For Venetian, Alpine F1 Partnership Draws a Crowd

Everybody who walked by gawked at the sight. Plenty stopped to take photos, some trying to touch the focus of everyone’s attention — so much so that a security officer was stationed nearby.

It was not the fountain that visitors to the Venetian in Las Vegas saw when they first walked into the lobby area. It was the 2020-era Alpine F1 car, stationed a few steps away, one of the more visible examples of the hotel’s partnership with the Formula 1 team during the recent Las Vegas Grand Prix.

In the second year of the partnership, the Venetian used Grand Prix week in part to promote highlights of its $1.5 billion reinvestment plan. That plan includes re-envisioning thousands of rooms in the towers plus incoming premium restaurant partners that include Cote Korean Steakhouse, known for serving A5 wagyu from Kobe, Sendai and Miyazaki to 45-, 90- and 120-day aged steak cooked on smokeless grills.

The hotel served as a respite for the 100-plus members of Alpine F1, who were able to walk around the property in relative anonymity while enjoying some of the biggest guest suites on the Strip.

“I was quite happy to get up this morning and look up at the sky and it does feel like you’re in Venice, which is pretty cool,” Alpine F1 Team Principle Oliver Oakes said during race week.

Accommodations for the traveling F1 teams are “really important,” said Rob Cherry, Alpine race team manager. “Where possible, we try to make sure the hotels are of a good standard and they usually are. There’s some countries where you can’t, it’s not feasible to get them. But the majority of the time we have a decent hotel. And that just allows people to finish work, they come back, they relax. If they’re awake in the middle of the night because of jet lag, they’ve got a nice environment and it goes a long way.”

The Venetian — which also has a partnership with the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights — also was home for an F1 merchandise store that as the week went on became busier and busier, with lines that stretched to nearly a two-hour wait on the Friday and Saturday of race weekend. Even before then, the wait was up to 30 minutes or more as the store opened, driven by insane demand for the F1 collaboration with Peanuts and its related Snoopy merchandise.

Racetrack Suite Impresses

For those who also wanted to watch the race (imagine that!) the Venetian offered racetrack views at a suite positioned to view drivers as the zoomed down the Strip. A VIP viewing platform was sitting on top of an outside canal where gondolas usually float, having been builts in just under a month’s time for the event.

The two-story structure was adorned almost entirely in the deep red color of the Venetian and lit up by neon at night. The scent in the air was a mix of cologne, perfume and money. It included liquor options each night with a full tasting menu of exquisite food, so much so that if it wasn’t so good you wouldn’t feel so bad stuffing your face with it.

Between the canals in the upper level, shopping at various price points and the casino on the main level, there was also plenty for people to do with any rare down time — even if they may have forgotten a thing or two when packing, which is what happened to Alpine driver Pierre Gasly.

“I forgot my chips, actually,” he admitted on Wednesday of race week. “(Last year) I left Vegas, flew to Dallas, opened my bags and I had some Venetian chips in my bag. It’s like, ‘What am I supposed to do with it now?’ Three days before my travel, I was back home and I was like, ‘I got to remember these chips.’ Left home, arrived at the airport, I was like, ‘I’m sure I forgot something.’ Only thing I forgot is the chips. I’ve got to wait another year (now).”