F1 Planners Didn’t Realize Las Vegas Gets Cold (in November, in the desert, at night) https://www.planetf1.com/news/ross-brawn-oversight-las-vegas-grand-prix-planning .
Big shock that the leaders of F1 don't know what they are doing. They must not have realized that it gets hot in Qatar either.
First time event, pop-up mickey mouse circuit, cold tires, teams/drivers/Pirelli have no data, safety car periods a near certainty--all the makings of a fiasco. I'm putting my money on Haas.
It is stupendous, no doubt. What truly amazes me (aside from the sphere) is the fact that they actually race on the strip. And your pictures document why: For decades people talked about a GP in Las Vegas and everybody said, *IF* this would ever happen (and that was a big IF to begin with), then ONLY outside the city. Or if in the city then NEVER on the strip. No way they would ever be allowed to race there. How times have changed. For the better in this case. I can't wait to see this. I don't care that the WDC is decided, just the pure optics of this will be beyond spectacular. Bravo Las Vegas!
Yes optics for the first year. Then what. Its likely old news at that point with changes coming. Sorry but this is just an event less so a race. The epitome of what Liberty see's for F1 overall. Too many races and too much of this........whatever it is lol. On TV only is this event going to feel grand. But then next year its just another race, too late on the calendar, too late starting time for many, in a championship that ends after 9 or fewer races if the teams pursuing RedBull get it wrong and most do to begin with. Not enough of a budget to allow for competition. The zenith of Liberty F1 is achieved in Vegas LOL! Crazy world.
It's also fair to say that was realised at huge inconvenience to the locals, according to the media. A colossal project such as this one would never happen in London; the locals would soon obtain a court injunction to block it. As an example, it took 10 years of legal action for the US to be allowed to build their new embassy in a derelict area of London.
Toto Wolff is forbidding ALL MercedesAMGF1 employees from going to the casinos to gamble. He doesn't gamble, so why should they! "It's good to be da King!"
That's in sharp contrast to former Mercedes-AMG F1 President Niki Lauda who advertised for years the Austrian international gambling company NOVOMATIC by wearing their red cap in all occasions.
I remember an Indy-Car race decades ago, there was a yellow flag incident, then it took 5-restarts to get the pack through T1 due to the cold tires.
If you want to gamble: a) start a business b) get married both will cost you less in the long run............
The optics are important and will keep this event afloat. I actually do believe that Liberty got it right by extending the entertainment factor of F1. We die-hards from the old days might not like it, but I do think that's where the future lies. It's the same with current Ferraris (insert any other luxury sportscar brand here), they are for the hedge-fund babies and not exclusively for the gear heads. Glamour GPs are a manifestation of that trend. Not that this is anything new, given Monaco where we all agree that the racing part is abismal yet it is a constant on the calendar (and I'm glad it is). The timing in the calendar and of the race itself is bad and likely subject to change. I never go to first-time events as they need to work out the kinks first. I'm sure next year they will realize that for tire temps as well as TV audiences in the US a race at midnight that could instead be held during prime time TV hours was a dumb idea. Doesn't matter whether the folks in Las Vegas start to party at 10pm (which I don't buy as a reason, there's lots of action in that city before 10pm).
One of the reasons why I left Europe. The US gets stuff done. Money talks. I like that. But the US is not without its own obstacles as we have seen with the protests that caused the Miami GP to be moved away from the city. A similar dopey thing happened in Chicago where George Lucas offered to build a Star Wars museum. It would have been a massive tourist attraction yet the "friends of the park" thought it would negatively affect the look of the shore line.
COTA did well but the hotel deal was still a turn off: You could only buy packages to ridiculous prices. That got less bad the 2nd year and disappeared thereafter.
We stayed in San Antonio (hotel) during COTA 2012. It was an hours drive to the track. Prices were relatively normal in San Antonio.
I stayed in the Northern periphery of Austin in a motel. They charged throught he nose but was still better than the fantasy prices downtown.
"event fees" at the airport in Vegas are over $3,500 just to land and park. That's nuts. I guess if you are in a 75 million Gulfstream, but not mortal folk.
Pirelli braced for more complaints as Las Vegas Grand Prix looms large Sam Cooper 10 hours ago Pirelli motorsport director Mario Isola is braced to be the centre of attention in Las Vegas with temperatures forecasted as low as three degrees. Formula 1 is preparing for the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix in a week’s time but as well as the excitement, there is trepidation about how difficult it will be to race in the desert city. Early forecasts predict temperatures as low as three degrees during qualifying which will have a huge impact on the Pirelli-made tyres. Pirelli making a ‘step into the unknown’ with Las Vegas GP Isola is the public face of Pirelli’s F1 involvement and as such has had to face a few difficult problems during his tenure with the Italian manufacturer. But while tyres degrading too quickly is often the cause of concern, that problem will be flipped in Vegas as teams look set to struggle to bring the rubber up to temperature. “I believe that we are going to talk about Pirelli in Vegas because of the temperature,” he suggested. “The asphalt is quite smooth according to the information I have and so the level of grip will be very poor, I can anticipate this. “Even if we selected the three softest compounds in the range, I can imagine that with these super cool conditions and a circuit that is not generating a lot of energy into the tyre, the warm up will be tricky.” Pirelli have selected the three softest compounds on offer with the soft tyre marked as the C5 set.
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