Category: MotorSports

11 celebrities who attended the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, from Shaq to Rihanna

Some big names were there to watch the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Although the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix didn’t go on without some pre-race drama and issues from angry locals to loose drain covers on the track, the actual contest in Sin City went down on Saturday night without a problem.

Unsurprisingly, Max Verstappen took home yet another victory in a season full of them. And it also shouldn’t be a surprise that there were a bunch of big-name celebrities, from singers to actors to a Hall of Fame hoops star, in Vegas to watch it all go down.

Here’s a roundup of who was there for the race on Saturday night:

What time does the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix start?

All you need to know ahead of the late-night Las Vegas Grand Prix.

F1 fans have been counting the days until they could watch cars battle down the Las Vegas strip, and one of the most anticipated races of the year is finally here.

Sunday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix is scheduled to start at 1:00 a.m. ET / 10 p.m. PT on ESPN. You can stream the race on Fubo.

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Why is the race starting so late? Officials explained that’s it’s all about the European TV audience. A 1:00 a.m. ET race start allows fans in London and much of Europe to enjoy an early morning start, while F1 fans in Asia will have perhaps the best viewing window. The on-site experience of American fans is, unfortunately, a secondary concern.

Here’s the starting lineup for Sunday’s race:

  1. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
  2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
  3. George Russell (Mercedes)
  4. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
  5. Alexander Albon (Williams)
  6. Logan Sargeant (Williams)
  7. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
  8. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
  9. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
  10. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
  11. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
  12. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
  13. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
  14. Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri)
  15. Lando Norris (McLaren)
  16. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
  17. Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo)
  18. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
  19. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
  20. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)

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Formula 1 star Max Verstappen on Las Vegas GP chaos: ‘If I were a fan, I would tear the whole place down’

Max Verstappen empathizes with angry fans over Las Vegas Grand Prix chaos.

Formula 1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend hasn’t exactly been a smooth addition to the racing schedule. Actually, it probably couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start, even if the circuit is pretty cool.

For people in attendance, as well as the U.S. audience in general, the practice and race starting times in the middle of the night are less than ideal. And the start times, along with general cold weather in the desert in November, could create tire issues. That’s just baseline stuff.

The first practice Thursday night was a disaster and ended after just eight minutes. It was first delayed and then canceled after a loose drain cover caused major damage to Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari.

Investigating the track to figure out the issue seriously delayed the the start of the second practice session Friday morning until 2:30 a.m. local time, and the understandably furious fans who showed up to watch were ultimately removed from the grandstands.

While F1 had previously apologized to the people and city of Las Vegas for the disruptions, especially along the Vegas Strip, the race has caused, organizers still have yet to issue a public apology for all the chaos or offer any refunds.

More via The Athletic:

But you know what F1 did do to demonstrate its regret? As a “thank you for your support,” it graciously issued a $200 voucher to the race’s official store to all single-day pass holders for Thursday.

Yikes.

And it certainly seems like three-time F1 champ Max Verstappen is on the side of the fans. According to Motorsport.com and Autosport, Verstappen’s response to learning about the $200 voucher was very clear:

“If I were a fan, I would tear the whole place down.”

Yeah, fair enough for this disaster.

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11 awesome Sphere photos from F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix practice

The Sphere continues to be the coolest.

The F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix got off to a — literal — bumpy start when Carlos Sainz drove over a loose drain cover that damaged his car during practice just minutes in.

But the visuals of cars racing through and around the Las Vegas strip are very cool at least, and we’re here to concentrate on the Sphere, the structure that has wowed everyone ever since it went operational. The Sphere will show all kinds of stuff during practice, qualifying and the race itself, but not certain colors that might confuse the drivers.

Let’s take a look at the Sphere during practice and all the stuff it showed in some dazzling photos:

Why F1 kicked fans out of the stands in Las Vegas before a delayed 4 a.m. practice

The Las Vegas Grand Prix has been a fiasco for Formula 1, and many fans are not happy.

It’s safe to say that the Las Vegas Grand Prix, a supposed new crown jewel in the global F1 schedule, could not have gotten off to a worse start on Thursday night.

Fans in attendance for a late night practice session saw all of nine minutes of action before the session was delayed and eventually cancelled after a concrete frame around a water valve cover came loose and caused massive damage to Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari.

Formula 1 was forced to inspect all of the other water valve covers around the circuit and make necessary improvements, which delayed the start of the second free practice session significantly.

The Las Vegas schedule – which is already arguably the worst of any race for American fans during the entire season – got even worse. Instead of a 3:00 a.m. ET start time for FP2, the session was delayed until 4:30 ET – and because of the delay, ticketed fans in attendance were removed from the grandstands and hospitality areas.

Local police cleared the grandstand areas just before the start of the session – after fans had sat and waited for hours. According to the FIA, the decision was made due to “logistical concerns.”

Via The Athletic:

“Given the lateness of the hour and the logistical concerns regarding the safe movement of fans and employees out of the circuit, LVGP made the difficult decision to close the fan zones prior to the beginning of Free Practice 2.”

Last-minute ticket prices for each Las Vegas session have been plummeting as it’s become clear that F1 greatly overestimated demand, but fans who arrived on Thursday intending to see practice could be out a huge sum of money. In 2022, Thursday practice ticket prices were selling for more than $900 dollars.

Fans were understandably upset:

F1 fans had so many jokes about the Las Vegas loose drain cover that caused chaos

So much money spent for the Vegas race and a loose drain cover caused chaos.

Obviously, let’s start off with a fact: Drain covers around Formula 1 circuits can be a dangerous thing, and we’re glad that Carlos Sainz and the other drivers are safe after the Ferrari star saw his car get damaged by the problem in Las Vegas.

That said, given all the hype around the F1 race in Sin City and the concerns about weather, the track, the inconveniencing of locals, it’s just another absurdity it took just nine minutes before a track issue caused practice to be cancelled. Technically, it was a concrete frame around a water valve that came loose, causing dangerous debris.

With that in mind, here’s a roundup of all the jokes made about the drain cover that caused chaos:

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See every angle of the F1 Las Vegas loose drain cover that tore up Carlos Sainz’s car

What an absolute disaster for a race that already had questions swirling about it.

There have been plenty of concerns about the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix heading into the first race there since 1982.

And in the first practice session, disaster struck early on Friday.

As the drivers were going around the track, Carlos Sainz of Ferrari hit a loose drain cover, sending sparks everywhere and damaging the heck out of the bottom of his car. The practice session was stopped, the drain cover was fixed, and eventually the cars got back out. But Sainz will get a penalty on race day — which feels really unfair — and his car got back out, performing very well once everything got fixed.

Here are videos of the incident, plus photos of the damage:

 

What a disaster all around.

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See the cool F1 Las Vegas track view from a camera inside the safety car

Check out what the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix track looks like from inside the safety car.

With the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix looming, we’ve seen the track construction, the photos from afar and what it all looks like at night with a drone.

Now, with practice, qualifying and the race nearly upon us, how about a look from INSIDE the track, with a camera on the safety car? We’ve got that thanks to a video Formula 1 provided. You can see how it winds through the Las Vegas strip, surrounded by hotels, all the neon lights and so on. And then another view shows the lap around the track and how it all fits in to the strip.

It’s pretty wild:

Formula 1 fans react to the ridiculously late start times for the Las Vegas Grand Prix

Qualifying at 3 a.m.? An F1 race in the United States somehow has the worst start times of the entire season for American fans.

Formula 1’s grand return to Las Vegas has been billed all year as one of the must-see spectacles in the world of motorsport, but if you’re an actual Formula 1 fan living in the United States, prepare to turn your sleep schedule upside down if you actually want to catch any of the on-track action.

In terms of session start times, watching the Las Vegas Grand Prix is going to feel a whole lot like staying up for races in Japan or Australia, half a world away. In fact, for fans on the East Coast, a race in the United States somehow has the worst start times of any race in the entire 2023 season.

Being a Formula 1 fan in the United States, for the most part, means having something to watch while you enjoy coffee on Sunday morning. The majority of races in Europe start around 9 a.m. ET, and even races in Saudi Arabia and Qatar had a very comfortable lights out time of 1 p.m. ET. Sunday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, meanwhile, will begin at 1 a.m. ET.

Japan and Australia, due to the more extreme time zone differences, represent the toughest challenge on the F1 calendar for American fans – but even those weekends have an advantage over Las Vegas, with no session starting later than 2 a.m. ET. Las Vegas qualifying on Saturday won’t begin until 3 a.m. ET.

Why is the Las Vegas Grand Prix starting so late? According to Liberty Media exec Renee Wilm, the start time allows the larger European audience to enjoy a morning race.

Via Sporting News:

“That was actually a compromise to make sure we are broadcasting at a time when our European fans can get up with a cup of coffee and watch the race six, seven in the morning, very similar to how we [in the US] watch the European races.”

The obvious solution would have been to simply start the Las Vegas Grand Prix in the afternoon, similar to races in Texas and Mexico City, but then F1 would lose the spectacle of a night race in Las Vegas.

Yet racing in the middle of the night presents other challenges that will affect the quality of the product. The low temperatures have teams worried about keeping the tires warm, with Alex Albon predicting the race will be “complete chaos” in such a cold environment.

Las Vegas Grand Prix start times:
Practice 1: 11:30 p.m. ET Thursday, ESPN2
Practice 2: 3:00 a.m. ET Friday, ESPN
Practice 3: 11:30 p.m. ET Friday, ESPNU
Qualifying: 3:00 a.m. ET Saturday, ESPN
Race: 1:00 a.m. ET Sunday, ESPN

Here’s what fans are saying about the weekend schedule: