Las Vegas Grand Prix (2023)

AndyMarquisLive

AndyMarquisLive

I love short track racing (Taylor's Version)
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1am start time is insane. 😳😳😳😳

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That's all eastern time. Local time is 22:00 start time.

Still nuts across the board.
 
My guess is they believe they can't compete with the NFL or College football on TV that limits the American market. So they are banking on Vegas night life hours and European time zones to get friendly hours for a targeted market.
 
The Nature Boy said:
You would think that an advantage of doing races in the United States would be start times that allow for easy consumption of the product by Americans.
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F1 knows where it’s bread is buttered.

They are clearly making a push into the American market and they’re going big but they’re not willing to lose out entirely on their main target audience. Europe is where the moneys at for them still.

F1 and the FIA really didn’t think this one through. Between the awful times the events will take place local time, the ambient temps driving uncertainty of how these cars (and most importantly tires) will behave to how poorly this is being received by the locals to ticket prices getting lowered because they’re not selling is just the icing on the cake.
 
The start time is pretty much what the casinos and locals were willing to play ball with. They’re going to have the roads opened up for the majority of the day throughout the race weekend, from 4 AM-5 PM local time each day. Closed from the evening through early morning for race activities. It’s not a very unusual time for boxing/UFC matches out there either.

Since there’s enough hype I don’t think it really matters what time it’s run anyways, the overnight races like Japan and Australia already have a pretty solid floor around 500k viewers. It wouldn’t surprise me if it managed to crack 1M. One of the most-watched CFB games this season ended pretty similarly around 2:30 AM ET.

Going forward they’re going to have to change a lot to get back into the good graces of Vegas locals that I don’t think the start time is anywhere near their top concern.
 
There's a public perception/political issue F1 is seemingly desiring to run head-long into: they don't think or care about American motorsports or fans because they perceive that "F1 is different" and thus doesn't need to play by any of the rules here. That this has led to them being forced to admit they didn't even check the average temperatures in Vegas that time of year is part and parcel of it. Similarly you can see that attitude with Andretti/GM: If that team doesn't wind up on the grid *AND* Audi doesn't show up (a very real possibility) F1 will be seen as shooting itself in the foot in a massive way and being anti-American. How can the greatest racing series in the world be afraid of a mid-pack Indycar squad? Hard to believe, and yet...

(also, if Chevy gets rejected, who's to say that budget doesn't get directed elsewhere? NASCAR wants to expand. Indycar wants to expand.)
 
Certainly not the love Nashville gave and has with Indycar.

It appears this project is quite evasive to an uninterested fanbase.
This project was in trouble a long time ago when F1 said business'
on the track layout had to pay for a (over a grand) ticket times their
occupancy rate # , or have a grandstand built in front of your business.
I get it , but still an ugly business practice .

Link to article here :
 
F1 agreed not to shutdown the strip until after 4pm or 5pm like @FLRacingFan said. That's each day, not just race day.

I'll be surprised if this race happens again, frankly. Once I moved to SLC I started going to Vegas semi-regularly (including the NASCAR weekends whoo!) so I get some local news in my feed. The locals HATE it. The city has been a DISASTER to drive around. When I was there for 5 days in October for NASCAR I could very much sympathize with locals and tourists alike. Bellagio fountains blocked, traffic like Manhattan gridlock, crowded walkways with random dead ends. I talked to some casino employees and they hate it too (more than they already hate the strip). And now it's become apparent the payoff certainly isn't there.

I was getting offers through MGM for hotel stays/grandstand packages starting at $2,500 a night, IIRC, 6 months ago. Could've been $3k but I'll round down. I checked last night.... I can stay on the strip for under $100 a night at Luxor or Excalibur this weekend. Plenty of rooms available. And of course ticket prices are still rocketing down on the secondary market.

It's a shame because Vegas needs to modernize/diversify away from gambling and tacky gimmicks (at one point there were 3 roller coasters at casinos on the strip) and move towards experience-driven tourism to attract young people. They've been doing everything correct so far with sports coming to town and big name concerts. Now I'm afraid this is going to stop some of that progress, and anything that interferes with gambling revenue will be nixed. All the casinos are owned by corporations, so the furthest they need to look ahead is one quarter in advance. They'll hang on to the elderly and the Chinese that will sit down and blow thousands of $$ a night til there's none of them left. The fact that there's ONE casino in Vegas that's smoke-free really tells they have no interest in trying to be some place 20 or 30-somethings want to go to.
 
I just hope its around for next year or the year after, my wife has never been to Vegas and is an F1 fan because of me ( not Drive To Survive, when we first started dating she'd wake up with me at 4am to watch my favorite driver MSC slug around 6-8 place every week in that Mercedes) so I want to take her. I didnt think this first year was a good idea as to have them work out the logistics of traffic and moving the general population around that area. Good I waited, I hope my gamble pays off.
 
sdj said:
DVR it and enjoy, ezzy peezzy.

Pricing for tickets to an F1 is "STUPID".

PS: Who here really Gives A Sh*t if F1 is in Vegas or not? I know I don't.
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:raises hand:

I gamble. Make no bones about it, that is what appeals to me about Las Vegas. As someone who goes to Vegas to play as my entertainment, I also don't spend much time on the strip. Gambling at its heart is simply a form of applied mathematics/statistics when done correctly. I can explain in vast, endless detail about how that is relevant to why I spend my time in Fremont Street over the Strip, but you're not here for that specifically. You're here for "Why is going to Vegas a big deal?"

Everyone knows the Vegas strip is probably the single most expensive road to shut down on Earth. It's flanked by enormous megaresorts which resemble in some cases some of the world's greatest and most well known locales in addition to Vegas' own stock of architecture. It is one of the global centers for entertainment and tourism. Short of running F1 down Main Street USA at the Magic Kingdom* or Times Square, there is no bigger prize for a street race. F1 has that. It has the ultimate spectacle.

*real headz remember when F1 was initially in talks about abandoning Magny-Cours and one of the proposed replacements was, and you can google this if you don't believe me, Disneyland Paris.
 
virtualbalboa said:
:raises hand:

I gamble. Make no bones about it, that is what appeals to me about Las Vegas. As someone who goes to Vegas to play as my entertainment, I also don't spend much time on the strip. Gambling at its heart is simply a form of applied mathematics/statistics when done correctly. I can explain in vast, endless detail about how that is relevant to why I spend my time in Fremont Street over the Strip, but you're not here for that specifically. You're here for "Why is going to Vegas a big deal?"

Everyone knows the Vegas strip is probably the single most expensive road to shut down on Earth. It's flanked by enormous megaresorts which resemble in some cases some of the world's greatest and most well known locales in addition to Vegas' own stock of architecture. It is one of the global centers for entertainment and tourism. Short of running F1 down Main Street USA at the Magic Kingdom* or Times Square, there is no bigger prize for a street race. F1 has that. It has the ultimate spectacle.

*real headz remember when F1 was initially in talks about abandoning Magny-Cours and one of the proposed replacements was, and you can google this if you don't believe me, Disneyland Paris.
Click to expand...

Never said I did not like Vegas, I do, been there a bunch of times. Reread what I said.
 
sdj said:
Never said I did not like Vegas, I do, been there a bunch of times. Reread what I said.
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I mean, for me, I absolutely care because then I can go there and my wife can come and she can skip the race and I can go and we can still gamble our asses off. It's a win-win for me. I don't have many of those.
 
Las Vegas Grand Opening Ceremony for those who care about the pump and dance.



Starts at 10:30 Eastern time.
 
Wait no..1030 local time. These people are insane. lmao
 
I don't usually watch F1 but I'll check this out. This is only the second time that there has been a street race in a city I've actually visited (the other was Chicago) so it'll be cool to watch the cars.

I might have to DVR it though.
 
I'm willing to see what happens before I go negative. It could be great, or it could be a cluster operation. Either would be entertaining.

Odd to see hotel and ticket sales tank like this. Liberty may have overplayed their hand here, but we will wait to see how the race itself plays out. There are enough variable we could possibly have a freak result. We might even see lance win, and even Williams is sitting pretty. Mercedes may have a chance, but more likely they will roll off the trailer and be lost all weekend.

My prediction? Endless carping, bitching and moaning about the tires, followed by a good amount of carnage.
 
I never knew the race was going to start at such a crazy time until they mentioned it on Sunday Night Football since they were in Vegas. I looked it up and saw that was correct.

This race has flop written all over it.
 
Pit exit dumping right out into the middle of the tight, blind first corner is sketchy, right?? Especially with cold tires and all.

 
FLRacingFan said:
Pit exit dumping right out into the middle of the tight, blind first corner is sketchy, right?? Especially with cold tires and all.

Click to expand...


Wow didn’t realized how narrow this track really is. Jeddah .2.

The track surface also looks way too polished and new. How are the tires supposed to get heat in them with a brand new surface on a chilly night? This gon be good. (In a bad sort of way.)
 
The opening ceremony was meh. I liked the concert aspect, but was expecting more human speaking and cadence.
 
The Nature Boy said:
I've seen some people complaining about the inconvenience because it's a race that "doesn't matter" because Verstappen has already clinched the championship.

And people wonder why NASCAR decided a playoff was a good idea.
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If Max were being challenged for race wins, I think people would be less likely to go to that excuse as justification for their dislike, but that's not the situation. He's just mopping up week after week.
 
We're going to hear about nothing but tires, tires, and tires, and none of it is going to be good. I'm sure Pirelli will be thrilled. This will probably be the biggest race of the year for TV ratings on the world stage, and it's going to be nothing but "the tires this and the tires that." No wonder Michelin dropped out of the bidding process.

I'm not trying to be negative, but it's a fact it could get as cold as 34 degrees or so. The track is slick, and the tires are cold, so it could be a real skating rink. Might sound like a disaster but it could be fun with the cars sliding around all the time. One thing it is bound to do is shake up the order. This is the one time that Hass might not burn their tires off on the formation lap, so they are probably licking their chops. William's good top speed might come into play too. I think if it gets bizarre enough almost anyone in the field could win.

I also suspect the driver's mentality could devolve with the race with chopping, blocking, swerving and dive bombing. I'm not sure why I fell this way except on paper it already looks like a Twilight Zone race. It's gonna be so weird that everyone is going to go gonzo and brace for a nasty pile up or two, red flag, or hell, maybe even snow. Chaos! More chaos!

P1 is like 11:30 eastern time, and I think we will know pretty quickly how big of a problem the temps will be.
 
virtualbalboa said:
If Max were being challenged for race wins, I think people would be less likely to go to that excuse as justification for their dislike, but that's not the situation. He's just mopping up week after week.
Click to expand...
20 years from now people will look back at the domination as the good old days like we did when McLaren Tag and then Mclaren Honda were dominating, or the Senna dominations or the Schumacher years, or the Vettel years. Or the Hamilton years. If you can't take domination F1 might not be your sport.

Sure, the steam is gone out of the championship, but after Australia there was no doubt who was going to be champion anyway. Same thing will probably happen next year too, except maybe Max can win every single race.
 
It's showing about 60 F there right now, so not terribly cold.

Judging on how the safety car struggled braking grip off the long straight into the hard lefter, I think the concern of cold brakes and cold tires is valid there.

Remember the brakes are carbon-carbon to my knowledge, which means they don't work worth a flip cold. Combine cold ambient with a 170+ mph wind chill effect, and you get really cold carbon. They are going to be relying hard on the hybrid regenerator to slow the cars, and rear wheel hop (or complete loss of effective hydraulic braking) is entirely possible from that.
 
Reck said:
Wow didn’t realized how narrow this track really is. Jeddah .2.

The track surface also looks way too polished and new. How are the tires supposed to get heat in them with a brand new surface on a chilly night? This gon be good. (In a bad sort of way.)
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. I was open about the race it's self but I'm officially on the "total cluster" bandwagon.
 
Doc Austin said:
We're going to hear about nothing but tires, tires, and tires, and none of it is going to be good. I'm sure Pirelli will be thrilled. This will probably be the biggest race of the year for TV ratings on the world stage, and it's going to be nothing but "the tires this and the tires that." No wonder Michelin dropped out of the bidding process.

I'm not trying to be negative, but it's a fact it could get as cold as 34 degrees or so. The track is slick, and the tires are cold, so it could be a real skating rink. Might sound like a disaster but it could be fun with the cars sliding around all the time. One thing it is bound to do is shake up the order. This is the one time that Hass might not burn their tires off on the formation lap, so they are probably licking their chops. William's good top speed might come into play too. I think if it gets bizarre enough almost anyone in the field could win.

I also suspect the driver's mentality could devolve with the race with chopping, blocking, swerving and dive bombing. I'm not sure why I fell this way except on paper it already looks like a Twilight Zone race. It's gonna be so weird that everyone is going to go gonzo and brace for a nasty pile up or two, red flag, or hell, maybe even snow. Chaos! More chaos!

P1 is like 11:30 eastern time, and I think we will know pretty quickly how big of a problem the temps will be.
Click to expand...

What? Mid 50s is forecasted at session/race end each night.
 
Doc Austin said:
I'm willing to see what happens before I go negative. It could be great, or it could be a cluster operation. Either would be entertaining.

Odd to see hotel and ticket sales tank like this. Liberty may have overplayed their hand here, but we will wait to see how the race itself plays out. There are enough variable we could possibly have a freak result. We might even see lance win, and even Williams is sitting pretty. Mercedes may have a chance, but more likely they will roll off the trailer and be lost all weekend.

My prediction? Endless carping, bitching and moaning about the tires, followed by a good amount of carnage.
Click to expand...

They overpriced tickets thinking this would be a must see spectacle even for casual F1 fans and avid Vegas clientele alike. Well they priced out the casual fans and the Vegas regulars saw this as the worst possible weekend to be in Vegas. A lot of people, myself included, said "nope I'm not gonna drop $10k that weekend to sit in traffic, watch an unknown race, and experience the rest of Vegas in way that is horrible compared to the other 51 weekends of the year"
 
Doc Austin said:
We're going to hear about nothing but tires, tires, and tires, and none of it is going to be good. I'm sure Pirelli will be thrilled. This will probably be the biggest race of the year for TV ratings on the world stage, and it's going to be nothing but "the tires this and the tires that." No wonder Michelin dropped out of the bidding process.

I'm not trying to be negative, but it's a fact it could get as cold as 34 degrees or so. The track is slick, and the tires are cold, so it could be a real skating rink. Might sound like a disaster but it could be fun with the cars sliding around all the time. One thing it is bound to do is shake up the order. This is the one time that Hass might not burn their tires off on the formation lap, so they are probably licking their chops. William's good top speed might come into play too. I think if it gets bizarre enough almost anyone in the field could win.

I also suspect the driver's mentality could devolve with the race with chopping, blocking, swerving and dive bombing. I'm not sure why I fell this way except on paper it already looks like a Twilight Zone race. It's gonna be so weird that everyone is going to go gonzo and brace for a nasty pile up or two, red flag, or hell, maybe even snow. Chaos! More chaos!

P1 is like 11:30 eastern time, and I think we will know pretty quickly how big of a problem the temps will be.
Click to expand...
I would think a 1-stop race where the tires don’t degrade would be right up your alley. 😛
 
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