Of all the bad nights one can experience in Las Vegas, Formula 1 has had several of the worst. In 2023, the year of the World Cup’s return to Nevada (USA) more than four decades later, no one saw it coming that the extravagance and obscene luxury projected by the city of casinos, and which led to the event being sold as the Super Bowl of racing, would end up becoming a great disappointment and a lesson in humility. . After an exhaustive inspection, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) ordered the removal of all water registers to secure them, a job that required extra effort from the stewards and volunteers. The second training session did not start until two-thirty in the morning, obviously, with the stands empty of fans, evacuated, as reported, “for logistical and security reasons.” The image was as strange as it was dramatic, very damaging if we take into account that it was intended to impress, but for other reasons. “What has happened is simply unacceptable in F1,” said Fred Vasseur, director of the F1. Scuderia. , due to the obscene prices that were asked for depending on what experiences, which ended up being offered at a bargain price.
Well, two years after that embarrassment, which may leave the championship ready to be resolved, in favor of Lando Norris, next week, in Qatar. On this occasion, it was the suspicion of a loose cover in turn 17 of the layout, as reported by Alpine and Haas, that caused a red flag with 20 minutes left before the conclusion of practice, which resumed a quarter of an hour later, once the point of conflict had been checked. Despite this, the commissioners stopped again a few minutes later, suspecting that the incident had not been fully resolved. Two new intercourse interrupted in a city that aspires to be the scene of the greatest show in the world, and that stumbles upon a detail as prosaic as a slab of steel. In any case, Norris led the pack, with 29 thousandths of a margin over Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), half a second over Max Verstappen (ninth) and eight tenths over Oscar Piastri (14th).
The incident prevented a minimally focused film from being made of what this Friday’s timing may hold (early morning on Saturday in Spain), and even less so on Saturday’s race (5:00 on Sunday in Spain, Dazn). The conditions of the track, with a devilish cold (about ten degrees in the air) that greatly reduces the grip of the tires and increases their wear due to the graining —some blisters that appear on the surface— add some intrigue to an end of the year that has it all, with three candidates for the title that could become two depending on how the current champion does in these next two days, in a Las Vegas Grand Prix that is still the perfect metaphor for a city with a lot of glitter, noise and miles of neon lights, but with cracks under the asphalt.
