In the round-up: Alexander Albon was less than impressed by the minimum tyre pressures Pirelli have set for this weekend in Las Vegas
In brief
Albon unhappy with tyre pressures
Williams driver Alexander Albon is not sure the Pirelli have made the best decision with tyre pressures for this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix after the first practice sessions.
F1’s tyre supplier set unusually high minimum tyre pressures for this weekend due to the expected colder temperatures. The fronts must be set to at least 27psi, rears 24.5psi.
Albon believes it is having a negative effect on tyre performance. “I think that the long run is a little bit more difficult because of the cold temperatures,” Albon said. “What Pirelli have done has mostly made the deg and the graining worse. Otherwise, all fun.”
Tsunoda had “long nap” during delay
AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda took advantage of the long delay to second practice starting due to work on the track to catch up on some sleep.The extremely late schedule for the Las Vegas Grand Prix meant that the second session, which was due to begin at midnight, was delayed until 2.30am, with no fans able to watch from the grandstands.
“Obviously it’s safety first and it was undriveable, especially that kind of big safety issue,” Tsunoda said. “It took quite a long time and I had quite a long nap.
“Especially for the fans, it’s not great. In the end we were finally able to drive but, it was quite late. I think everyone’s feeling really, really tough. So it was not ideal for sure.”
Browning snatches pole for first Macau race
Williams academy driver Luke Browning will start from pole position for the qualifying race for the Macau Grand Prix after beating Gabriele Mini to pole by just six-thousandths of a second.
Mini had been on provisional pole after the first qualifying session but Browning set a lap just thousandths faster than him to secure pole for the race that will decide the grid for Sunday’s all-important F3 World Cup race.
Mini will start second ahead of Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic, with Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar, IndyCar racer Marcus Armstrong and McLaren junior Ugo Ugochuku all securing top 10 starts despite each of them crashing.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
How an F1 spending cap made racing teams more investable (CNBC)
Greg Maffei: 'We understood that some of the things that, for example the NFL, has done about creating more revenue parity, creating a cost cap, those allow for a way more competitive and more compelling sport.'
Sargeant - Homecoming (Player's Tribune)
'Something I’ve learned on this journey is that, at some point in your life, the thing you’ve worked toward for forever and put every piece of yourself into might fall apart, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t prepare for it. At your lowest, you’ll have to ask yourself, Why do I keep doing this? What’s the point of any of it?'
Cost of hosting this year’s F1 grand prix hits record $100m (The Age)
'The annual report of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, tabled in state parliament on Thursday, reveals the government-controlled body spent $198 million to stage this year’s race at Albert Park. This represents an increase of $44 million, or 29 percent, from 2022, and a whopping 72 percent increase from two races ago.'
Caesars breaks Formula One betting record on Las Vegas Grand Prix (Las Vegas Review Journal)
'We knew going into it, just because of where the race is located and its proximity to betting windows, that is was going to be a record handle for Caesars for a Formula 1 race. Although we’ve already eclipsed the record handle, auto racing is a niche sport. It’s just not heavily bet. The clientele that loves Formula 1, they have a lot of money. It will be interesting to see how much money they’re putting down on a lot of the markets we’re offering.'
F1 fever is fuelling unprecedented surge in high-rise condo sales (Las Vegas Sun)
'Heidi Williams and real estate partner Rebecca Gray said they began seeing F1-related buys at the property off East Harmon Avenue about nine months ago. About 25-30% of their clientele have indicated that they’re snatching up units before this week’s race festivities, they said. The Las Vegas Grand Prix is expected to draw about 170,000 people to the Resort Corridor for race-related events.'
'We would love our previous IndyCar (simulator) rights back for our iRacing product, but I'm guessing they still have much to consider. As far as potentially building a dedicated IndyCar game for consoles, if we could acquire the license, that is also a big decision. We currently only have the capacity and resources to do so much simultaneously.'
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it to us via the contact form.
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
|@GeorgeRussell63 is being told Sainz says his floor may be destroyed. He may have hit a loose drain or something.#F1 #LasVegasGP #RaceFans
— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) November 17, 2023
Wishing Las Vegas GP CEO Renee Wilm and her organising team, supported by the hard-working FIA staff, a successful event after a challenging start pic.twitter.com/YKQHMBWRI9
— Mohammed Ben Sulayem (@Ben_Sulayem) November 17, 2023
Kudos to everyone in the team today 💙 They have worked incredibly hard sorting Esteban's car.#Alpine #LasVegasGP pic.twitter.com/UoO0fBqxWS
— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) November 17, 2023
Unfortunate start to the #LasVegasGP weekend with delays. However, safety is always paramount.
A special mention to the fans who weren’t able to catch FP2. Hopefully we can put on a good show for you across the rest of the weekend.
We got a good amount of laps in, gathered a… pic.twitter.com/NN9qelVj91
— Zak Brown (@ZBrownCEO) November 17, 2023
Not sure #F1’s blackout blinds are doing the job…they’re see through? Not that there’s anything to watch right now…#LasVegasGP pic.twitter.com/fUze0ipcgV
— Marc Priestley (@f1elvis) November 17, 2023
@F1 @fia paid $3000 for a ticket to get kicked out after FP1 got cancelled and you couldn't pay your employees to put on an event. Not to mention Las Vegas PD and private security are kicking people off of every potential viewing spot.
This is sad
— Paul Loeffel (@LoeffelPaul) November 17, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Toto Wolff insisted that the disruption to the opening practice sessions for the Las Vegas Grand Prix did not constitute a “black eye” for Formula 1, but Broke1984 begs to differ…
He is wrong.
Firstly it is belittling to say no one in Europe is watching, hardcore fans stay up or get up for all sessions.
Secondly, two cars have been damaged within 10 minutes despite half a billion being spent directly by the owners to set up a “showcase event”.
Absolutely it is a black eye on the sport.
Broke1984
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Matthew H and Ionut93!
Exediron (@exediron)
18th November 2023, 0:57
Re: COTD
Toto has lost all credibility for me recently, between going hard against the Andretti entry (on the ridiculous grounds that an 11th team would dilute the value of the current teams and wouldn’t constitute a good ‘business case’) and now this outright shilling for Liberty in defense of the Vegas GP.
Guy’s become a corporate goon, not a racer. He’s making that very clear.
Tristan
18th November 2023, 1:12
I just can’t help but feel Sulayem naming Renee Wilm is more than just well wishes. “Nothing to do with us, we’re hard working, look at Liberty!”
Gusm.ai
18th November 2023, 1:39
On COTD: for some places the quali and race times are really bad.
Given it is a street track we can expect red flags on both sessions, meaning that watching it live, with a start after midnight, might mean a full sleepless night.
The track isnt looking like very attractive racing-wise.
So the plan goes as: wont watch it live, will cacth the highlights, if something good seemed to had happened, maybe find a way to watch a replay or extended highlights.
Aquila_GD
18th November 2023, 4:15
This idea that because you spend a whole amount of money on an event should make it somehow immune from “force majeure” is laughable. If humans were that advanced, we would live forever.
The issue with the drain would have been very difficult to predict. The challenge now is that the learning can now be put into making tracks more robust in the future which would undoubtedly now happen.
John S
18th November 2023, 2:00
They have destroyed access to all of southern Nevada. And on the weekend before Thanksgiving here in the States. I think the effects of hosting this race have been felt for the last 3 months, and will continue to be felt long after everyone packs up and heads to the next race.
I am looking forward to hear the revenue results from the major casinos; that will tell if the race has commercial support next year.
For me. it has disrupted my November travel plans already. I am not really happy about that.
Maciek (@maciek)
18th November 2023, 4:16
F1 just has a thing for teasing US fans only to leave them in the lurch just as they’re getting convinced to really get into it …without forgetting to gaslight them in the process.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th November 2023, 6:30
Another good Player’s Tribune post.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
18th November 2023, 9:35
James Hunt used to have plenty of naps during a Grand Prix weekend…