Fine Art and Mercedes Matrimony: A recap of the 2025 F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix
- Kick The Concrete
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
The F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix offered a thrilling weekend on and off the track. And we expect nothing less from Sin City.
The drama on the track started in the second practice session when a loose manhole cover caused a red flag. It's become tradition at Las Vegas, really.
For the race, Max Verstappen took advantage of Lando Norris' poor defense from pole position and cruised to victory at the circuit where he captured his fourth F1 championship last year. The McLaren driver finished second and George Russell joined them on the podium — and the post-race interviews in front of the Fountains of Bellagio.
And, in Vegas fashion, there was more drama. The next morning, both Norris and his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, were disqualified from the race for having rear skid blocks that were under regulation. That leaves the drivers' championship race wide open between Verstappen, Norris and Piastri with only two races left.
F1 Academy also wrapped up its season in Las Vegas. Mercedes' Doriane Pin finished first and fifth in the series' two races and won the drivers' championship. She finished the year with 172 points, beating her rival, Ferrari's Maya Weug, by by only 15 points. F1 Academy competed in 15 races on seven circuits across the globe.
Of course, the racing was just one of many activities going on throughout the week. World famous hotels, local artists, and a toy brand made the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix a spectacle.
Here's an off-track recap of the 2025 F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix:
Viva Las Liveries
Once again, several teams embraced the spirit of Las Vegas with a fun livery. Two teams emulated the glitz and glam of the city while one spiced things up with a farewell message.
Williams fit right into Las Vegas with its Night Mode livery. They went with a stark black base, but the thin stripes of blue, green, yellow, and purple perfectly embodied the mystique of Sin City. The colors are supposed to represent The Strip, but also pay tribute to technology, specifically Williams' title sponsor and their Rovo AI product.
“This striking livery is the latest celebration of our work with partners Atlassian, who are helping to accelerate our tech transformation and bring Williams right back to the cutting edge," team principal James Vowles said in a statement. "There could not be a more iconic place to unveil this than in Las Vegas, one of the most tech-forward cities in the world.”
Credit: Atlassian Williams Racing
Visa Cash App Racing Bulls absolutely always delivers with their car design. After going glitter for last year's race, they captured the spirit of Vegas with a holographic livery that shone bright under the lights.
Simon Ramampiaro Designs created the masterpiece and explained its significance.
"This livery was a special one for me, with the creative freedom, coordinating closely with Faenza and VCARB Brand in Milton Keynes," the artist said in an Instagram post. "A technically challenging livery, even for F1 standards, with the use of iridescent holographic materials, the car changing color multiple times, front to back through every corner."
And, of course, it also is a promotion for Cash App's Holo Card. It is the first premium credit card to start at $0.
Credit: Visa Cash App Racing Bulls
Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber went hard last year with a flame paint job. This season's Vegas design commemorated the home stretch of the season while bidding adieu to their run as a team. They kept their vibrant green base and added a checkered flag ribbon for some pizzazz.
This is Stake's last year on the grid because they will become Audi F1 for the 2026 season.
Local Artist Goes Abstract with Checkered Flag for Fashion Show Las Vegas
The whole city of Las Vegas gets involved when F1 comes to town. Fashion Show Las Vegas, a popular upscale shopping center, commissioned local artist Nancy Good to create a painting to celebrate the race and the city’s culture.
The vibrant piece is called “Where Love is in Fashion.” Good utilized her signature abstract style to portray the energy of the race, a message of thoughtfulness, and the beauty of Las Vegas sunsets. It features a bright pink background with dizzying lines of green and blue, and swirls of checkerboard. A closer look reveals several little dots and waves throughout the design.
"Art is fashion. Art is always, for the most part, filled with love," Good told Kick The Concrete. "My visual language incorporates a lot of love layered, sometimes visible, sometimes quite overt. (The piece is) also wanting to represent the excitement of the race, because it is very exciting. It transforms our whole city, really, even though the race itself is overlaid over The Strip, but it does get the whole city excited and the whole valley excited."
Fashion Show Las Vegas is much more than a mall. They gave away prints of Good's art as part of their Gift With Purchase program. They have art walks, exhibits and more throughout the year.
"We're so excited to work with (Good) this year because she has just such a distinctive artist's voice and vision," Jayne Sherr, Senior Marketing Manager of Fashion Show Las Vegas, said. "She's very thoughtful and design-driven. And through this program, we really like to highlight the vibrancy of our local art community. Nancy is really truly at the center of that with her own art and mentoring local artists as well. It just was a great opportunity for us to spotlight everything that she does and bring all of that vibrancy to hopefully show people visiting Las Vegas for the race, what a dynamic art scene we have here."
Makin My Way into F1: Lego makes a splash with F1 Academy deal, pink Cadillac driven by Terry Crews
Lego gave us one of the best moments of the F1 season when they sponsored the drivers' parade in Miami. The toy company also made the Las Vegas Grand Prix extra special in many ways.
Lego announced that they will sponsor a car on next year's F1 Academy grid. And they tossed their hat in the ring for the impressive trophies award by giving Chloe Chambers, the winner of the second F1 Academy race, and her fellow podium finishers, Alisha Palmowski and Maya Weug, each a bouquet of Lego flowers. They look so real!
And that's not all. The Lego team built an entire 1954 pink Cadillac out of bricks! 481,556 of them to be exact. It took nearly 4,000 hours to complete. The car was created to celebrate the launch of the new Cadillac F1 team, which will be joining the grid next season, and it was a centerpiece at the F1 Las Vegas wedding chapel.
But THEN, instead of a fancy Rolls-Royce taking the top three drivers around the track as in the previous two years, Terry Crews drove the pink Lego Cadillac to escort Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and George Russell to the Fountains of Bellagio. The bonus was that the actor sang a rendition of "A Thousand Miles" mimicking his iconic scene from "White Chicks." Everyone was cracking up.
Who needs Elvis? Valtteri Bottas marries a couple at F1 Las Vegas wedding chapel
Valtteri Bottas has been getting the most out of the grand prix weekends. Perhaps not having a seat on the grid this season was good for him to have a little bit of fun before jumping into launching the Cadillac F1 team next year. Did you see him spend four hours at Tecovas?
A highlight of the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend was definitely the Mercedes reserve driver walking a bride down the aisle at the F1 wedding chapel. Then he even served as the officiant for the ceremony while wearing a sparkly sequins jacket, of course.
Bottas detailed how the bride, Amanda Zahra, and groom, Eduardo Feliciano, met at a music festival in 2018 in Texas "when their eyes touched each other's eyes and they fell in love immediately."
"I can, in fact, feel that love right now," Bottas shared, "so you're doing the right thing."
The ceremony was sponsored by adidas, Mercedes' official apparel partner, so Bottas, Feliciano, and Zahra were all wearing adidas sneakers. The bride's shoes served as her "something blue."
Bottas asked them to say "I Do" and declared them husband and wife "forever and ever."