F1: The Las Vegas GP race won’t have a Paddock (2nd Update)

F1 has decided to rename its pit building, avoiding the word ‘paddock’.

Grand Prix Plaza is now the official name of the 300,000-square-foot building located on the northeast corner of Harmon Avenue and Koval Lane, the Las Vegas Grand Prix confirmed. The building opened its doors in November for the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Betsy Fretwell, former city manager of Las Vegas, was hired as the chief operating officer of the Grand Prix and will be tasked with booking events for the plaza building.

Last year, Grand Prix CEO Renee Wilm said there were already events booked for the space in 2024.

Wilm noted potential bookings for the building included convention-oriented events, driving schools and experiences or utilizing 3D or 4D technology for other activations.

“We do know we’re going to create a lot of opportunities for activations to give people really interesting things to do,” Wilm said.

As we reported back in September, it’s now official – Las Vegas GP’s new state-of-the-art paddock is nearly complete, and it will officially be called the “pit building” to avoid the word paddock, and the grounds it will sit on will be called Grand Prix Plaza.

The word Paddock has been synonymous with F1 since its early days, but it won’t have a Paddock for the Las Vegas GP.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Mentally deranged Stephen ‘Paddock’ perpetrated the worst mass shooting in U.S. history during the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Festival on Oct. 1, 2017, a festival attended by thousands of conservative voters.

He killed 60 people and injured 867 from his room in the Mandalay Bay Hotel before killing himself. Paddock meticulously planned the attack.

On September 25, six days before the shooting, he checked into the hotel with 10 shooting-range bags and a computer. On September 29, he moved into an additional suite, 32-134, connected to the first one; both rooms overlooked the festival grounds. He stayed in both in the days leading up to the shooting.

As a result, the Las Vegas Grand Prix is looking to change the name of its paddock building out of sensitivity to the community.

This is somewhat problematic given that several things have the word ‘Paddock’ in them, namely the Paddock itself which houses the Paddock Building and all the team’s hospitality suites, the Paddock Club tickets and the Paddock Zone tickets.

Circuit Preparation work in final phases

With just 75 days left until race weekend, planned for Nov. 16-18, the 3.8-mile circuit will start to come into form as the final track work is carried out.

Installation of lighting structures that will illuminate the track began this week. Crews started adding the temporary lighting on Harmon Avenue, which will wrap up on Saturday.

Installation on the Strip will begin on Sept. 12 and run through Sept. 15 between Spring Mountain Road to near the Bellagio. A third phase of lighting installation on Las Vegas Boulevard will take place on Oct. 6 from near the Bellagio to Harmon.

Sands Avenue lighting installation is planned for Oct. 2-5, with Koval Lane lighting work scheduled to be done on Sept. 11 and then Oct. 9-13. Sphere area lighting work will occur between Sept. 25-29 and Nov. 6-14.

Paving around the paddock building is underway and will continue through Sept. 25, while the Sphere paving is scheduled to go until Sept. 13. Koval will see the final portion of paving for the circuit between Oct. 2 and Oct. 6.