Barely eight minutes on the clock, and already a huge fiasco. The Las Vegas Formula 1 Grand Prix, which will start this Sunday (7 a.m. in France), started on a big rock during the night from Thursday to Friday. The first free practice session ended with the clock ticking for just eight minutes, just after Carlos Sainz destroyed his Ferrari on a manhole cover. Or rather a water hydrant, which came loose as the car passed before tearing off its entire flat bottom and causing enormous damage. Result, a red flag and the rest of the session canceled.
The FIA then had to inspect all the other plates scattered over the 6.2 km of this new urban route, while workers struggled as best they could to redo the one which destroyed Sainz’s car, but also from Ocon a few seconds later. By plugging the hole with quick-drying cement, an image that looks bad when we know the amounts spent by F1 to return to Las Vegas.
Fans escorted away by police
All these checks lasted more than 4 hours, and the second free practice session could only start at 2:30 a.m. even though it was initially scheduled for midnight! It was mainly held in front of completely empty stands, the organizers of the Las Vegas GP having been forced to evacuate all the spectators from the stands, like the VIPs from the hospitality, at 1:30 a.m. local time, despite the large sums spent on tickets. . But the circuit employees had worked their maximum hours. And some recalcitrant fans even had to be escorted away by the police.
A completely crazy situation which continued alongside the track with the 10 place penalty received by Carlos Sainz, forced to change elements on his car, and whose request for exemption was rejected by the FIA. And too bad if the driver, like Ferrari for whom the bill runs into millions, has nothing to do with it. “Okay, the show is the show and everything is fine – but I think it’s simply unacceptable for F1 what happened today, it’s going to cost us a fortune,” blasted Frédéric Vasseur, the boss of the Scuderia.
Esteban Ocon, the driver of the French team Alpine, part of which was also destroyed by the famous manhole cover, expressed his “shame” at the microphone of Canal+, at the end of this day which ended therefore completed at 5:30 a.m. local time:
It could have been much worse. Fortunately I’m fine. The block that jumped in my car almost crossed, it wasn’t far. This shouldn’t have happened. It’s a bit of a shame to be honest, to ride on a circuit like that, in a great city, with no fans around. I’m sorry for all the people who came, who paid their way to come to the stands and who didn’t see a car driving, it’s clearly unacceptable.
The Las Vegas GP, “symbol” of owner Liberty Media
A first day far from living up to the expectations of the promoter of this Las Vegas Grand Prix, which is none other than Liberty Media, owner of the discipline since 2016. By investing nearly 500 million euros in the purchasing land to build permanent paddocks, the media group wanted to make the return of F1 to Las Vegas (after two Grand Prix which had already turned into a fiasco in the parking lot of the César Palace in 81 and 82), its new window.
At the time of the probably hazardous approval of the track, F1 celebrated with great fanfare the return of the discipline to Sin City with millions and American-style shows. With a Super Bowl-style presentation of the 10 teams and 20 drivers, which many found “too much”, and some “pathetic”. And an opening ceremony bringing together artists like Keith Urban, Will.i.am, Andra Day, Steve Aoki and Jared Leto’s group, Thirty Seconds to Mars, at the foot of the Sphere, this new giant performance hall rented by F1 for the occasion.
A Las Vegas Grand Prix which is “the symbol” of what Liberty Media is since its takeover of Formula 1, according to Canal+ star commentator Julien Fébreau:
They said “we want to conquer the United States and have it be a super bowl at every Grand Prix” so in Las Vegas they want to attract a new audience through entertainment. They are in the process of carrying out their coup, everything is excessive, and the list of VIPs is only growing day by day. The latest update tells us of the arrival of Lebron James. This is the United States,” he told us a few hours before the start of free practice.
“I like being in Vegas, but not so much for the racing”
But many criticisms emerge among “historical” Formula 1 fans, as well as among certain drivers. Starting with the three-time reigning world champion, Max Verstappen, who obviously had very little taste of the opening ceremonies. “For me, there’s no need to go to these things. I’m not talking about the singers, it’s just that you are there and you look like a clown. 99% show, and 1% sporting event. You know, I’m not going to pretend either. I have always expressed my opinion both positively and negatively. Some people like the show a little more. I do not like it at all. I grew up being focused on the performance aspect. That’s how I see things. So personally, I like being in Vegas, but not so much for the race” castigated the driver, who after having killed all suspense on the track with a title won more than a month ago, this time astutees the strategy of F1.
Julien Fébreau, believes that we must “with reason”, “accept this show biz side to death” which is now part of the mix of what F1 offers during a season: “With historic Grand Prix and traditional ones that have made the history of F1 like Monaco, Monza, or the French GP, while accepting new Grand Prix that are a little more glittery, a little more super bowl, with a new audience.”
A precedent in Azerbaijan
But for many, F1 tends too much towards this show biz dimension, perhaps to the detriment of the spectacle on the track. Before arriving in Las Vegas, Ross Brown, the director of F1 at the time of adding this new Grand Prix to the calendar, admitted that “the only thing we had not considered at the start was that it It’s very, very cold at night. Unlike purchasing an entire plot of land to build paddocks and thus be able to invite more and more VIPs and other partners.
If the track temperatures panicked the tire supplier, Pirelli, and the teams all week, it was ultimately the track itself which dealt the first blow at this Las Vegas Grand Prix. But Azerbaijan, in 2019, experienced similar events with a manhole cover which destroyed George Russell’s Williams. Before all the following editions turn out to be successes.