Last year saw three Grand Prix in the United States as Liberty Media continues its quest to tap the American market. However, the Las Vegas GP received plenty of backlash ever since it was announced to be part of the schedule. The iconic venue was always going to bring plenty of fanfare, but it was also a chaotic experience.
During the preparation, there were plenty of traffic jams, road closures and blazing lights through the night which led to plenty of dissatisfaction from the locals. To combat this, multi-billionaire Elon Musk’s $5.7 billion Boring Company has decided to ‘rescue’ the residents of the area to ensure such a situation doesn’t arise in the future.
According to Review-Journal, The Boring Company’s (TBC) has started a project in Vegas to make traffic more manageable following its completion. As a result, locals will feel more comfortable with the Grand Prix taking place at this venue in the future. The project will act as an extension of the Vegas Loop, a model that uses Tesla model vehicles, transporting passengers between stations in a point-to-point system.
The Vegas Loop involved the University City Loop and it will link the parcel of land between University Center Drive and Paradise Road with the Las Vegas Convention Center using a dual tunnel system.
Musk’s company has acquired the land which is present directly across University Center Drive from the Thomas & Mack Center for $7.1 million.
“Ultimately — and our focus isn’t too far out — that will be running up and down Koval (Lane) because at that point you tie the entire system to the interior of the Formula One circuit and that starts to be a real traffic mitigator for the race,” said Steve Hill, President, and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Last year, residents struggled to commute due to the preparations that were taking place around the area, but this will not be a problem this time around.
F1 popularity dipping in the United States
While F1 is trying to spread its wings in different regions across the globe, Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s dominance last year made some feel that the sport was losing its charm.
Viewership data also suggested a downward trend, which will be rather worrying for Liberty Media. Although F1’s popularity has surged in recent years following the success of the Netflix docu-series Drive to Survive, the viewership data obtained from the United States is less promising compared to previous years.
The end of the 2021 season meant plenty of more eyeballs were on F1 when the following season began, with a 28% increase in viewership numbers. However, this dropped by 8% last year in the United States.
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