For one weekend a yr, a piece of stands separates the Bellagio fountains from the 20 cars speeding down the Las Vegas Strip. While Lando Norris's Papaya McLaren and Max Verstappen's leading Red Bull Racing are three races within sight of the championship, town faces a sprint of its own: a race against everlasting drought. The excesses of a race weekend, from a Formula One automobile hanging from the club's ceiling to a Caesars Palace Emperor package with a $5 million price tag, are best illustrated by towering fountains spraying water – 22 million gallons – 460 feet into the air. For a moment, it's hard to do not forget that Formula 1 races within the desert.
Start/finish straight to the Las Vegas Strip, with the illuminated Bellagio fountains within the background.
Photo: Philip Hurst / Motorsport Images
In Nevada, water is just not just something you drink. It finally ends up on local ballots and carries severe penalties if used incorrectly. Water, or the shortage of it, determines whether residents will replace their lawns with lawns for $3 per square foot through the Cash4Grass program established by the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA). The Las Vegas Valley Water District's water patrol watches area streets and keeps a watch on residents who wash their cars on non-designated watering days; and environmentalists warn of future water wars, Las Vegas is on the brink. Its own regional conflict has been happening for over 100 years.
The desert state, an arid land area, received just 4 percent of the lower Colorado River basin's water allotment when river water was divided amongst southwestern states in 1922. Despite the big variety of slot machines, which brought in $10.2 billion in revenue in 2023 within the state, it still receives the identical amount of water 102 years later. And its supply, overestimated within the negotiations, is decreasing.
Formula One, which has casinos, designer stores, Elvis wedding chapels and Cirque du Soleil shows for the late November race weekend, also uses water from the Colorado River through Lake Mead, based on SNWA. . Thirty thousand gallons of this were used simply to clear the track. And while residents and businesses in the realm are forced to be mindful of their water use, there is no such thing as a specific water allocation for the race.
Nearly 100% of Las Vegas's indoor water is recycled and returned to Lake Mead, the source of 90 percent of town's water. Outside water is lost to the atmosphere. As aquifers recede, the Colorado River dries up, and the Lake Mead basin ring that water has reached becomes more pronounced, Las Vegas is learning to adapt. Its limited use, such as the dimensions of 100,000 Olympic swimming pools, is basically resulting from water recycling measures.
So when F1 first considered racing on the Strip, it desired to do it in probably the most sustainable way possible. Evaporative cooling, a water-intensive approach to cool indoor stadiums and Las Vegas' second-largest water consumer, provided a glaring opportunity for innovation.
For the inaugural 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, Formula 1 partnered with MGM Resorts, SNWA and nonprofit WaterStart to construct an atmospheric water generator. The system recovers excess water via an evaporative cooling tower, which captures moist air and blows it through an enormous fan. The tower produces steam, which is condensed into water and utilized in the cooling system, which Las Vegas Grand Prix and SNWA say might be counted as reclaimed water to offset Formula One's water use.
Last yr, the atmospheric water generator produced 230,000 gallons of water. The project is being touted as bringing the Las Vegas Grand Prix closer to “the first-ever Formula 1 race to achieve net-zero water consumption.”
The F1 Grand Prix Plaza, full of guest apartments and team garages, was built just as town updated development regulations to put a moratorium on using evaporative cooling in latest buildings.
Fans watch the Plaza F1 Grand Prix over the pit lane
Photo: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“While the Las Vegas Grand Prix could have installed evaporative cooling prior to the moratorium, a conscious decision was made to install a dry cooling unit that does not use water,” said Bronson Mack, public information officer for SNWA. “Using dry cooling technology in the Las Vegas Grand Prix Plaza building saves approximately three million gallons or more per year.”
(Dry cooling towers use cold air as a substitute of cool water to remove heat from buildings, acting like a mega air conditioner.)
Mack adds: “All racing fans who travel to Las Vegas enjoy the water during their visit. Water used for showers, sinks, toilets and laundry is recovered, thoroughly treated and sustainably returned to Lake Mead – with no impact to our water supply.”
Boasting its own water supply in the shape of personal aquifers and wells, the Strip is praised as a frontrunner in conservation since it does so much with a small water supply. “It's not a marketing tactic, and in fact, other states and cities often look to Las Vegas to learn how to use less,” Elizabeth Koebele, an associate professor of political science on the University of Nevada Reno and a graduate student in hydrological sciences in this system's associate faculty, said . The Palazzo, a luxury Italian-inspired hotel, has its own water treatment plant, conveniently positioned within the lower garage. The ministry claims that the standard of water recovery is best than in town system. MGM's goal is to cut back water withdrawal intensity by 33 percent by 2025, and current environmental conservation efforts have saved greater than 5.6 million gallons of water.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23, fights with Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19, ahead of George Russell, Mercedes F1 W14, Pierre Gasly, Alpine A523, Alex Albon, Williams FW45, Logan Sargeant, Williams FW45, remainder of the grid firstly
Photo: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
And it's no secret that casinos and resorts have money to construct expensive water reclamation systems and finance water compensation projects. For example, MGM Resorts properties on the Las Vegas Strip reported 2023 net revenues of $8.8 billion, with F1 revenues starting from $50 million to $70 million, Las Vegas (KLAS) reports. A more cost effective solution could also be an atmospheric water generator, which costs $400,000.
Formula 1 and its partners emphasize that the first-of-its-kind water recycling device could be a model for an ever-changing climate and offer solutions needed today. “When large companies like F1 want to invest in new technologies such as atmospheric water capture and recycling, they can help prove and improve these technologies and make them more commercially viable,” Koebele added.
An atmospheric water generator won't solve Nevada's water crisis alone, but perhaps that's why it's fit for Formula 1: a racing series that moves toward sustainability, with the caveat that probably the most sustainable option is just not to race in any respect.
