Why Is the Las Vegas Grand Prix on an Unusually Late Saturday Night?

Last weekend’s Brazilian GP was arguably one of the best races of the season with action starting even before the actual race started. Fans were just getting over the enthralling race as the Las Vegas GP started appearing on the horizon. However, there’s one question that might’ve come up in your mind. Why is the Las Vegas Grand Prix on a Saturday night instead of the conventional Sunday Main Race weekend? Let’s answer that question for you. 

The Las Vegas GP takes place from the 16th to the 18th of November. The race will be held on the night of 18th November at 10 PM local time. While it makes sense to have the Grand Prix in Sin City at night time, why exactly has F1 decided to shift the race weekend from Friday – Sunday to Thursday – Saturday? Well, the simple answer is because of the viewership times and dates across the world.

Las Vegas is in the state of Nevada next to the western border state of California. The time zone across the globe varies. As a result, if the race had taken place on the conventional Sunday night in Las Vegas, it would’ve been broadcast early morning on a Monday in Europe and somewhere around noon in the Asian countries. Keeping this in mind, F1 decided to move the race day to a Saturday, which will be a Sunday morning/afternoon for the eastern side of the globe. 

According to RadioTimes, the CEO of the Las Vegas GP, Renee Wilm, explaining the decision to change the race day to a Saturday said, “That was actually a compromise to make sure we are broadcasting at a time when our European fans can get up with a cup of coffee and watch the race six, seven in the morning, very similar to how we [in the US] watch the European races. So that was actually a very important component of planning out our sequencing for the race weekend.”

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While it makes sense why the organizers and F1 decided to shift the Main Race to Saturday, the race timing of 10 PM at night does pose some problems for the viewers and for the fans. 

The freezing night race in Las Vegas comes with its own set of uncertainty

The Las Vegas GP is expected to be amongst the coldest races in the world championship. The temperatures are expected to go as low as 5°C. The team and drivers are already going to the newly built Las Vegas Street Circuit with multiple uncertainties and the cold weather makes it all that harder. The Pirelli Rubber is very temperature sensitive and getting them up to working temperatures will be a difficult task.

Mercedes Trackside Engineer Andrew Shovlin said, “If the track is down in single figures, that’s often a region where you go winter testing. You do a run, it’s very difficult for the tires to either get them switched on, or there may be graining and things.” Jonathan Eddolls, Chief race engineer at AlphaTauri said, “The temperatures are going to be probably one of the biggest challenges.”

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Regardless of the peculiar nature of the weekend, F1 looks set to dazzle the world with its extravaganza in Vegas. How excited are you for the return of F1 to Las Vegas? From where will you be tuning in for the penultimate race of the year?