Photos: Formula 1 Does Las Vegas in Style

Twice a Grand Prix venue, when in 1981 Alan Jones won driving for Williams, and a year later, Michele Alboreto did the business for Tyrrell.

In his historical analysis of the two races during Bernie Ecclestone's early reign as F1 supremo, Randall Cannon wrote: "The long-departed Caesars Palace Grand Prix was held on a purpose-built F1 course through parking facilities and fallow land just north of the Caesars resort in 1981 and 1982 before converting its twisting road course to an IndyCar roval."

At the time few embraced the concept and thus after two editions, F1 and Vegas parted ways. Until last year when it was announced that the race would go back to the city that East Coast mobster Bugsy Siegel and his cohorts laid the foundation for.

Long gone (apparently) are the days of Goodfellas and Casino (the movie) as Las Vegas cleaned up its act to focus on gambling, of course, but also massive entertainment theme park hotels and projects, which now has F1 on the landscape.

On November 5, Formula 1 hosted a full day of events and activations to kick off the countdown to the inaugural 2023 Las vegas Grand Prix. The festivities included a ‘Painting of the Start Line’ ceremony, public fan festival, private VIP celebration and a live car run on the Las Vegas Strip with F1® drivers George Russell Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Pérez.

As the symbolic start of the lead-up to the 2023 race, the afternoon began with a ‘Painting of the Start Line’ ceremony at the future site of the paddock building. Executives including the Formula 1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali, Liberty Media President and CEO Greg Maffei and race CEO Renee Wilm were joined by Governor Steve Sisolak, Chairman, Clark County Commission, Jim Gibson, local elected officials, local elected officials, partners and more to each paint a portion of the starting grid and toast to the year ahead.

Beginning at 11 a.m, fans made their way to Caesars Palace to explore a variety of activations including a pit stop challenge, e-sports simulators and car and trophy photo opportunities.

Thousands of attendees lined up along Las Vegas Boulevard to catch a glimpse of some of the sport’s biggest star driver including 7-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, his Mercedes-AMG Petronas teammate George Russell, Oracle Red Bull Racing's 4-time Grand Prix winner Sergio Pérez, as they sped down the iconic Las Vegas Strip – giving spectators a preview into the upcoming event.

Following the car runs, Hamilton, Russell and Pérez as well as Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner and Williams Racing Driver Alex Albon and Team Principal Jost Capito were presented on the main stage and shared their excitement to race in Las Vegas in 2023.

The evening concluded with a private VIP celebration at Caesars Palace’s Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis. Prior to a special performance by The Killers, Domenicali, Maffei and Wilm were joined on stage by Maggie Timoney, CEO of Heineken USA, to toast to the recent announcement of Heineken Silver being named as the title race sponsor. The group push down on the giant F1 button to signal that tickets are officially on-sale, and activate a spectacular drone show that capped off a full day of events and activations.