F1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix finally happened – ending a week-long onslaught of criticism from world champion Max Verstappen with one of the best grands prix of the season.
An event in the heart of Las Vegas with yet another street track was always going to be divisive for drivers and fans, especially as F1 has been telling us for over a year that this would be the best thing that ever happened in the history of anything ever.
Verstappen stood out as the event’s main dissenting voice, criticising it left right and centre, but after he won a thrilling race even he admitted it was fun on-track at least.
F1 and the Las Vegas GP had to endure a lot more than just stinging words from one of its biggest ambassadors through the week – a farcical first day of track action, pre-race question marks about the quality of the sporting element of this grand prix, and the threat of a class action lawsuit on behalf of some fans who got screwed over.
But it ended with the main talking point being a quality race – which is the best result F1 could have hoped for.
00:00 A crazy week
01:00 Verstappen piles in
04:39 Did it work?
06:30 What F1 got wrong
09:28 What needs to change
Subscribe: http://the-race.com/youtube_subscribe
Website: http://the-race.com/
Twitter: @wearetherace
Instagram: @wearetherace
Facebook: http://facebook.com/wearetherace
Podcasts: http://the-race.com/podcasts
Thanks for watching – please like, share and comment, please also hit subscribe to show your support so we’ll keep doing what we’re doing.
https://www.the-race.com
http://www.twitter.com/wearetherace
#f1 #lasvegas #maxverstappen #formula1 #lasvegasgp #verstappen #f1news #f12023 #formulaone #redbull #vegas #grandprix #therace
source
I thought it was a great time! It was expensive but I paid for the atmosphere of Vegas. I flew in from the east coast of the U.S. and I arrived on Fri & left on Mon and only attended the race on Sat. It was a 15 min ride from airport to hotel, a 15 min walk to my seat in the grandstands, no crowd jamup issues, free food and drinks at the race, and thousands of flushable clean porta potties close to my seat. They spent a ton of money on just those potties! They must've hooked to the city water and sewer somehow, you pushed the flush button with your FOOT. No touch. Nice highback seats in the bleachers. There was plenty of things to do when not at the track other than just gambling too. Any kind of restaurant you could think of within walking distance of your room. I saw and heard people from all over the world, a true international event. Also I passed Conor Moore the F1 impressionist on a pedestrian bridge. lol And it was a great race to top it off! If you prefer the more traditional track, I understand I like Spa, Silverstone, and Monza too but will never be able to make it to Europe to see them. This venue everything was just so convenient and streamlined for the spectators, Vegas can easily handle the high volume race weekend crowd. Vegas was a good host!
Someone needs to pull Max Verstappen aside and explain to him how his industry – and other sports businesses – make money. This business has made him rich, but he seems very confused about the business. Being asked to wave to the fans he describes as, "It's just stand up there looking like a clown." Average ticket price for the week was $1,500 – Yeah you should wave to them!!!!!!!!!
If F1 wants to be taken seriously in the states they need to think about prime time viewing. Vegas needs to understand the need for an earlier race. Look at the NFL, bigger games are taken into account and put in prime time slots. Ncca puts it championships on in prime time too. Being on east coast near Philadelphia it felt like I was trying to watch the Australian race. ESPN needs its main channel and not ESPN news or ESPN2. Having to figure out what channel it is every time it's kind of pain. Missing speed channel 😢
F1 as racing sport died around 2008/9, and what we are witnessing today is just the current owners interpretation of what motor racing should be. Made up drama, generic sideshows, ham fisted ruling and dishing out penalties like candy does absolutely nothing to improve racing. I hope the next owner of the series will do a better job.
I dunno why people liked it so much. It seemed to just be the overtaking car would break late going through the one corner and then just get in the way. It seems to me a GP is only enjoyed if that happens near the end of the race.
Sure Max is going to go back on his criticism once he's won the race. He only poo pooed it originally because they thought it would be like Singapore and lose.
Personally I think Red Bull should of put a muzzle on Max and I like Max but Max’s criticism of the race was moronic. Sure lots of people attended that race to party, gamble first and watch racing second but that is how you grow a sport that is established and loved in many parts of the world but for decades has not been represented in the United States and the last time F1 raced in Las Vegas was 39 years ago. If F1 wants to make permanent inroads in the US market than having its star drivers especially the world champion act like a petulant child is not a good thing because the drivers are the brand ambassadors to the sport. As for the FP1 incident with the water valve fixture imbedded into the street that came out and destroyed the floor of Carlos Sainz that resulted in the red flagging of FP1 and canceling of the remaining time in the session. That was unfortunate and as far as I am concerned is F1/FIA’s fault and truthfully should not have happened if the inspection of the track was conducted throughly. However my problem is No with the fixture being dislodged so much but rather how the FIA/FI handled the situation which they failed at miserably because the fixture could of been reinstalled and epoxied grouted into place but that was not the worst part imo. The worst part of the FIA/F1 handling of this situation was the 10 grid place penalty Carlos Sainz got because of the FIA/F1 poor track inspection. Secondly the kicking paying fans out of the stands for FP2 practice and then acting like a 200 dollar F1 gift card is to say the least insulting and a perfect way to piss off many US race fans permanently. If NASCAR or NHRA tried doing that the fans would of burned the place down and god forbid the FIA/F1 ever cancel a race because of weather and not have a make-up race and or not refund tickets money like they have done in the past because US race fans not only expect but demand make-up races and if F1/FIA didn’t do so it would kill the sport in the US for decades to come. Lastly despite all the whining the race itself overall was pretty decent
Growth of established motorsport is all about adding casuals.
Except for the race, it wasn't even good for the diehards. A few shots with giant emojis wasn't enough to make new fans. If anything, they turned off many potentials.
A greed inspired cash grab? Sounds like it actually fits in pretty well in vegas
yabut paris hilton was there
I loved the race. It’s good to have variety with tracks and the long straights made some great overtakes and racing. As far as it being earlier the issue as I understand it is the huge contrast of temperature between day and night. So the idea was to have the race with stable temps. If you do it closer to sunset the temps will be warmer but descending as the race goes on which could be dangerous in race with calculating tire and vent set up. But and hour or two could be manageable perhaps.
the race are brits………. brits hate max….. grow up all rdy u guys still salty about 2020……….. jesus
Wolff is Briattore that looks more clean. It's a Briattore on Wolf skin
Max, did make a lot of good points about the event and was blunt and to the point in true Dutch style. Maybe he could have been more tactful, but as a 3 time champion, he’s in a position where he can speak his mind.
I agree that we do need events like this to help the sport grow, whilst keeping tracks like Spa on the grid. Even if it means cringe over the top opening ceremonies. You can also see it’s helped teams with their sponsors, which is another benefit. I’m glad we got a good race, which is the most important thing, but we have to be honest and say F1 didn’t do enough to for the fans on this one. The prices were so high for tickets and hotels, average fans were priced out. To grow in America, we still need F1 to be accessible. Also the poor response to compensating Friday ticket holders, was just not cricket. A sport that has policy for refunding fans if play is stopped for various reasons. Lastly, let’s remember this event also impacted a lot of local workers such as taxi drivers and restaurants. The high hotel costs, put off regular Vegas visitors coming to town, meaning certain small businesses lost some trade, but the casinos sponsors did well.
lol Edd! That's probably the party line from f1, but let me tell you what will happen.
So far they added more races to accomodate the need to grow, but I expect the number of races will go down because "f1 is now too expensive " and "too much of a stretch for our teams", and guess which races will be cut? the less profitable ones, so you proportionally save more costs then you loose revenues. bye bye Spa&Monza, welcome Vegas&Ryadd! Sad times but as Max said, this is just a show now, the sport era is over.
F1 lost its way many years ago, i watched almost every race from 1975 to 2019, now i can barely be bothered to watch "highlights".
Haters gonna hate. I Loved It! I watched ALL the weekend's content on F1-TV. Spectacular visuals the whole time.
Max is generally bitter about plenty of things. Don't go to him for a positive quote.
Why do people go to Monaco? Lol…
Calling the Dutch world champion's criticism 'punchy' is kinda missing the vibe.
The fact you guys did not mention how the complaints from the local s about this event and how F1 itself was "gate keeping" a view off a PUBLICLY FUNDED bridge show me The Race is bought off or at least not interested in being honest. Shameful.
I'm with Max on his pre-race comments. I also feel bad for all the fans who think safety cars and tire strategy make the sport more interesting. They don't know what F1 used to be like before it decided to become more entertainment for the masses rather than sport for enthusiasts.
threat of?!?!?!?! f1 is literally already sued by fans. it was no threat lmao
max sounds very anti american. he was right about one thing, he sure is a clown
Things like Vegas are necessary when you have to do more to entertain people because the sport has like 5% action. F1 should be working full steam ahead at improving the competitiveness of the league at the same time as they are doing these things. I have been a fan for over 20 years, but I barely enjoy the races. When is the last time you were on the edge of your seat, the last race of 2021? lots of other forms of racing are way more fun to watch, but they don't have the production value. I want these additional races and to grow the popularity of this sport, but the sport itself needs a revolution. MotoGP provides me with what F1 has been missing for years, in my opinion.
Max wants to race, race and only race. The more he has to do or see apart from racing, the more pissed he is.
Las Vegas 2023:
– 95% Show
– Justice for Ferrari & Sainz
– Toto is a total knob head
– The race was good
It's hard to take any "sport" seriously where drivers and commentators b*tch about a race being 90% show.
The race is 100% show. It is literally their job to show me something I want to watch.
Max makes 50,000,000 a year. Don't like the prices the fans have to pay? Reduce the price of tickets by giving a piece of your income to every fan attending the events that make you filthy rich.
Just 'cause the race was Alright does NOT mean that that sh*t-"show" deserves a repetition.
if this race stays on the calendar, I will switch category permanently.
3:35 also he's already champion he's not afraid of blowback from FIA
2:05 Max couldn't have been more right. Social media influencers really hurts humanity.
The race itself had a couple of good moments, and nothing else exciting. It barley beets out Monaco, which isn't saying much. It was hard to even see much around the track, so the environment was unappealing. Plus all but like 2 passes were just on a straight with no defensive move. Not a fan of the look, or the action. 3/10 honestly, and that's not counting the mistakes made by the event prior to the race.
Outside of the sporting component, F1 is a circus, Las Vegas GP just happened to be a circus within a circus.
Ya know, we have a pretty decent track in Minnesota. :3 Lots of beautiful scenery and ducklings! I even got to pound some gears on it in my own car. Could be pretty nutty I think. Brainerd int. could really use the publicity…
When the flag drops the bullshit stops
Max is crazy…. He made a lot money thanks to the sponsors and the people that like the show. If he wants to just concentrate in the sport then he should get make a lot less money part of your job is been part of the show. He has the best car and he is not proved anything since everything is made for him to win. He should be more consistent since a lot people depend in the money f1 can make.
f1 lost everything in the last 20 years. but it became clownshow enough so us monks can enjoy
Best race of the year, arguably the only one I’ve enjoyed. From what I saw on Sky tv It was brilliant
MAX VERSTAPPEN IS 100% correct
If they had scheduled Vegas in the summer time, it would be plenty warm regardless of the time. I think that should also be consideration.
Vegas race is that charity event planned for the end of the year to recruit new sponsorship! Its a farce, all for show! And with title having been delivered, there is nothing to do but to walk the stage and kiss sponsors ass!
this gp showed everyone in plain sight that f1 is not about the sport anyore its a playground for the rich who want to get richer. back in the day f1 was a money sink and therefore they where entilteld to make the sport good but nowdays its only there to make money and the sport is just a trick to make ppl pay. noone i talked to gives a sh about las vegas its a shithole city with poverty on every side you look when the lights go out noone want to be there its a big lie like f1 is nowdays. but ofc the media double down on the backlash and everyone says oh we had a good race so its ok or also very common was i had fun this weekend (with my media tickets and privileges they gave media) so its ok. Even critic media channels shut up and licked f1 boots that should say something to everyone. if f1 only produce interessting races when the track is shit tells me everything i need to know and how ppl stop critizism as soon as they produce a watchable race ppl are sheep they only care for their entertainment in the moment giving no f about the sport.
Max just wants to race…. but also wants to make millions…
The F1 Shill criticizing Verstappen and then saying the most wild thing, that the greedy fucks that put on this F1 race would ever take less money and keep SPA because they were making more money elsewhere. Shows an utter lack of understanding of how little these greedy turds care about racing and only care about cash.
Max does not have the type of personality to be an ambassador of the sport. That's not a criticism. I have an enormous amount of respect for him for shunning the limelight as he does. But this was Vegas, so everything was always going to be over the top, and not in the comfort-zone of a guy like Max.
Interesting (or not) little fact: the Las Vegas Strip does not lie within the city of Las Vegas. The Strip is really in the town of Paradise, Nevada.
The Las Vegas GP is my closest F1 race, so we decided to go down at the last minute. However, for the price of the tickets and accommodation, I could fly halfway around the world and enjoy 3 days of motorsport, not just F1 sessions, and I wouldn't have to freeze in-between in the 12°C warmth of Vegas in November. I'm sure it was great for all the people in the Paddock Club and the enclosed suites by the Bellagio and Caesar's Palace, but even with the high prices, I bet it made up less than 2% of the total revenue for the event. Catering for the uber-rich isn't a sustainable plan.
How about set a ticket price limit so the average ticket price for Vegas isn’t 6 times the other most expensive races on the calendar, so people that actually watch and love f1 for the sport can afford to come to the race instead of it being a mass networking and sponsorship event.
A useful reminder that F1 drivers are wusses and that real athletes drive rally.
😛