F1 teams are fed up with the “brutal” Las Vegas GP. They want change

One edition of the Las Vegas GP was enough for F1 teams to criticize the event’s schedule. Street track sessions were held in the evening to increase spectator interest. As a result, F1 staff had to deal with jet lag.

The Las Vegas GP was held in the evening for at least several reasons. First of all, it was hoped that such a time would allow more fans and VIPs to appear in the stands. In addition, the owner of Formula 1 reached an agreement with the authorities of the “sin city” not to close key streets during rush hours.

When planning the Las Vegas GP, F1 bosses also winked at the inhabitants of Europe. The late hours of track sessions meant that on the Old Continent they took place in the morning hours. Fans didn’t have to stay up all night to watch the best drivers in the world.

Originally, the second F1 training session and qualifying were to last from 0.00 to 1.00 a.m. from Thursday to Friday and from Friday to Saturday, local time. In the case of the training session, track problems led to its delay and the drivers left the garages only at 2.30. Training ended at 4.00 a.m., while on the same day at Another session is scheduled for 10 p.m.

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All this made the F1 staff very tired and felt the effects of the time zone change. The problem is even greater because the teams flew straight from Las Vegas to Abu Dhabi for the last race of the 2023 season, where, in turn, the clocks must be moved forward by twelve hours relative to the “sin city”.

– If we need to improve something, maybe we need to consider the time of the Las Vegas GP. It is not easy to find the perfect time that will satisfy people in Asia, Europe and on both coasts of the USA. We didn’t have such problems in the past because F1 only thought about Europeans and we looked at the European schedule, noted Frederic Vasseur, quoted by motorsport.com.

The Ferrari boss added that F1 has become a “worldwide project” and “it is much more difficult to find something that would satisfy the whole world.” His opinion was shared by Christian Horner from Red Bull Racing. The Red Bulls boss said the Las Vegas GP schedule was “brutal” for everyone employed in the paddock.

– Everyone leaves Las Vegas very twisted. It was a brutal weekend when it came to working behind the scenes. We need to think about how to improve this in the future, Horner said.

According to Horner, a small correction and an earlier start of racing are enough to avoid massive fatigue of F1 staff. – It will never be possible to please all TV viewers. This is a US race though. If you do it at 8:00 p.m., it will be more comfortable for people working on site – added the head of Red Bull.

Peter Bayer from Alpha Tauri, who previously worked for the FIA ​​and knows the logistics of street racing very well, declared his support for changing the time of the Las Vegas GP. – I don’t know the whole background and reasons why we had sessions so late. However, I have some experience with the FIA ​​and I know how difficult it was for Formula E, for example, to organize street races. Closing the streets has a huge impact on residents, commented the Austrian.

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