Grand Prix Plaza — Attraction in Paradise

I love F1, but more importantly, I love Go Karts. I'm nowhere near a professional karter, but I've done more than my fair share. I've done K1 speed and Speed Vegas. To say this blows those places out of the water is an understatement.

Now I've seen a few reviews and videos saying the karts appear "slow." It's very important to mention there are two experiences for the karts. One is called "Mixed Grid," and the other is called the "Elite Experience."" The mixed grid is for families and people more unfamiliar with go-karts, so the karts are tuned to be slower and easier to maneuver. The Elite Package has an age restriction for 16+, and the Karts are fast. I mean BLAZING fast.

First, you are set up with a head scarf, brought to a briefing room to explain the rules, then given a helmet and a Kart. The Karts are equipped with both DRS and ERS (ERS is like a nos system giving you a massive boost on straights and through turns). The first race is a qualifier. It is a speed test rather than a traditional race, so the best time qualifies your position (just like in a normal race). Your second race starts you at the grid for your position, and when the Christmas tree turns green, you slam that gas, and away you go for some true F1 action.

the Kart track zips through the entire F1 paddock garages and then goes outside to the actual pit lanes. You are racing on the actual LVGP track. This isn't some indoor warehouse. You are actually racing on the asphalt that the real F1 cars drive on, and that's a surreal experience.

Now I do have some minor gripes, but none of them take away from the experience. The first one is I understand the first race being a timed qualifier. That's just like in F1. However, I don't see the point of making both races a timed qualifier when you start us off at an actual position. If you're starting us off on a grid with a full Christmas "red, then green" send-off, it feels massively wasted to have a guy in 12th place finish first simply because he weighs 80 pounds and can finish a full lap in 45 seconds. I wish there was more chances to overtake, defend, etc. In more ways than one the track kinda feels like a Go-Kart version of Monaco where whoever is in front is gonna win no matter what, only the "front" is based simply on time. I get it's done to prevent aggressive and rude drivers and I get that it's for safety reasons, I just wish the second race felt more like an actual race.

last gripe is the price. Now they have a local deal which honestly makes it not that much more than K1. If you're gonna do a Karting experience, this is the best in the city, and I don't think a 20 buck difference from K1 is that bad. However, for non-locals, the Elite experience is 100 bucks. It's pretty pricey, especially if Karting is something you wanna do on a regular basis. All in all though none of these gripes take away from my 5 star review. I think F1 Drive is the best Karting experience in Vegas or Nevada and actually being able to race on part of the LVGP track is so surreal (pro-tip book at night so you get the true F1LVGP...

Took our 8yr old newfound "F1' fan (seen movie 6x now! plays PS5 game with APX upgrade). Visited at 10:15am on Saturday (opens at 10am). Unfortunately despite meeting height requirements - needed to be 12 for the karting but understand given difference in maturity/sometimes hindering others experience.

Purchased $49 F1X interactive museum tours w/Driving Simulator. Didn't know what to expect but it was outstanding and great value. After registering w/photo and receiving lanyard access cards we walked through various partitioned sections.

Some included -

F1 history - complete with iconic Drivers, their suits/helmets and accompanying video and landmark vehicles on display. Team conference area (like in the F1 movie). Trackside team monitoring (like in the F1 movie). Engines, Aerodynamic, displays noting the 5 different wheel compounds also noted by sidewall color designators. Wheel change 'garage'. Hands-on wheel swaps with a center lock ring/Impact gun. Rear wheel/tire is only 25pds. Vehicle color and graphic configurator - noting the merits of branding and necessity at 200mph. Reviewing the results of the configurator - cleverly displayed onto a full-size car replica (option pictures to purchase

Thought I'd share my review of my experience at the GPP last week. I am a Las Vegas resident, FI fan, and attended the LV GP this past fall.... In short, the experience was mediocre and not up to my expectations for F1. We started with the F1-X which was interesting and the employee guides were attentive and helpful. Content was engaging but the price a little too high for most to access - especially local families even at the discounted rate. I'd suggest making the NV resident rate lower for this experience. We next went on to the F1 Drive. The track layout is challenging and karts are pretty cool. The DRS feature is fun in a larger group where there are cars to pass. Staff was helpful but did not explain how to properly use the DRS and ERS buttons so I had to tinker with them while driving to figure out how to use them. The assistant fitting for helmets didn't know how to size properly and we had to get our helmets changed between races. The time measuring app is completely messed up as it did not give an accurate account of the race results. And in the 'race' itself, there was no finish line and results showed people with clearly faster lap times that placed further behind those that did not. It is advertised as an Elite experience however I think I had a better experience for about half the cost at a local electric karting track such as K1. It also would be nice to also give an introductory NV resident discount on this experience. $99 for the tourists is fine but a little steep for locals - that can bring in more business. Finally we did the F1 SIMS. The haptic seats, screen, and set up was impressive however, it would be a way more fun experience to race against others present or at least computer generated opponents if there isn't enough of a heat. We did the SIMS at the GP where we raced against each other and it was super fun - this is what we were expecting at the GPP SIMS experience. The other thing is that it is advertised as 3 races but essentially you just go around the track over and over again 'racing' yourself (no DRS - why bother even having the button options??!!) for 9 minutes straight. We were told by the employees that the 9 minutes were 3 'races' that the experience is advertised as. Yeah, that really wasn't fun and after running for 9 minutes straight, I ended up feeling motion sick. Would have been better to actually have three 3 minute races against each other. Overall, at this point, I can't really recommend this experience to my friends and family as is. We spent nearly $400 for the 2 of us. I know it could be way better...