Las Vegas – Unreal and great fun

by David&Michelle · February 3, 2024

Las Vegas is , well, Las Vegas. Full of casinos, lots of lights and copies of the Eiffel Tower and the wonderful Bellagio fountains. Las Vegas is home to the infamous Caesar’s Palace with the fake David. The Venetian is a copy of St. Mark’s Square in Venice and on the inside has the most amazing painted sky that looks very, very real. A little disturbing! The Sphere is an awesome spectacle which I had hoped would be used to facilitate the race. However, as with much of the sights and sounds, it is used for advertising and occasionally photos of the drivers. Imagine if they had used it as a big screen to actually show the race?

F1 has come to town the and is using the Vegas Strip as the race track. A pretty amazing backdrop.

Lets get the bad stuff out of the way. The races are held at night but unlike other night races the F1 events start very late, and finish at 1 am. Vegas at this time of year is cold and with the low temperatures and cold weather and lateness of the events people were falling asleep in the stands which had no lighting. Other night races finish much earlier. I don’t know why Vegas needs to finish so late…TV maybe.

The first practise finished after 8 minutes, due to a metal cover in the road dragged off by the two tonnes of suction force created by the F1 cars. Unfortunately for Carlos Sainz, it was his car that was damaged from the incident. Things like this happen in racing from time to time. Where the organisers went wrong was the complete lack of communication to the audience about what was going to happen next. It felt as if the organisers did not want to say because they knew that people would just leave and they could not have Kylie Minogue performing to only a handful of people. Only after the entertainment finished did the screens say that FP2 would be delayed. This was at about midnight. It was only through other people looking at external websites that we found out that FP3 would not take place until 2.30am. The organisers still did not inform the public of the revised time, which they would have to have known for the drivers etc.We left at about 1am with a few hardy souls determined to stick it out. However, they were turfed out because the security and event staff shut the venues down and left at 2am. A total shambles and very disappointing from a much hyped event.

I caught an interview with the team Principals in which a reporter asked if the event had been given a “black eye” by this fiasco. Toto Wolfe and the other principals fell on the reporter with a huge amount of vitriol declaring that the organisers (Liberty) had done such amazing things for F1 how could anyone dare to complain? I think Toto and the others have missed the point. There is no doubt that Liberty have dragged F1 into the 21st century and broadened the fan base hugely. The point is that the fans were let down massively. Toto and other principals fail to recognise that without the fans who actually pay for their tickets and watch on pay TV, those very same sponsors they are trying to protect would walk. The principals and organisers need to come down from their ivory towers and realise that it is not the very wealthy few who hold the sport together. Without the great unwashed they would be without a job and their huge salaries.

Overall, I think the racing has been great and the spectacle has been pretty amazing. The entertainment has been second to none. The Grand Prix in Vegas will settle down in price, as the organisers had to drop prices this year to sell all the tickets. The hotels followed suit. So hopefully the insane cost will reduce to a more normal level for a grand prix.

Now to the racing itself. The reason we are here after all.

What a weekend! Lots of drama from the no show of Thursday Free Practice 1 and 2, to the FP3 , qualies and the race itself. FP3 had lots of action with Williams hitting a barrier and losing a tyre which ended the session. This led to George Russell being top of the table followed by Piastri and Sargeant (yes you read it correctly) but some the big players did not get a last fast lap in. However, nice to see the Mercedes up there. Qualies next. Ferrari were getting every body’s hope up with a 1 and 2 followed by Max, Russell and Gasly (Alpine). Qualies did produce an interesting line-up with the two Williams in 6 and 7, Bottas (Alpha Romeo), Magnussen (Haas) in 8 and 9 respectfully, with Alonso bringing up the 10th position. The start of the race could be a real humdinger with that mix of teams! However, no-one is under any illusion about race pace which is where RB outperform all the others.

Race day and what a start! Leclerc and Max hit the first corner and Max forces Leclerc off the track and does so illegally as he (Max) is totally off the track. Unfortunately, Russell does not have the pace to take advantage and go for the lead. Further back there was carnage as Alonso went sliding into Albon and a host of other cars hit each other. It was a bit like dodgems at this point. Max was given a 5 second penalty which he treated with total disdain. On lap three Lando Norris went spinning into the side wall then careered straight into the safety wall at the end of a run-off area. It was spectacular and thankfully Norris was not hurt in the incident. The race was very exciting and the wide street circuit paid dividends with loads of overtaking. The lead changed seven times and the best was saved to last when Leclerc managed to overtake Checo on the last lap with a brave move that earned him second place. Some strange decisions were made, again by Ferrari, like why did everyone get new tyres under safety car and Charles did not? Even in the car drive to the Bellagio Hotel for the driver interviews (seriously what are the organisers doing?) Charles was shocked when Max stated he had changed tyres twice! You could see Charles saying to himself “another strategic mess up”. Another odd decision was to pit Piastri who had done a fantastic job from 18th place up to fourth. He could only make 10th. Surely his tyres would not have lost him six places had he kept them on?

Overall the Vegas GP was a great success and with some sensible decisions regarding time of racing and ensuring that a class action law suit is not enacted, the race will be a success next year. The one thing missing from our Vegas experience; there was a dearth of Elvis impersonators! This cultural aspect was not utilised enough! Las Vegas is one race I would definitely go back to. Viva Las Vegas.