F1 to race on Las Vegas Strip next season

LAS VEGAS (AP) — With a flip of a switch, it was lights out on the world famous Las Vegas Strip.

Then bright red strobes flickered up and down iconic Las Vegas Blvd. to announce Formula One's arrival.

The most glamorous motorsports series in the world will add a third race in the United States to the 2023 calendar — a Saturday night event down the Strip — as F1 continues to expand its North American footprint.

F1 will turn 50 laps around a temporary 3.8-mile street course next November that will feature the Bellagio, Caesars Palace and the MSG Sphere among the many landmarks on the circuit. F1 will promote the event alongside Liberty Media Corp., the American parent company of F1.

It will be the first F1 race promoted by Liberty, which took over as F1's rights holder in 2017 and set a determined focus on growing the series within the United States. ESPN said viewership for Sunday’s race in Saudi Arabia broke the week-old record for the network and was ESPN's largest F1 audience since 1995.

The fourth season of the Netflix docuseries “Drive To Survive” dropped earlier this month to enormous ratings; the behind-the-rope look at F1 ranked No. 1 in 33 countries the weekend it was released. It's made the American market irresistible, and F1 and Liberty are intently chasing every set of eyeballs it can attract.

“It's our home market, so that makes it more interesting, and obviously it's the largest economy in the world, the largest disposable income," Greg Maffei, President and CEO of Liberty Media, told The Associated Press. “It's an opportunity that had not been pursued historically and it's where we think a lot of our growth can come.”

But unlike the bulk of the F1 calendar, a host country isn't writing a check to