The third race in the United States is next week, the Las Vegas Grand Prix. With hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the project, many feel the race is more an attraction than a competitive race for F1. Former FIA boss Bernie Ecclestone shares that sentiment.

Ecclestone, who was responsible for widening the global range of Formula One, said that he was not enthusiastically awaiting the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The 92-year-old said there are already too many races on the current F1 calendar, and 24 would be too much for a single year. Ecclestone said that the Las Vegas GP has nothing to do with Formula 1 at all, unlike other classic tracks.

I'm not really looking forward to Las Vegas, that has nothing to do with Formula 1. Who knows what will happen in the future, maybe we will lose some races, 24 on the calendar are too many and I think they will remove some. 

Bernie Ecclestone said, as reported by soymotor.com

Bernie Ecclestone’s statement comes after his involvement in two major scandals. The first one was the interview where Ecclestone revealed that the FIA knew about the Singapore Grand Prix race fixing by Renault, inciting Felipe Massa to begin legal processes. The second, more expensive scandal for the business magnate came when Ecclestone was convicted and pled guilty to tax fraud of over $800 million. 

Astounding price tag for Las Vegas GP pit building revealed

The Las Vegas Grand Prix is right around the corner, and preparations for the race are underway. One of the most expensive races to set up, the Las Vegas GP will see some spectacular showmanship from F1 for the second-ever race in the Sin City and the first in 4 decades.

With Las Vegas being a popular tourist attraction, the property in the city has staggering prices, which meant the land bought to construct the circuit and adjacent buildings set F1 back by 240 million dollars. The pit building for the Grand Prix was also approximately $250 million, which skyrocketed the expense to nearly half a billion dollars.

The building is set to be the F1 US headquarters after the Grand Prix on the 18th of November. The Las Vegas pit building consists of four stories, spanning 300 square feet, sitting in a site of 39 whole acres. The circuit is partially composed of existing Las Vegas roads, closed from the public in preparation for the race.

In case you missed it:

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• Did Formula One miss out on the memo that it will be extremely cold during the Las Vegas GP because it is too busy making profits?

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