Official 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

[rallycross]

thegreenhell said:

Were there any crowds? I only watched the C4 highlights, but all I saw of the track was grey tarmac, grey concrete barriers and grey catch fencing. I don't recall seeing any crowds or anything that identified it as Las Vegas. It could have been the middle of any desert in the world from what it looked like on TV.

Agree it looks horrible on the tv bland ugly typical US street circuit with concrete and fencing all the way round.

[ralphrj]

Mark-C said:

isaldiri said:

Apart from being some ridiculous age when he first started, was Verstappen's initial year at Toro Rosso being (slightly) better than Sainz (who was also a F1 rookie iirc) considered outstanding enough to be obvious that he was a clear future world champion?

He wasn't "slightly" better than Sainz - he had 10 points finishes (inc 2 fourth places) for 49 points versus 7 points finishes (a highest of seventh) for18 points.

I say this as a big fan of Carlos who hopes he'll do really well at Williams next year.

I have a vague recollection of Martin Brundle mentioning that Max looked like a future world champion during the commentary of his debut race.

[ajprice]

poosemon said:

Not sure I have seen this shared in any of the other f1 threads, if it has - apologies for repeating!

Williams have put out a fantastic bit of film post-brazil receiving the cars back and some of the processes of rebuild to get ready for Las Vegas.



Well worth 10 minutes of your time and kudos to Williams for documenting it - as an F1 fan I would love to see more of this type of content and insight into teams operations.

A short part 2 to this with the team fixing Colapinto's car overnight (overday?) in Vegas after the quali crash.

[isaldiri]

Mark-C said:

isaldiri said:

NRS said:

..
To me normally a driver will improve in results over some seasons, but that's typically because they get into better cars over their first few seasons if good enough. The properly fast drivers already put big pressure on their team mate immediately. Piastri does that sometimes, but is far too inconsistent so far.

That's not to say I think Norris is a WDC - he will do it if in the right place and the right time, but he makes too many mistakes when under pressure.

Neither jump out as being a clear future WDC like Lewis or Max did, that once in a generation talent.

Apart from being some ridiculous age when he first started, was Verstappen's initial year at Toro Rosso being (slightly) better than Sainz (who was also a F1 rookie iirc) considered outstanding enough to be obvious that he was a clear future world champion?

He wasn't "slightly" better than Sainz - he had 10 points finishes (inc 2 fourth places) for 49 points versus 7 points finishes (a highest of seventh) for18 points.

I say this as a big fan of Carlos who hopes he'll do really well at Williams next year.

Ok will take your word for it as I don't entirely remember what happened. I thought though at the time anyway that whenever they finished, Sainz was 'fairly close' generally if there was a DNF (which he got lots of and tbf unsure if it was mainly his fault) and it was usually pretty tight in qualifying as well. and even so, Sainz was a rookie anyway so Verstappen being better wasn't obviously outstanding at the time relative to Sainz I'd have thought.

[PlywoodPascal]

Mark-C said:

He wasn't "slightly" better than Sainz - he had 10 points finishes (inc 2 fourth places) for 49 points versus 7 points finishes (a highest of seventh) for18 points.

I say this as a big fan of Carlos who hopes he'll do really well at Williams next year.

its worth saying though that after Verstappen Sr complained at the first race about the timing of verstappen's qualifying runs, Helmut Marko told the pit-wall/race strategy team for verstappen's car that they could make whatever choice of qualifying/race strategy they wanted and they would answer only to him. he told them to choose whatever they thought best for verstappen, even if it directly contradicted the instructions of the team boss Franz Tost. Tost was not aware of the arrangement.

[Altrezia]

Who was Franco hiding on Teds notebook?

[Killer2005]

The greatest night in the history of F1

Edited by Killer2005 on Monday 25th November 11:40

[Byker28i]

TikTak said:

Also on Williams, where has theirs gone and didn't Vowles say like 3 races ago they don't have the parts to keep rebuilding cars etc? Are they slow now because they're using 2 year old bits glued on?

Crashes come out of their operational budget, thats expensive to fix so affects other things, like how many people they can take to races? Are they running a smaller team?

[Sandpit Steve]

Byker28i said:

TikTak said:

Also on Williams, where has theirs gone and didn't Vowles say like 3 races ago they don't have the parts to keep rebuilding cars etc? Are they slow now because they're using 2 year old bits glued on?

Crashes come out of their operational budget, thats expensive to fix so affects other things, like how many people they can take to races? Are they running a smaller team?

Sadly it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to hear that there’s an overtime ban in the body shop, a few design engineers finding themselves working on other projects, and maybe even a few people missing from the races.

They’re at something bonkers like $10m in crash damage so far this year - before Franco took three corners, two wings, a floor, a gearbox casing, and many other assorted carbon bits, off his car on Friday night.

[RGG]

rallycross said:

thegreenhell said:

Were there any crowds? I only watched the C4 highlights, but all I saw of the track was grey tarmac, grey concrete barriers and grey catch fencing. I don't recall seeing any crowds or anything that identified it as Las Vegas. It could have been the middle of any desert in the world from what it looked like on TV.

Agree it looks horrible on the tv bland ugly typical US street circuit with concrete and fencing all the way round.

Same here. Especially given this was "VEGAS".

I nearly posted this yesterday.

The only brightness I saw was a lingering camera shot of the beginning and/or end of an ever changing clip of an advertising banner.

I don't know if anyone else noticed that but it did seem excessive and I guess predictable given the direction F1 is going.

[CT05 Nose Cone]

RGG said:

rallycross said:

thegreenhell said:

Were there any crowds? I only watched the C4 highlights, but all I saw of the track was grey tarmac, grey concrete barriers and grey catch fencing. I don't recall seeing any crowds or anything that identified it as Las Vegas. It could have been the middle of any desert in the world from what it looked like on TV.

Agree it looks horrible on the tv bland ugly typical US street circuit with concrete and fencing all the way round.

Same here. Especially given this was "VEGAS".

I nearly posted this yesterday.

The only brightness I saw was a lingering camera shot of the beginning and/or end of an ever changing clip of an advertising banner.

I don't know if anyone else noticed that but it did seem excessive and I guess predictable given the direction F1 is going.

For all they boast of the glitz and glamour, most of the track looks like they're driving through a B&Q warehouse

[Nova Gyna]

RGG said:

rallycross said:

thegreenhell said:

Were there any crowds? I only watched the C4 highlights, but all I saw of the track was grey tarmac, grey concrete barriers and grey catch fencing. I don't recall seeing any crowds or anything that identified it as Las Vegas. It could have been the middle of any desert in the world from what it looked like on TV.

Agree it looks horrible on the tv bland ugly typical US street circuit with concrete and fencing all the way round.

Same here. Especially given this was "VEGAS".

I nearly posted this yesterday.

The only brightness I saw was a lingering camera shot of the beginning and/or end of an ever changing clip of an advertising banner.

I don't know if anyone else noticed that but it did seem excessive and I guess predictable given the direction F1 is going.

Perhaps I’m misunderstanding the comments here, because it looked undeniably Vegas to me.

Or are you meaning more how generic and bland the circuit itself appeared?

[RGG]

Nova Gyna said:

RGG said:

rallycross said:

thegreenhell said:

Were there any crowds? I only watched the C4 highlights, but all I saw of the track was grey tarmac, grey concrete barriers and grey catch fencing. I don't recall seeing any crowds or anything that identified it as Las Vegas. It could have been the middle of any desert in the world from what it looked like on TV.

Agree it looks horrible on the tv bland ugly typical US street circuit with concrete and fencing all the way round.

Same here. Especially given this was "VEGAS".

I nearly posted this yesterday.

The only brightness I saw was a lingering camera shot of the beginning and/or end of an ever changing clip of an advertising banner.

I don't know if anyone else noticed that but it did seem excessive and I guess predictable given the direction F1 is going.

Perhaps I’m misunderstanding the comments here, because it looked undeniably Vegas to me.

Or are you meaning more how generic and bland the circuit itself appeared?

Watching the race, I could see black tarmac, grey concrete barriers and the temporary catch fencing which I found dismaying.

Considering this was Vegas. The only brightness and stimulation after the cars were the advertising hoardings.

There was no sense of track position or layout.

Plus the camera angles showed too many forward shots which in turn showed limited, if even that, sense of the real speed.

It's just my take on the event.

[StevieBee]

RGG said:

Nova Gyna said:

RGG said:

rallycross said:

thegreenhell said:

Were there any crowds? I only watched the C4 highlights, but all I saw of the track was grey tarmac, grey concrete barriers and grey catch fencing. I don't recall seeing any crowds or anything that identified it as Las Vegas. It could have been the middle of any desert in the world from what it looked like on TV.

Agree it looks horrible on the tv bland ugly typical US street circuit with concrete and fencing all the way round.

Same here. Especially given this was "VEGAS".

I nearly posted this yesterday.

The only brightness I saw was a lingering camera shot of the beginning and/or end of an ever changing clip of an advertising banner.

I don't know if anyone else noticed that but it did seem excessive and I guess predictable given the direction F1 is going.

Perhaps I’m misunderstanding the comments here, because it looked undeniably Vegas to me.

Or are you meaning more how generic and bland the circuit itself appeared?

Watching the race, I could see black tarmac, grey concrete barriers and the temporary catch fencing which I found dismaying.

Considering this was Vegas. The only brightness and stimulation after the cars were the advertising hoardings.

There was no sense of track position or layout.

Plus the camera angles showed too many forward shots which in turn showed limited, if even that, sense of the real speed.

It's just my take on the event.

Just came here to post pretty much the same thing.

Singapore 'looks' nice. So does AbuDhabi. LasVegas looks in parts as though it could be running around the industrial area.

[Wills2]

All the night time street circuits look dismal and dystopian, cars racing around a 3 sided metal and tarmac cage, great.

[Spevs]

I think Vegas doesn't have long to live on the F1 calender. Having been to Abu Dabi whilst it was nice and warm it is soulless compared to Spa, Silverstone, Monaco, Montreal, haven't been to Monza but I think I wouldn't be disappointed.

[Derek Smith]

Spevs said:

I think Vegas doesn't have long to live on the F1 calender. Having been to Abu Dabi whilst it was nice and warm it is soulless compared to Spa, Silverstone, Monaco, Montreal, haven't been to Monza but I think I wouldn't be disappointed.

Have you considered money? That's a great way to resuscitate.

[BunkMoreland]

Nova Gyna said:

Perhaps I’m misunderstanding the comments here, because it looked undeniably Vegas to me.

Or are you meaning more how generic and bland the circuit itself appeared?

Me too! (ahem)

The Sphere doing its thing, multiple long shots from helicopters showing the various hotels beside the track. Yeah the close ups could have been Singapore. But that's the nature.

Would people prefer they paint the track is garish colours?

[cuprabob]

BunkMoreland said:

Would people prefer they paint the track is garish colours?

The French probably would.

[Aids0G]

I know Max has his detractors on here (fair enough) but I love the fact he won the WDC and immediately got on the beers/gin/more beers while doing all the media rounds, great to see and why not your WDC go for it! link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxdRaGNIK1o