The New Circuit Culture
Heineken and DX7 Design’s high-voltage vision for 2025’s F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix blends tech and design
Formula 1 has always embraced spectacle, but in Las Vegas the spectacle becomes the starting point rather than the finish line. For 2025, the Las Vegas Grand Prix and global design studio DX7 Design reshaped the Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix into a citywide, multi-sensory environment that pushed the sport far beyond the boundaries of a traditional race weekend. Along with brand sponsors, including Las Vegas Grand Prix title sponsor Heineken, the result is a vision of F1 that blends technology, culture, architecture and fandom into a single continuous experience.
Heineken’s Decade of Cultural Stewardship
Heineken has been central to Formula 1 culture since 2016, and the brand’s newly renewed global partnership ensures it will continue to shape the sport for years to come. The extension introduces the first ever F1 season ticket, a money-cannot-buy pass that grants one fan access to every race on the calendar with travel and accommodations included. It is a bold reflection of Heineken’s deep investment in global fandom and its role in the sport’s growth in the United States.
The brand’s title sponsorships across the Las Vegas, Dutch, Brazil, Madrid and Silverstone Grands Prix further anchor it in the world of F1. Its messaging remains grounded in responsibility. “When You Drive, Never Drink,” supported by Max Verstappen and Heineken 0.0, creates a safety-forward narrative that sits comfortably alongside the high-speed nature of the sport.
Las Vegas: Heineken at Full Voltage
Nowhere is Heineken’s cultural role more visible than in Las Vegas. Inside the Paddock Club, the brand curates premium hospitality that mirrors the global allure surrounding F1. Celebrity guests this year included Martin Garrix, Jimmy Butler, Paul Wesley, Dom Dolla, Matt Cornett and Logan Lerman, underscoring the race’s place at the center of entertainment culture.
“Heineken has a deep and authentic connection to F1, and it has been an absolute thrill to watch the sport’s growing cultural movement expand in the US over this past decade,” says Alison Payne, Heineken USA’s CMO. “With a new, diverse audience coming to the sport, we know that these consumers appreciate the energy, style and sheer spectacle that comes with F1, and that is what we are leaning into as a brand. The Heineken Las Vegas Grand Prix is a one-of-a-kind race that provides an authentic way for our brand to tap into the growing US fanbase through the glamour of F1 alongside the unparalleled backdrop and energy of Las Vegas.”
Across the circuit, Heineken’s fan zones serve as immersive playgrounds. The Koval Zone brought back The Trophy Tower with sweeping aerial views and access to the 2025 trophy. Turn 4 Club delivered a high energy, trackside party with DJs and ice-cold brews. In East Harmon, the Heineken Silver Stage hosted Shaggy, Dillon Francis, Jazzy and BANDABBA along with full driver Q&A sessions that brought fans face-to-face with all 20 drivers. The Heineken Cockpit added a playful, hands-on moment that put fans inside the action.
DX7 Design’s Citywide Creative Vision
The year also marks a major creative evolution led by DX7 Design, which served as design lead across all eight fan zones. Working closely with Emily Prazer, CEO of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the studio reimagined the entire event as a futurist festival that stretched across more than two million square feet.
DX7 infused the circuit with a cohesive visual identity shaped by neon gradients, clean geometries, immersive lighting and kinetic sculptural elements. Every zone functions as its own destination but also as part of a larger interconnected environment linked by motion, color and sound. Large-scale entrance arches create portals between spaces. Video-wrapped lighting towers pulse like digital monoliths. Sculptural neon cars appear suspended in mid race.
Nothing in the design is ornamental. Every element contributes to a narrative that treats the Grand Prix as a citywide installation.
A Lighting System Without Precedent
Behind the scenes, DX7 delivered its largest temporary lighting and video system ever constructed. All eight zones were connected through a fiber-based network that allowed synchronized lighting, video, and effects across the entire circuit. Unified countdowns, race intros and programmed lighting moments spread across plazas, towers and rooftops. Incoming flights could even see the coordinated displays from above the Strip.
This level of synchronization is rare in global sporting events and reflects DX7’s experience in large-scale live entertainment. Founded by Tom Sutherland in 2012, the studio’s portfolio spans Beyoncé’s 2024 NFL Halftime Show, the BRIT Awards, MTV VMAs, SNL’s 50th anniversary celebration and last year’s Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix.
A New Formula for F1
With Heineken driving cultural engagement and DX7 Design shaping the physical and visual environment, the 2025 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix sets a new benchmark for what an F1 weekend can be. The event becomes a continuous, immersive festival that merges architecture, technology, performance and racing into one cohesive experience.
It is bold. It is expansive. It is unmistakably Las Vegas. And it signals the direction Formula 1 is heading next.
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