My Uber driver, Jason, groans as he taps his iPhone to see my destination.
Normally a rideshare driver in Las Vegas expects a good portion of their pickups and drop-offs to take place along the Strip. But with Formula 1 in town to stage the Las Vegas Grand Prix this week, the famous neon-lit street has been turned into a makeshift racetrack for drivers like Max Verstappen and a traveling nightmare for drivers like Jason.
“You’re going to be my last drop-off here,” he tells me as he navigates heavy traffic down the repaved straightaway and turns into the Flamingo Las Vegas. “You can’t pay me enough to deal with this headache.”
He’s not alone. In a matter of months, the Las Vegas Grand Prix has gone from being one of the most expensive tickets in sports — leading to record-high hotel rates in Las Vegas — to seeing those prices crater unlike at any other event before it. How bad have things gotten?
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