Ferrari needs to eliminate mistakes if it wants to stay near the top. Photo / Don Kennedy
It has been 41 years since Formula One cars raced around the streets of Las Vegas, and as it makes a return to the city more famous for its casinos and the boxing ring, than racing cars, the question is will the event be a success?
Viva means “long live” but the Caesars Palace Grand Prix was only held in 1981 and 1982, which was the 16th and final race of the F1 world championship.
Italian driver Michele Alboreto won driving a Tyrell-Ford. It was also the last Formula One (F1) race for 1978 world champion Mario Andretti who has been in the news lately, as part of the Andretti team bid, led by his son Michael, to join the F1 grid as an 11th team in 2025. Approval has been given by the FIA, but crucially, it is yet to gain the approval of the owners of F1, Liberty Media.
The Caesars Palace Grand Prix was supposed to be a hyped-up event to showcase the glamour and glitz of Las Vegas, in the way the Monaco Grand Prix has successfully promoted the Monte Carlo Municipality. In 1982 the US already had two races, New York’s Watkins Glen and in Long Beach, California, and it currently has two other races, the Miami Grand Prix and the USGP at Austin, Texas.
“Caesars was holding these boxing matches in their pavilion behind their hotel,” Chris Pook, the founder of the Long Beach Grand Prix, recalls. “There weren’t a lot of seats, but the seats were expensive, and they were packed. Everybody that wanted to come and gamble and fight, so they would sell out in literally hours.”
“So, Caesars was fairly confident if they did something like this for an F1 race that they would be able to get all their high rollers invited to come and participate and enjoy the event.”
The track was created in a parking lot adjacent to the hotel. It had 14 turns, over a 2.2-mile (3.5km) counter-clockwise circuit. The city would not allow the organisers to use the Las Vegas Strip as such, so it was a compromise.
“It’s a bit unfair to call it a parking lot race because it was not really a parking lot-it was part of a parking lot and a lot of desert, dirt, which the circuit was built on,” Pook said.
“Caesars spent a lot of money, a huge amount of money, building the circuit.”
Derek Daly was one of the F1 drivers who took part in the two races held at Caesars.
“The heat was extreme,” he recalled.
“For the first time and only time in my life as a racing driver, with about three laps to go, I began to get dizzy in the brake zones because it was so hot, I was so dehydrated, and the track was bumpy, and there was no rest.”
Daly described the race as “more a novelty than an event. We all stayed at Caesar’s Palace and we could get fully dressed in our rooms, which we did, and walk to breakfast wearing our driver suit, which we did, and no one noticed. Nobody understood Formula One. Nobody knew Formula One drivers.”
Andretti realised the event wasn’t going to be a success because of the venue.
“We figured that it would be exciting and we were all looking forward to it,” he said. “But after seeing that venue where it was, I didn’t think it was going to have much life because geographically it was very restricted.”
So why is Formula One returning to a venue that was a failure in 1981 and 1982?
The new 6.2km circuit winds its way past Caesars Palace, the Bellagio and the Venetian, including the Las Vegas Strip.
It will be raced on a Saturday night, and, of course, the Singapore Grand Prix, Formula One’s first night race, now has a permanent spot on the F1 calendar after the inaugural race held in 2008. The event is expected to be a financial success, the paddock being constructed at an expense of US$480 million, but F1 executives and local leaders have calculated the event could have an economic impact of $1.3 billion. That would be double the economic impact of the Super Bowl, to be held at the Allegian Stadium in Vegas next year.
But whereas the Caesars Palace Grand Prix was held in September, with drivers like Daley complaining of the heat, the Las Vegas Grand Prix will be held this weekend, and it is expected to be cold at night.
Former F1 managing director Ross Brawn worked on the new event and admits they may have overlooked the night temperature.
“The one thing we hadn’t considered initially, but the tyre company has dealt with, is it gets very, very cold at night,” Brawn said. “It can be really quite cold and of course getting the cars to work in those temperatures can be a challenge.”
Given none of the drivers will know the track apart from work done in the simulator, it might help create a more even playing field.
“First of all, I think we are there more for the show than the racing itself if you look at the layout of the track,” Verstappen admitted after the Brazilian GP. “I still need to go on the simulator. I still don’t even know the track, to be honest. The last time I tried it on the F1 game, I think I hit more walls than I was going straight. So, let’s hope that’s not the case when I start driving there.
“All knew so maybe it will give you a few surprises.”
There have been growing calls for the FIA to somehow intervene in terms of the rules, to stop Verstappen from winning, having only lost three in 20 races, two to his Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez in Saudi Arabia and Baku, both street circuits, and to Carlos Sainz in Singapore, another street circuit and night-time race that may have similarities to the new Vegas circuit.
A driver dominating F1 is nothing new, especially in the modern era. Michael Schumacher won five consecutive championships for Ferrari from 2000 to 2004. Sebastian Vettel had a run of four titles for Red Bull from 2010 to 2013. And then it was Mercedes’ turn to dominate, with Lewis Hamilton winning six titles between 2014 and 2020, only losing in 2016, to his teammate, Nico Rosberg.
Verstappen has won three consecutive titles but is not yet as dominant as Schumacher, Vettel or Hamilton were, yet the latter in particular has hypocritically led the call for the FIA to do something to halt Verstappen’s race and title charge.
Verstappen has told Time magazine that F1 will survive his period of dominance.
“The NBA survived when the Chicago Bulls were dominating,” Verstappen pointed out. “At the time, or even afterwards, people are like, ‘Oh, that was amazing’. If you are a real fan of sport, you should be able to appreciate a team doing well.”
When Verstappen lost the Singapore Grand Prix, the only GP he has lost since Round Five, he suggested those who cannot tolerate dominance, are not “real fans”.
“Honestly, I have zero interest in that. We got beaten and in a very clear way. I don’t think about what’s good for Formula One. I don’t think it was necessarily bad what was happening to Formula One, because we were just better than everyone else. If people can’t appreciate that, they are not a real fan.”
Winning is not something that Ferrari has seemed capable of since Sainz’s Singapore triumph. According to former F1 driver, Timo Glock, Ferrari cannot continue to make mistakes if it wants to stay near the top.
“In Brazil, Leclerc was again a main story because of the fact he didn’t make the start due to the hydraulic problem and subsequent crash,” Glock says.
“That just can’t happen to a top team. If you compare it to Red Bull, they don’t have problems on a technical level, and that is exactly what is going wrong with Ferrari. If they don’t make a wrong strategic choice, they have a mechanical problem, or a driver makes a mistake. That means Ferrari remains inconsistent, because of some circuits, they do not have the speed to compete.
“Max is performing at a top level, and it is incredibly clear that he is grabbing multiple records, that also puts Red Bull in a strong position strategically, as he can extend a stint by maybe five to eight laps.”
Ferrari has proved it can be quick over one lap, with Leclerc taking pole position for the USGP, but then finishing fourth, and in Mexico starting first, but finishing third. He was second quickest in Brazil but didn’t complete the formation lap. Verstappen won all three races despite only starting from pole in Brazil, whereas he started sixth in the US and third in Mexico.
“The rest find themselves in a predicament, and Ferrari needs to raise the level and understand how they can improve the car towards next year on every level.”
Perhaps Ferrari will take a gamble in terms of strategy in Las Vegas, but betting on Verstappen being beaten despite it being a new circuit would seem a long shot. The organisers will be gambling on the race being a success and will not want this new event to become a two-year wonder like the Caesars Palace GP was.
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