c/o Antonin Vincent
As the calendars turned to November, three races remained on the docket for the 2023 Formula 1 season. While races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi were plenty to be excited about, it was the second to last race of the season that put the sport under the international microscope: the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The idea of a F1 race in Las Vegas has been a hot topic over the last decade. Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo, currently driving for AlphaTauri, notably name-dropped Sin City as a race destination he’d like the new owners of F1 to consider in a 2017 driver press conference. This idea was bolstered by the newfound success of F1 racing in the United States, with the Netflix hit show “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” captivating American audiences, myself included, with the intensity and drama of the sport. Originally, the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, was the extent of Formula 1’s exposure to U.S. fans. However, in an attempt to capitalize on the growing audience, the Miami Grand Prix was introduced during the 2022 season. Now, the sport has achieved its trifecta of U.S. races, with Las Vegas being the newest circuit.
Throughout this season of F1 racing, it has been Red Bull’s show. Their star driver, Max Verstappen, clinched his third-straight world driver’s championship in Qatar in early October, putting a bow on a season where he won a record-breaking 19 out of 22 races. Two of the other three races were won by Verstappen’s teammate, Mexican driver Sergio Pérez, meaning Red Bull won every single race except one, gaining their second straight Constructors’ Championship. Alas, the season was decided by the time F1 traveled to Vegas, so the focus shifted from potential end-of-season implications to exploiting the massive publicity opportunities that lay on the Las Vegas Strip.
The build-up to the highly anticipated Grand Prix made it one of the most controversial in recent memory. F1 spent nearly $500 million setting up the race weekend alone, one of their largest investments into a single race weekend of all time. During the original testing of the circuit, F1’s tester cars were sliding extensively, proving how difficult it was to get grip on the brand new track, one that F1 repaved sections of Las Vegas for in hopes of better racing conditions. Ticket pricing became another large issue. The standard price of a three-day pass for the weekend was set at $1,667, over $500 more than the second-most expensive race, Miami, which almost twice as expensive as the third-most expensive race. But perhaps the most apparent issue with the Las Vegas Grand Prix before the weekend began was the anger local residents felt towards F1 for what they were doing to the city itself. From fencing up pedestrian bridges overlooking the strip to draining the famous Venetian Resort’s canals to put up grandstands, the Grand Prix has certainly given Las Vegas locals much to complain about, not to mention Vegas restaurants losing customers due to construction of the circuit. This was all part of the big gamble F1 was willing to take when scheduling a race in Vegas, but early signs showed it would be more difficult for them to experience success than they might have hoped.
It didn’t take long for controversy to set in once drivers got onto the track, either. During the first practice session on Thursday night, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz uncorked a drain cover on the track, causing serious damage to his car. The rest of the free practice had to be canceled, as the FIA (the governing body of F1) inspected every drain cover on the track. Additionally, Sainz received a 10-place penalty for the race later that weekend, which confused many F1 fans and reporters, as the incident that took place was the result of an issue with the track itself, and not the driver.
The weekend festivities drew mixed reactions from the drivers themselves. The extravagant nature of this race in particular was not surprising, as F1 looked to up the ante for a race in such a city as Las Vegas. However, while some enjoyed the glitz and glamour of the pre-race events, others found the spectacle distracting.
“I think it is 99% show, 1% sport,” Max Verstappen told Reuters at the beginning of the race weekend. “[F1] still make money whether I like it or not, so it is not up to me.”
The race itself took place at 10 p.m. local time on Saturday Nov. 18, meaning a 1 a.m. start time on Sunday Nov. 19 for viewers on the East Coast, and even earlier start times for those living in Europe. This meant only more changes for the latest Grand Prix, as most races take place on Sundays. Even with all of the controversy leading up to the race, Las Vegas ended up being one of the most entertaining races of the entire season.
The race began with Max Verstappen overtaking polesitter Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), driving him off the road into the track’s first turn. Verstappen had to serve a five-second penalty, but it barely hindered his performance, as he seamlessly regained the lead later in the race. Cars in the middle of the pack collided as well as the race began, with drivers like Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) all experiencing early struggles. Throughout the entirety of the race, Verstappen, Leclerc, and Perez traded places among the top three, as a safety car about halfway through the race provided closer battles all across the field. As the race drew to a close, Verstappen pulled away from the competition to secure yet another victory, but Perez and Leclerc fought until the last lap, when Leclerc surprised the Mexican driver with a slick overtake on Turn 14, outracing him by less than two-tenths of a second to the checkered flag.
The final race of the season in Abu Dhabi followed suit with nearly every race this season. Verstappen took first, while Charles Leclerc secured back-to-back second place finishes to end 2023. Red Bull capped off the season by doing just what they have done all year long: winning.
And with that, the 2023 F1 season comes to a close. While the Las Vegas Grand Prix was certainly a hot topic in the weeks leading up to it, it proved to be worth it in the end, as racing fans were treated to one of the most entertaining battles of the year. In a year where Red Bull obliterated the competition, the Vegas crowds got to watch multiple drivers compete for various positions across the grid, and F1 experienced the success it was looking for. With Las Vegas now on the schedule for the next ten years, F1 has much to learn from the inaugural Grand Prix weekend, and it should excite fans to see what changes will be in store when the sport returns to the city next season. While there may not be any changes to the driver lineup for next year, it will be interesting to see what teams will do in the off-season to try to level the playing field in 2024 to compete with the dominant force that Red Bull has become.
Max Forstein can be reached at mforstein@wesleyan.edu.