F1 Expert Exposes How Las Vegas GP’s “Unhappy Compromise” Is Hampering Casino Businesses

The Las Vegas GP is still the talk of the town. However, the tone of the talk has shifted towards negativity compared to its initial positive outlook. No one can be blamed for this shift in perspective around the race weekend but the organizers themselves, Liberty Media. In fact, the owners and the city of Vegas have made so many unhappy compromises that it is hurting the heart and soul of the city.

Known as the Sin City for its extravagant nightlife and the massive casino lure, Vegas will not be the same for the F1 weekend. The experts made the connection and dwelled on this topic of F1 hampering the casino business in the latest Sky Sports F1 podcast.

Sky Sports experts reveal how the Las Vegas GP is hampering the casino business

The Vegas GP was already attracting a lot of criticism for its absurd timings. However, as exposed in the podcast by Ted Kravitz and Craig Slater the late-night racing action is a result of an “unhappy compromise” between F1 and Vegas. Regardless, the compromise couldn’t save the casinos for at least this weekend.

Trying to explain the controversial timings of the entire Las Vegas GP weekend, Sky Sports journalist Craig Slater tried to make sense of it all. He explained, “People on the East Coast of America, even people on the West Coast think it’s a very late hour to be trying to tune into Formula 1. So is this more for the European market? I guess it’s just as early as you can get up in Europe and it’s just about as late as you can stay up in the US. So kind of an unhappy compromise but yes, we really are late.”

The two experts also highlighted in their conversation how Vegas authorities must’ve agreed to the timing so they could minimize the traffic chaos. This is exactly how F1 got its hands on the “pulmonary artery” of the city of Vegas – the Strip which is part of the circuit and where most of the casinos are located besides the Las Vegas Boulevard.

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Formula 1 prides itself as a good-for-business kinda circus. However, in Vegas, with the continued backlash and new development hampering the sport’s reputation, it might have a negative effect. In fact, it is already costing the fans money.

Fans lose out on thousands of dollars worth of experience already in the highly controversial Las Vegas GP

The biggest news out of the highly anticipated weekend’s first piece of action could not have been more damaging. Figuratively for the sport but literally for the Ferrari man Carlos Sainz and the fans as well. The Ferrari of Sainz sustained massive damage on the floor after running over a manhole that wasn’t sealed properly on the street track before FP1 began.

This concerning scenario not only ruined the FP1 but also hampered the fans’ experience for the day. In fact, the fans who paid top dollar to experience all the on-track action for FP1 and FP2 went back empty-handed.

After the manhole incident, FP1 was completely discarded after just 9 minutes of action with no update on the FP2 session. The manhole cover needed proper and solid covering so the incident doesn’t occur again. After much delay, the fans were asked to leave as the circuit was closed at 1:30 am. However, the race officials decided to conduct the FP2 session at 2:30 am local time.

So if you were a fan who paid thousands of dollars to attend the first day of the Las Vegas GP, you have basically gone home after witnessing 9 minutes of total action on the track. Fair? We won’t comment!

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As the weekend unfolds, we are not sure how many incidents will occur that will spite the fans and the teams. Let’s hope for smoother proceedings from here on out.