Is Las Vegas GP’s Weird “Truck” Podium Inspired by FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022’s Disruptive Stadium?

Imagine standing on the podium in Monza—one of the most iconic ones on the calendar—looking over a sea of fans cheering you on. That’s a feeling every driver strives to experience at least once in their career. That’s because podiums in Formula 1 hold a lot of significance. Unlike in most other sports—where only the winner gets to relish their victory and everyone else is sent home packing—the top three finishers of a race get to feel like winners. And in a season like 2023, where the P1 spot has practically had a permanent incumbent, even P2 and P3 feel like wins. To add to its extravaganza, the Las Vegas GP is set to make the podium celebrations a spectacle as well!

The Las Vegas GP organizers recently released pictures of its newly built pit building. With podiums usually connected to the pit building, there was no sign of one in Vegas. The race’s CEO revealed why, and the idea behind it is quite similar to a feature from the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The Las Vegas GP is using the FIFA World Cup’s tactics

From a wedding chapel in the paddock to a giant, LED logo of F1 atop the pit building. The first edition of the Las Vegas GP is going all out. It’s sparing no costs, but it looks like it’s also invested some of those costs into promoting sustainability. And it may have taken notes from last year’s World Cup in Qatar. Considering the country in the Middle East didn’t have enough soccer stadiums to host the World Cup, it built many before the best teams in the world congregated there. But there was one that stood out above the rest.

Stadium 974. A name inspired by Qatar’s dialing code, it was made from 974 shipping containers. That isn’t even the best part. Stadium 974 was the first transportable and reusable stadium, with a seating capacity of 40,000. Once the World Cup was over, the stadium was disassembled into its original form of shipping containers. With Uruguay bidding to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup, Stadium 974 could make a repeat appearance. While we’ll have to wait eight years to see it back in action, Las Vegas may bring us something similar after Saturday’s race. 

On the F1 Nation Podcast, Las Vegas GP CEO Renee Wilm explained, “We have an extremely unique podium setup. We did not want to take views away from our Paddock Club guests and attach the podium to the pit building. So how do you create a podium moment? Well, what we did was take the trucks that had been created for this epic stage for the opening ceremonies. And we will be reusing them right on the grid to celebrate the winners of our race.” It’ll sure be interesting to see what the podium looks like. But there’s just one problem.

Read More: With Rain Predicted to Hit Already-Freezing Las Vegas GP, Will Ensued Chaos Drown F1?

Will drivers even finish to race to get a chance to stand on the podium? The lack of a podium wasn’t the only thing people noticed when organizers released pictures of the pit building in Vegas.

The pit exit in Vegas is very dangerous

First things first, the Las Vegas Street Circuit is brand new. That means it has fresh asphalt that doesn’t provide a lot of grip. Additionally, temperatures during the weekend will drop to as low as 4C, making tire warm-up even harder than it already will be for drivers. And when drivers come out of the pits, their tires aren’t necessarily at the peak of their heat cycle. What this means is that they usually slide around after getting out of the pits before getting the grip they need. The thing is, they won’t have the room to slide around in Vegas.

The other thing that people noticed about the pit building pictures? The extremely narrow pit exit. Not to mention that it runs on the inside of the Turn 1 hairpin. The exit is right on the apex of Turn 1, and if a fast-approaching car were to make that corner when another car exited the pits, it could end very badly for both of them, as well as the other drivers on the grid.

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How do you see the Las Vegas GP playing out? Will enough cars be crossing the finish line to fill the podium places?