The first night of practice of the Las Vegas Grand Prix wasn’t a complete disaster, but it did end up being a joke.
Teams made it through eight minutes of Free Practice 1 before an unsecured manhole cover was ripped up, heavily damaging the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and the Alpine of Esteban Ocon.
The FIA then determined that all manhole covers around the track must be inspected and covered. Entering this weekend, I figured there could be several problem areas, but the one area where I placed my faith was the overall track construction. Both the FIA and FOM are very good at ensuring something as basic as checking the manholes would be part of the setup ritual.
But, it turns out, they missed an obvious issue. Fixing the manhole covers delayed the on-track actions by five hours, with Free Practice 2 turning into a 90-minute session that began at 2:30 a.m. local time, with no fans present. If you were working on Friday morning on the East Coast, there’s a chance you were either in the office or on your commute when FP2 ended at 7:00 a.m. ET.
Thankfully, FP2 went off without any problems from a competition standpoint, and the cars appeared to be working on the racetrack. While the cars may have been at home on the track, fans were not so fortunate.
Fans in attendance were told at 1:30 am local time that they would need to vacate the grandstands immediately, as F1 did not have the resources or the staff to support the fans remaining in attendance.
So, unless you had a hotel room overlooking the track, there was no way to watch the race live. Single-day ticket buyers left Thursday having watched eight minutes of practice after paying for two hours, while for weekend pass holders, this messy beginning was their first impression of the ballyhooed event.
About 12 hours after all of this went down, F1 sent two messages, one for the public and one for the single-day Thursday ticket buyers. They did not send anything out to weekend pass holders, meaning they were just plum out of luck.
What an incredibly arrogant statement and offer.
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