F1 November 2024
This was my first ever experience getting to see a live Formula 1 race and had no idea what I was getting into. It's worth noting that I'm not a great trip planner and was going on this trip on my own. I ended up making a lot of mistakes, but that's what life is about.
As a disclaimer, I'm sure if anyone reading this is a fan of the sport will be rolling their eyes at a lot of my decisions throughout this. I admit I'm not a serious fan of the sport and don't follow the seasons or teams, but I really enjoy the engineering and excitement of race day. For reference, the largest race events I've been to before this have been local oval tracks.
2024 was the first year I had the budget to see a major race event and had always wanted to see something as dramatic as Formula 1. Without knowing what I was doing, I decided I should probably get my tickets as early as possible at one of the biggest events available to me, Las Vegas.
This was my first mistake. I ended up paying $1000 just for General Admission. I came to find out that a week before the race, tickets were going for a few hundred, and on race weekend, they were going for as little as $150. You live and you learn, but at least this gave me the comfort of knowing that I would be able to get in.
I've always gone on cheap flights and dealt with all the usual shuffling, so that was no major issue. Although there was a bit of an omen with the fact that I'm almost never late for my flights and I barely caught my outgoing. But made it in the end. From what I recall, the flight itself was uneventful.
I didn't rent a car for this trip because I frankly didn't have the money and was within walking distance to the track from my hotel. I did have to make it from the airport to my hotel, though, as that was closer to 7 or 8 miles away and I was carrying luggage. I had to make a stop along the way to pick up a microphone for my camera, so I grabbed a rideshare to a retail store, that I only realized once I got there wouldn't open for another hour and a half. Unfortunately, I didn't get to use it for this event, as we'll find out later.
I made my way to a nearby park and called a few friends to let them know how things were going. Burned the last of my time playing games on my Steam Deck, made my way back to the store and picked up my micrphone. Then I was finally on my way to my hotel.
My rideshare dropped me off at the front of the Circus Circus resort that one of my friends had told was a decent budget option. I can't say I'll ever go there again. I already don't enjoy gambling and was trying to make my way to the front desk. Which just so happens to be at the complete opposite end from the strip entrance, meaning about a 3-minute walk from the desk to street.
I then got information on my room, which was another 5 minutes from the strip. It would be another 2 hours before my room would become available, and that's when I discovered there wasn't a single place in the entire building available to the public that would allow me to sit down and do some computer work or listen to music.
Everything was SO. LOUD. The closest I could find was a Starbucks on the second floor directly next to an awful Mr. Krabs-themed ride of some sort that would constantly shout out poorly-voiced lines encouraging children to come ride it. No one was even there yet and it was just insanely loud. I have to image they just never turn any of this shit off.
My room finally opens up, and I go straight to sleep until race time. Or so I thought... Seeing a trend yet? I walked my way all the way to the Sphere to see people gathering for what I could only assume was the Formula 1 event when I somehow realized that I had made my way to track a night early. I made my long walk of shame back to the hotel room and went to sleep for as long as my body would allow.
For most of this trip, I was pretty low on funds as I had spent most of my cashflow on the travel and ticket itself, so I wasn't able to really splurge on a ton of restaurants or shopping. Especially not gambling. So much of my time was spent in my hotel simply waiting for the race events. But I did have some spending money for the second day and decided to enjoy a properly tourist-y meal and decided to go with a Gordon Ramsay Burger. I'm no food critic, but here's my review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hot Damn. What a burger.
I walked around the strip for another few hours before the race to kill time, mostly just realizing that I was seriously not rich enough for Vegas. I'm glad I was there to see the race, because going there for anything else, even with the budget, would have likely left me disappointed.
Then came time for the actual race. I was properly excited. I made my way along the street toward the entrance when a few of us along the street were greeted by an official opening a door to one of the buildings to shortcut people to the track. This was where I learned of yet another mistake.
"No [camera] bags allowed."
"Uh, shoot. Okay. What do you suggest I do?"
"You can check it at the front desk."
"Where is that?"
"At the other end of the building."
"Can I go through the building?"
"You'll have to go around."
If you've never seen The Venetian, here is a quick look at a map:
They were letting people into the Sands Expo building where Sands Avenue curves into it. The front desk is at the southwest corner. Even traveling through the building, this was probably around half a mile each way. I make my way to the front desk and realize I'm left with a decision. I have two lenses with me – an 18-55mm for wide-angle shots, and a 55-250mm long-range lens – and can only bring one of them with me. I have no idea what my seats will look like, so I assume that as General Admission, I won't get the opportunity to get very close to the action, so I take my long lens.
I finally make my way back around to the track itself and get myself to the event. The Sphere is stupid, okay. Let's just get this out of the way. It's the kind of idea that sort of looks cool for a few minutes, but as soon as you start looking at it for longer thn that, you realize just how much of eyesore it really is. As someone who loves the engineering behind works like this, this one just made me sort of sad. So many more beautiful things could have adorned the Vegas skyline and some guy just went: ⚪️
But I digress. I walked up to the stands and started framing shots to come to the very quick realization that I very much had the wrong lens. Add it to the list. I spent most of the next hour learning how to frame my shots and dial in my lighting for the wildly bright track (all of these shots were at night). The first Ferarri Challenge cars made their way onto the circuit and started realizing that my skills would have to get better quick if I was going to get any good shots from the weekend.
As the night went on, I started gaining some confidence with following cars with my lens, and keeping things as tight as possible. Keep in mind all of the shots you see were at 55mm, meaning fully zoomed out with the lens I had. I was also standing at the highest point on the GA bleachers. Thankfully, I had spent some time with the camera at my local tracks prior, so I knew at least a little about what I was doing.
The only other pictures I took that I liked were of a parked (presumably retired) car being used for demonstration. I had to linger around the area for a solid 10 or 15 mintues before enough people were out of the way. Again, I had to be a solid 30 or 40 feet away to even partially fit the car in frame due to the lens.
Then the F1 cars came out. If there's any one word: Wow. I wasn't even at a fast part of the track. If you're familiar with the track, I was sitting near turn 6, and the cars were probably hitting around 100 MPH around a turn during Qualifying and Race day. I mention this because all of the pictures I took were on Practice day, and they were probably closer to 75-80 MPH, which allowed for better pictures.
You might ask yourself why I wouldn't be taking pictures throughout the weekend. Well, I thought I had this weekend figured out myself by this point, but there was yet another suprise waiting for me on Qualifying day. I knew that my camera bag would not be allowed and that my short lens was the way to go. I walked once more, this time all the way to the Sphere itself when I'm just about to walk through the admission gates when:
"Sorry, can't let you in with the camera."
"What's wrong with this camera?"
"No detachable lenses."
"What do you mean? I brought this in yesterday."
"Right. That was yesterday. No detachable lenses on Qualifying or Race day."
UGH. For anyone who knows even a little bit about photography, my camera having a detachable lens does nothing special for the image that a modern point-and-shoot with a zoom lens can't pull off. I'm using a Canon T5i that I picked up off eBay for about $400. It's far from a professional camera, especially now, and many phone cameras can even produce close to the quality of the images I was taking here.
Point aside, I made my way all the way back to the front desk once again to leave my camera behind entirely this time. I took only a few pictures with my phone, but it genuinely bothered me how little this entire scenario made sense. Not to mention the countless officials I had been walking by before making it to the front gate before being told this was the case.
On the upside, I managed to meet someone during the event and decided we should meet up the following day before the race. We enjoyed lunch and walked around for a few hours before race day. I tried reaching out to them after the event, but unfortunately never heard back. Nice guy.
For Race day, I simply enjoyed the thrill of the race, only taking a couple videos on my phone mostly for friends, and spent the rest of the race focused on the intense battles taking place. The race itself was absolutely fantastic with plenty of overtakes and close calls, somehow never resulting in more than a couple of Yellow Flags. At one point, there was even a 3-wide moment! Absolutely great race and wonderful to watch.
I made the final walk back to my hotel room, completely exhausted and desperate for shut-eye, I put my keycard in and... two red flashes. I try two more times. Nothing. Let me paint a scene:
- My checking account is completely drained, with only around $150 in savings
- My phone is dead
- My laptop, which I was using as my phone charger, is locked in my room
The receptionist is the single least-helpful customer service representative I've met in my entire life. I've had nearly 15 years working in customer service and still going, so I can tell the difference between someone having a bad day and someone just being just terrible. She was definitely terrible. From the time I got to the front desk to explaining the issue, getting permission to use a USB port to charge my phone, moving the money, and getting back into my hotel room took nearly an hour. There was probably 15 minutes in there of actual help.
I finally make my way tiredly back into my room and slump on my bed. The following morning, the flight back is smooth sailing. All-in-all, while I made many mistakes, I had a blast. I also ended up walking probably around 20 miles throughout the weekend, so I definitely got some excersize. If anything, it finally gave a sense of scale to how massive these cars actually are, which makes it all that much more impressive that they're able to go as fast as they do. I hope the pictures I took give the feeling of these justice, because as much as Vegas will not a track I'll return to, the track does make for some fantastically dramatic shots.