Column
Las Vegas is a farce: F1 does what it accuses other organisers of doing
- Ludo van Denderen
It has already been three crazy days in Las Vegas and unfortunately, that does not refer to the exciting action on the track. However, the Grand Prix ends Saturday night local time (Sunday morning in the UK), so it can already be concluded that Formula 1's comeback ended in an embarrassing display. The big loser? The public!
Perhaps it was the jet lag. But Toto Wolff's tirade at the team bosses' press conference was unreal, to say the least. Actually totally inappropriate. Criticising the organisation of the Las Vegas Grand Prix? The Mercedes team boss went completely off the rails, pointing out precisely what 'great work' had been done to set up this race through the streets of the Gambling Capital. That a manhole cover had come out of the ground, causing Carlos Sainz's Ferrari to be totalled? That could happen, was Wolff's opinion.
Formula 1 could have avoided sof in Las Vegas
Let's face it: it just couldn't happen. As Ferrari's Fred Vasseur said: 'Unacceptable'. In a billion-dollar business like Formula 1 - where normally nothing is left to chance - a manhole cover should never come off, totally destroying a car in the process. A storm - like the one at Spa or Suzuka at the time - cannot be anticipated. Everyone will be able to understand if the weather upsets the schedule. A thorough inspection of the track, however, can be done. This would have prevented the first day in Las Vegas from turning into a huge softer one. It is now clear that the first inspection of the brand-new track was only one hour before the start of the first free practice session.
Moreover, it still leaves aside how much that cover could have injured Sainz. Wolff also already seemed completely unable to empathise with the fans, people who had paid thousands of dollars to sit in the stands. The entry fees that were put down flowed straight into the pockets of Formula 1 - and subsequently his Mercedes team. So the fans had paid big money and what did they get? Eight minutes of action, then hours of hellishly nothing, only to be sent from the stands deep into the night.
Formula 1 couldn't say 'sorry
Just before the start of the third free practice session, fans who had attended on Thursday received an email from the organisers - in this case Formula 1(Liberty Media) itself. It was quite an epistle, about why the spectators had to leave and how annoying it all was that this decision had to be taken. One word was missing: 'Sorry'. No apologies, nothing. However, these fans - who paid around $1,000 for a day ticket - did receive a $200 shopping credit to spend at the Las Vegas F1 shop. In other words, apart from a few dollars of production costs for those jerseys and caps, a solution that does not hit Formula 1 in the wallet.
In recent years, all circuits hosting Formula 1 have been told that the fan experience must always come first. Circuits that do not deliver the standards demanded by F1 should fear for their spot on the calendar. Look at Spa-Francorchamps, which has to wait almost every year to see if F1 wants to return to the iconic circuit.
Just when Formula 1 itself is the organiser of a Grand Prix, it leaves fans out in the cold. How would the people who saw eight minutes of F1 racing on Thursday feel, with their 'free' F1 jersey around their shoulders? Especially in the United States - where the base for F1 is fragile - Liberty Media should be more humble. At least be able to say 'sorry'. But in the farce that Formula 1 has fallen into, that does not seem to be something Liberty Media thinks about at all.