F1's return to Las Vegas in 2023 broke a trend stretching back nearly 38 years - to the 1985 South African Grand Prix. With a 22:00 local time start on Saturday evening - 06:00 Sunday in the UK - it was the first grand prix not to be held on a Sunday in the near four decades since the trip to Kyalami. In the end, the race was one of the best of what could charitably be described as a poor season, with Max Verstappen overcoming a five-second time penalty for forcing pole-sitter Charles Leclerc wide at Turn 1 and contact with George Russell to take win 18 of 19 in the year. Leclerc mugged Sergio Perez for second with a brave overtake on the brakes at the final major braking zone on the strip. All in all, it went well, but the weekend had got off to a disastrous start.
2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix
Such is the importance of the Las Vegas GP to F1, it has taken on promoting duties itself, but the world champion trashing the event was probably not the ideal start. Verstappen blasted the idea of the race as "1% sport, 99% entertainment" and said he felt like a "clown" during the opening ceremony for the race. By the end of the weekend, he was decked out in an Elvis firesuit and singing Viva Las Vegas over the radio... But the on-track action got off to the worst possible start with a red flag just minutes into FP1 as Carlos Sainz ground to a halt on the strip. It was not immediately clear what had affected his Ferrari, but replays showed he had hit a drain cover that had not been fastened down correctly. It destroyed the chassis and the energy store of the car, with Sainz himself fortunate to not be injured. The session was not restarted as every drain cover was inspected to ensure they were safe, as Sainz's team boss Frederic Vasseur was among those scheduled to be in the team principal's press conference. A furious Vasseur explained there was serious damage to Sainz's car, but did not engage with the rest of the questions, with Toto Wolff of Mercedes uttering expletives in a strong defence of the Las Vegas event in an extraordinary press conference. Both were later summoned and fined by the stewards.
Meanwhile, the on-track action descended into a farce. Originally scheduled for a 00:00 local start time, FP2 was delayed by two-and-a-half hours to allow for inspection, and then extended from 60 to 90 minutes to allow for more time to learn the track. The only problem was that support staff like fan marshals and security guards were not booked until that early in the morning, and so fans who had paid their money were turfed out, having only seen the few minutes of FP1. F1 was also up against a hard deadline to return the roads back over to the city of Las Vegas for public use throughout the day. Sainz would cop a 10-place grid penalty for taking a third energy store of the season, despite the stewards admitting that if they had their way, they would not have penalised the Spanish driver, but the regulations for power unit penalties did not take into account force majeure. FP3, qualifying, and the race passed without further incident as the event went down as a massive success after its horror start. Fast forward 12 months, Verstappen can win his fourth world championship if he finishes ahead of Lando Norris as F1 returns to Sin City. If that doesn't get him singing come Saturday night, nothing will...
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