First impression of Vegas is that they have done an incredible job, getting that track ready in a busy Sin City like Las Vegas.
The driving through a tunnel of light is probably a bit like Singapore, with some more fancy surroundings.
I do not think the drivers will get too much distracted.
Ditch that; first session will not be resumed after a track inspection. We had only 9 minutes of this session.
The Red Flag was already weird as there was a slow driving Ferrari that could easily be recovered. But there is obviously something more to be done to the track that can not be easily fixed.
You will not get away with this kind of failure during the first session. Over 1Bn of investments, including 230M land buy by F1 itself, the brand new Pit Building and surrounding for another 250M, 80M for new tarmac on the whole track and than the additional investments by the city itself.
No matter the reason, you will not get away with it from a public opinion perspective.
Every single drain cover should have been inspected in advance, twice. Period.
Maybe next time take a military grade approach to an organization like this. With everything at stake. And do not let things to chance. But than again, this is Vegas... But F1 aint Poker, just sayin'
It appears to be a drain cover not being welded properly. There is a guy in Vegas with a TV show called Welderup. Maybe they should have asked him to wield that solid.
These drain cover incidents have happened before on other city tracks like Baku and Monaco. It is just a nuisance of driving on public roads. It just aint look so good if you fail at the small things when you get the big things right
I do hope the fancy Vegas Hotel arrangements include other exiting entertainment
There are plenty of 150.000$ packages, all the way up to 5.000.000$ for the most ridiculous one. But than you can invite 17 friends to the paddock. Totally worth it.
Welcome to Vegas, baby
EDIT; It appears that Carlos Sainz' Ferrari was damaged so bad that they have to build a complete new car. Not just the under tray, but also the engine and gearbox were severely damaged by the loose cover. Also other cars like the Alfa from Zhou and Ocon's Alpine were damaged. That will generate some steamy discussions for sure.
And that comes on top of drivers, like current World Champion Max Verstappen, who feel like part of a clown show, where the racing is secondary to the show. Well Max, some say Formula One is the biggest Circus on the Planet. And Vegas is the perfect background for that.
But you can not cover everything with some make up, hair dye and boob fillers. That track was not ready for racing. And that is unacceptable. At the same time, you can not judge the work of 1000nds of people by just one incident, but it is at a very unfortunate timing.
Free Practice 2 has been postponed and maybe even cancelled, as i can not see it anymore in the F1 TV programming. Still on 1.5 hour later. Better safe than sorry it seems.
Maybe i should have booked one of those 1.000.000$ Hotel rooms instead....
Or is that money literally going down the drain
The whole manhole came out it appears. How on earth is that even possible.
Everything is now sealed with some resin and they also checked all other similar drains and secured where needed.
PS I do agree this time with Sir Lewis that with all the extra work, overtime and ridiculously overpriced Hotel Rooms and prices, the workforce needs to get extra compensated as well. This appears not to be the case and that is ridiculous. Just a thought.
![$0.02 Cents :twocents-02cents:](./images/smilies/twocents/02cents.gif)