It seems like a match made in heaven the world’s most spectacular Motorsports in the world’s most spectacular City while staging a Grand Prix.

In a well-known location might add a certain X Factor. Whether it’s Las Vegas, Singapore or Bahrain there’s always a unique set of challenges but you don’t have to take our word for it.

Here’s the guy whose slightly enviable job is to design the racetrack. A city track is special because every city is different. You have existing streets which you need to use sometimes, you come and you have a maybe a nice layout .

But it’s not working because you need some safety zones runoff zones and if there’s a building in front or then the layout is not possible over in Monaco at the oldest street race on the circuit.

Track Used Before Las Vegas Grand Prix

The team’s got this down to a fine art every year pre-fabricated temporary structures are installed in the weeks leading up to the race.

Then quickly taken down once the show moves on. But it’s not always that easy when the green flag is waved on the 18th of November.

It won’t be the first Grand Prix held in Las Vegas, that dubious honor goes to the ill- fated Caesar’s Palace Grand Prix with a lack of support from City Hall. And fears over the safety of having race cars on local roads.

In 1981 Grand Prix was held in the car park of you guessed it Caesar’s Palace Hotel. This isn’t the real Caesar’s Palace is it? what do you mean? did Caesar live here? No it took place during the day. The brutal heat and famously boring track meant the event only lasted 2 years before being scr from the Formula 1 Calendar.

But Las Vegas is the city of Second Chances and this time round Formula 1 has gone big.

Las Vegas Grand Prix News: How The Grand Prix was Built

 

 

That’s right we’re moving on from the casino car park. The 17 Corner circuit was the result of 31 different designs and is intended to show off the best of what this city has to offer. First we have a look where we want to be in Las Vegas.

We go over the Las Vegas Boulevard. This is the shot everyone knows and then the next step is okay. How can we make this happen? Going on this STP but make also a track which is suitable for Formula 1.

Where you can drive over 300 km per hour? where you can have a safe track?

A track where you can overtake and where you can have all the facilities.

The track starts off with a series of turns before a highspeed stretch towards Las Vegas’s newest Landmark, The MSG sphere. It then curves back around to the iconic strip. Where the cars race at top speed past nearly 2 km of the world’s most famous and iconic casinos.

Then it’s a series of left turns which bring the drivers back to the starting line while it may all seem like a great idea. It was very much a shotgun wedding after the announcement in March 2022.

The team had just 20 months to get the show on the road to house. The Paddock media center and everything else you need for this race.

The Track Infrastructure

 

Las Vegas Grand Prix News.  The Las Vegas Grand Prix took the unusual step of buying this 39 Acre Site a block east of the strip to build their permanent foothold in Sin City true to Las Vegas style.

It’s going to feature the largest Paddock on the entire F1 circuit over 300 M long 30 m wide. And topped off with a huge illuminated F1 logo.

The ground floor will feature 13 garages which will serve as the base for each of the teams along with two other floors.

A rooftop area for Hospitality but with construction work started in November 2022. The team had just 11 months to complete.

They build before a Handover Target of October 2023. To get all this finished on time in Las Vegas was no easy task.

To avoid the delays that could be caused around the long lead times of elements, like escalators elevators and cladding. These crucial systems were all purchased before the design of the building was completed it.

As steel beams would have taken too long to make an assemble. The structure of the building relies on concrete and rebar instead.

To speed things up even further the plan for the building was split into two 150 M long buildings.
Two Crews began construction at either end of the site and worked together towards the middle.

At its peak construction was running 20 hours a day with 500 people working across two shifts.

The Use Of Specialist Equipment

Once the structure was complete the team raced to add specialist equipment. Most F1 tools are made to run on European Standard power.

So electrical Transformers had to be added to all the garages racing is all about speed and precision. That’s something most AO professionals can relate to Bringing projects safely to the Finish Line as quickly and accurately as possible.

For a city that’s synonymous with construction like Las Vegas. That requires digital transformation behind the scenes too.

Las Vegas approves close to 20,000 building permits every year when it came time to ditch paper for a solution. That could facilitate digital or electronic plan review between area developers and Municipal reviewers.

The city chose blue beam construction software allows Las Vegas to standardize reviews with easy to ous markups. The custom tool sets it also features the studio environment for realtime project collaboration.

It is crucial for keeping multiple reviewers disciplines and jurisdictions in sync with Blue Beam Las Vegas cut their previous eight-step paper-based process in half saving weeks of time.

Hassle on each review it’s also saved them at least $600,000 in annual printing costs freeing up valuable office space in the process.

From bumpy cracked roads to even track

 

The drivers to put the pedal to the metal not just any surface will do Las Vegas’s normal bumpy cracked roads aren’t fit for $20 Million US dollar race cars.

They are so close from the bottom of the car to the track so they will feel every bump so it’s very important to have an even track.

To have the right grip that the cars can overtake that they can be fast in the corners ahead of the event.

The $80 Million US dollar was spent resurfacing Las Vegas’s roads to bring them up to Formula 1 standards. That meant dripping up to 25cm of existing Road and adding four new layers to create a surface.

Which is flat to within a tolerance of 3mm for every 4M it might all be enough to satisfy Formula 1. But it’s not the only show in town.

The race has some big neighbours. It needs to keep happy unlike other Street circuits. Where the roads used for the track are closed off for days in Las Vegas.

Glimpse Of Grand Prix Early Access To The Citizens

 

 

The Grand Prix is only allowed to close the roads for 7 hours at a time. What is really also unique here is that we open the track after every session. In a lot of different areas.

To make sure that there is the right access to the casinos to the hotels and restaurants.

Who are there people will go on the track and use the track after the sessions. Then it needs to be closed on a very short notice again. To be ready for for the next day for the next Formula 1 sessions.

When the lights go out on the Las Vegas Grand Prix. It land an iconic new venue to a sport known for its Glitz and Glamour.

The city of neon a new fixture as permanent as white lions and blue men but with so much riding on this race.

What’ll make it go down as a staple in the F1 calendar oh for us the race is a success firstly. If it’s a safe race people enjoying it.

For us it’s the most important of course it’s the dream for us to work here and to be involved in this project in Las Vegas.

The first race is the always the most exciting so we are always even if it’s a normal race with nothing happens.