Editorial
Formula One's American audience has exploded in the past three years, and the bars catching up to that demand are catching up fast. A good F1 bar means a screen large enough to distinguish a Red Bull from a Ferrari at 200mph, sound that carries the engine note properly, and a crowd that keeps quiet through the commentary and loses its mind at the Safety Car. We've tracked down the best bars to watch Formula One across New York, London, and Las Vegas — including a few that have elevated race day into something genuinely special.
New York's F1 following has grown dramatically since Drive to Survive landed on Netflix. These bars have kept pace with demand, investing in the right screens and building the right crowds for a race that often starts at 9am Eastern time.
London has had a Formula One culture since the sport was invented, and the bars reflect that. These are the venues where the commentary gets turned up, where team merchandise is worn without irony, and where people stay after the chequered flag to debate strategy decisions for another hour.
Since the Las Vegas Grand Prix joined the calendar in 2023, the city has developed a year-round F1 culture to match its existing sports bar infrastructure. These venues have elevated race-day watching into something the city does well — big, loud, and unapologetically spectacular.
The F1 bar experience depends heavily on screen quality and sound. The sport rewards proper AV investment more than almost any other — the difference between a 55-inch television and a 120-inch projection screen is the difference between watching F1 and experiencing it. Beyond hardware, look for a crowd that knows the sport: bars where people discuss strategy rather than just react to crashes are the ones where the full 90-minute broadcast rewards the early start. If you're going for a European race, get there 20 minutes before the pre-race show — the best seats go fast.
James attended the 2022 Miami Grand Prix and has been finding excuses to expense F1 bar visits ever since. He has a strong opinion about which circuit produces the best race-day atmosphere and will tell you about it without prompting.