It's illegal to stop and watch the Las Vegas F1 Grand Prix without a ticket so fans have come up with a genius escalator hack

You’re not allowed to stop and watch the Las Vegas Formula 1 Grand Prix without a ticket.

There are laws against it, and they’re designed to make sure you don’t block foot traffic and don’t get to watch the GP for free when other people are paying.

This basically means it is technically illegal to simply stand anywhere with a view of The Strip during the GP.

But this is one of those laws that’s difficult to enforce, especially now people have discovered a brilliant loophole.

You can’t watch the F1 for free

Just like Monaco and Baku, the Las Vegas Grand Prix is held around the same roads people use to drive to work every day.

In Monaco, mostly due to geographical reasons, authorities simply seal the whole town shut during the GP, which means you wouldn’t be able to walk around freely even if you wanted to.

But that’s not possible in Vegas, which means you can walk around while the race is happening a few feet away from you.

However, in order to make sure people don’t get to watch the GP for free (especially considering how expensive tickets are), authorities have made it illegal to simply stand around and watch the race.

Not only is it unfair to people who bought a ticket, but it blocks foot traffic in some of the busiest areas.

You’re not allowed to stop and watch the Las Vegas Formula 1 Grand Prix, and if you do, you’ll get a ticket.

But, as it turns out, there’s a loophole that people are exploiting.

You’re not allowed to stop and watch the Las Vegas Formula One Grand Prix without a ticket and stopping in a pedestrian walking zone or on a bridge with a view will get you a ticket, a fine or worse trouble. A few locals and tourists are circumventing this by utilizing the… pic.twitter.com/U6lifxzKDL

— Jen G. (@vegasstarfish) November 23, 2025

A few locals and tourists discovered that you can watch the GP by using escalators near Las Vegas Boulevard, which everyone knows as ‘The Strip’.

That counts as moving around, and you can’t get a ticket for that.

It’s not exactly ideal, but it’s free.

Is the Las Vegas GP here to stay?

There are 24 GPs in the F1 calendar, three of which are in the US, more than any other country.

But apparently that’s not enough.

Speaking at a recent motorsport event, Mercedes F1 boss, Toto Wolff, said it would be great to add a GP in New York.

But he also added that it would be difficult to host more than three Grands Prix in the same country, meaning a New York GP would likely have to replace one of the existing events in Las Vegas, Miami, or Texas.

The Miami GP’s contract runs until at least 2041, so it is out of the question.

Then we have the Texas GP, which has a contract that expires next year.

But what about the curious case of the Las Vegas GP?

This is the only GP that’s owned by F1 itself, which is like signing a deal with yourself and then shaking your own hand.

So, it’s unlikely it’s going to break a contract with itself.

That said, the contract technically expires at the end of this year.

There is an option to extend it through 2032, and the decision rests entirely with Formula 1’s owners.

That also means that if F1 owners wanted to relocate the GP from Las Vegas to New York, they wouldn’t have to ask or negotiate with anyone.

At the moment that sounds unlikely.

But these things can all change very quickly.

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