Motorsports (non-NASCAR)

[Shyster]

Did no one tell them Vegas gets cold this time of year.

Apparently no.

[tifosi77]

I............................................... I can't believe that. Oh my god. lol

My support of this race has been pretty solid throughout, mainly because I like the idea of having an F1 race I might actually get to attend some day, and I think the setting is excellent. But as we've gotten closer and closer to the event, it just seems like a giant clusterf**k waiting to explode.

[Trip McNeely]

Qualifying is probably going to require 3-4 laps to get the tire in a halfway decent operating window. And I’m assuming during the race everyone will run the softs as long as possible

[dodint]

Any excitement I had for that race died when I heard they were holding it at midnight local time. Get ****.

[tifosi77]

To be fair, it's just practice and quali that are at midnight. The race itself is 10pm local.

But that still defies the whole point of having a third race in the States in the first place. It's a +8 hr time difference between PST and Europe, you're not really benefiting that audience a lot with that schedule.

[shafnutz05]

Vegas GP weekend off to some start.

[Trip McNeely]

Even when Ferrari is fast, the gods are against them. Sainz sucked up a freaking manhole cover which destroyed his car and now he has a ten place drop.

One thing that is annoying about this weekend is the constant “this is for show” and “this is ruining the sport”. Listen, it’s over the top, I know, but are we gonna say that having American races is somehow worse than being bought by petrostates to hold races in the desert that has around 1/4 of the attendance that the American races achieve? Grow up

[CBear3]

Repeating a comment I made many times this week, and echo'ing Robby Gordon: 'A race team is a marketing company that races cars on the weekend.' If you're not driving value for your sponsors and entertaining fans, you might as well be the SCCA.

The reason teams have 100 million dollar budgets isn't because of the purity of the sport, its because its entertaining to watch and sponsors are willing to pay to put their names on the side of cars for those who are entertained to see. None of these guys have raced for pure sport since their first couple years in karts, so they can pound sand.

[tifosi77]

Racing in Hungary and Qatar is definitely more pure racing sport. 100%, no question. Mmhmm.

Teams have $150 million dollar budgets because [Manufacturer A] wants to be better than [Manufacturer B-D inclusive] and put that in a commercial. But to do that, the engineering has to be exceptional. And that's not cheap.

So budgets are driven by manufacturer backing, and always have been. The 2008 season (the last year completed before the impacts of the global financial crisis drew in) saw teams spend a combined $3 billion chasing world championship points; the top teams all spent over $350 million, each (and most of them were more like $400 mil+).

That's not just a marketing exercise.

Cost caps are stupid - works teams like Mercedes and Ferrari can hide so much of their F1 budgets in their parent company. Red Bull didn't think catering was a team expense, so they got stitched.

[tifosi77]

What I find absurd are grid penalties for 'reliability'. They are stupid, they have always been stupid, and there is not reasonable way to look at them that isn't stupid.

Sainz has a grid penalty for being attacked by the circuit. That's stupid. Ocon got to use the spare car because the session schedule wrapped past midnight, so it technically wasn't using two chassis in one day, and he escaped penalty... which is stupid.

F1's history is replete with examples where they out-clever themselves and just look stupid.

[tifosi77]

Things look bizarrely nondescript. This is the first F1 race I've ever watched where I've actually been to nearly every party of the circuit before, but I was still finding it hard to figure out where they were on the circuit at any given time. Got better over time, but initially it was a little confusing.

With the exception of the final bend before the S/F line, that looks mega on TV.

I haven't heard for sure why they made spectators vacate the stands for FP2. Some have said it was a police thing, others have suggested the organizers took instructions a bit too literally. But still not sure why they had a practice session wrapping up at 4 am, that's ludicrous. Organizers (which I think is actually Liberty/F1 itself for this event) have not exactly showered themselves in glory.

I hope someone punts Max into low Earth orbit.

[dodint]

I heard they had a hard time they were required to reopen the streets. As this is the only F1 race in modern history that opens the circuit up over the weekend.

[tifosi77]

Not sure about more recent additions, but I'm pretty sure Monaco opened up at night during GP weekend; the Casino is completely landlocked. I think they only just moved to the usual F-S-S calendar, as they used to do practice on Thursday to accommodate a bank holiday on the Friday.

[iamjs]

[Shyster]

I was bored, and after much googling, I think the offending car was a Ferrari 340 America Touring Berlinetta. The turn signal might not quite match up, but I think all of the Ferrari 340s basically had custom and handmade bodies, and the other stuff (grille slats, fog light, headlight, wire wheels) seems to match.

[tifosi77]

Oil spill seen on the track after drivers parade before Las Vegas Grand Prix... as more issues surface before the race even begins

Brundle referred to the offending car as an "old jalopy" during pre-race, which I think would be unbecoming a 340 Berlinetta

[Shyster]

Ah, it looks like the car that broke down was a 1957 Cadillac Eldorado. But I think the car in the tweet above is a Ferrari. it might just have come to a stop before the oil spill.

[tifosi77]

(Videos from the official F1 YT channel never load for me if my VPN is on, fyi)

[Shyster]

Thanks. Definitely a Ferrari 340, although a barchetta rather than a berlinetta, which I should have guessed because it's a driver parade and everyone needs to be able to see the drivers. It also had Petersen Museum plates on it, so I believe it's the same car being waxed by Petersen workers in the photo gallery on this web page:

https://www.petersen.org/blog/ferrari-w ... 2023-recap

You could always go down to the museum and ask them if they had a 340 at the LVGP.

[dodint]

Minardi to be renamed again, this time the acronym will be RB.

"Racing Bulls".

[tifosi77]

The exact quote escapes me now, but didn't they say the new name would have some sort of 'legacy' callback? I was kinda hoping for a return of the Minardi name.

[Gaucho]

[tifosi77]

Looks almost like a Top Gear challenge.

There are entire channels dedicated to the brain-f**kery of noobs tooling around the 'Ring. And they're all hilarious. haha

[tifosi77]

Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, on three. Break!

[Shyster]

Needs a few more sponsors in that name.