This is just a preliminary report, and there aren’t many details yet, but it’s not terribly surprising. At the Miami Grand Prix, grandstand tickets alone ran into thousands of dollars, and most attendees have to budget for travel and lodging. At Miami, I learned that full-weekend VIP ticket packages offered by certain South Beach hotels could cost as much as $120,000.

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We’re likely to see these VIP-level packages becoming more popular at F1 races in the near future, especially in Vegas, a city known for high rollers. But it definitely doesn’t bode well for the average race fan, and it definitely doesn’t help to welcome new Formula 1 enthusiasts who might have been excited to attend a new U.S. race.