Comment: controversy, drama, accidents! The Las Vegas Grand Prix offered everything we can expect from F1

Grand Prix with serial number 1100! General comments on the whole weekend – it was huge, probably the biggest show in the whole F1 calendar, which we all expected. As much as it looked like it was going to be a giant dud at the start, I have to admit that the Las Vegas Grand Prix offered one of the best races of the season.

The Las Vegas Grand Prix – the show, the controversy, the accidents, the amazing race

The Las Vegas Grand Prix offered everything a Formula One fan could want and will rightly be referred to as one of the best races of the 2023 season. Although this was largely due to the chaos on the track and the race was extremely affected by circumstances.

The race management didn’t mess around and took virtually every opportunity to shuffle the standings. So there was really no shortage of action. The very start of the Las Vegas Grand Prix provided plenty of drama in the form of minor incidents – but did you expect anything else?

Mayhem at the start in Vegas 😵#F1 #LasVegasGP pic.twitter.com/ZqcLtSxQXe

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 20, 2023

Rough tarmac, low temperatures, cold tyres – a guarantee of pre-determined chaos. The question is what the race would have looked like, and whether there would have been as much going on if it weren’t for the multitude of variables and question marks.

But what we can’t praise Las Vegas for is the direction. It delivered a truly horrendous performance throughout the race weekend. In any case, the attractiveness of the race was helped by the ideally set DRS zones, so the drivers had to earn every overtake. Now let’s take a look at how the teams performed in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Grand Prix – Red Bull Racing

Max Verstappen achieved his 18th win this year, that’s an incredible number. In retrospect, regarding the incident at the start – at first I thought the five second penalty was very inadequate. But considering that everyone was sliding on those cold tyres, it gives the penalty a little different weight again.

But the fact is that he sent it hard into turn one and this could be punished harder in future. The pit lane, for example, comes into consideration. But there is one catch – it will be difficult for the sports commissioners to judge whether the driver did it on purpose or whether it was the fault of the technique, for example, and therefore perhaps cold tyres.

The latter incident was more likely to be the fault of George Russell himself, who took a downright spin into Verstappen. Otherwise, such times that the reigning champion was setting there with a damaged wing is a very good performance. But it’s hard to say whether he would have won if Charles Leclerc had Carlos Sainz up front.

I still see that as a huge blemish on the whole weekend. Verstappen was beatable today. Unfortunately for most fans, that didn’t happen. Sergio Pérez had more luck than sense, but that’s not to diminish his performance on track. And with a damaged car.

Qualifying was a classic tragedy, but in the race, due to the circumstances, he recorded a very good result. He was helped a lot by the Safety Car, on which he made an extreme profit. As for the manoeuvre on the last lap, when Leclerc overtook him at the last moment, which gave him second place – for myself, I wouldn’t make too much of it.

In this case, I rather appreciate Leclerc, who sent it to the heart of the corner and actually did the best he could. Anyway, Red Bull gets first and second in the drivers’ championship for the first time ever.

Scuderia Ferrari

They had it in them to win, they didn’t. Once again a phenomenal qualifying, unfortunately their weekend was spoiled by the FIA itself and its unfair, even very controversial decision. Ferrari were very quick on the straights in Las Vegas and the circuit suited the Italians.

As I wrote above, if Leclerc had had Sainz behind him, things would probably have looked different, better for the Maranello team. And a shame about the first pit stop. In short, Leclerc lost important time with his late stop, his rivals (Red Bull drivers – ed.) had five laps fresher tyres.

But in the end, thanks to an amazing manoeuvre on “Checo” Perez, he took second place, Sainz at least made it to the number 6 position.

A well-fought for podium finish for @Charles_Leclerc! 👊

That last-lap overtake truly was class 👌#LasVegasGP #F1 @ScuderiaFerrari pic.twitter.com/3thvswxkPf

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 19, 2023

But we have to commend Ferrari for this weekend. And ultimately, they can storm to the final second place in the Constructors’ Cup in Abu Dhabi.

Mercedes

Russell had a better weekend than Lewis Hamilton, but still finished behind his teammate in the race. That must be infuriating. Anyway, it’s his own fault, the five-second penalty for the collision with Verstappen is justified.

Performance-wise, Mercedes was clearly weaker than Red Bull and Ferrari, but finishing seventh and eighth is no small disappointment. From third place at the start it was definitely possible to aim higher, Hamilton on the other hand gained three positions compared to the start.

It has to be said, however, that both Mercedes drivers paid the price for the Safety Car’s exit and the differently chosen strategy. Anyway, after the stop Hamilton dropped to 17th position, gradually gaining up to 10 places – on the other hand, this is a very good damage limitation.

Hamilton did a very short stint on medium specification tyres before the stop under Safety Car, Russell on the hardest set as well.

McLaren

McLaren messed themselves up in qualifying when they didn’t protect their so called track position as the track got faster with each quick attempt. Lando Norris then unluckily ran into a bump at turn 12 early in the race and shot it solidly.

Oscar Piastri was driving sympathetically and trying to do something with the race, but in any case the exit of that safety car didn’t help him much either. A plus point for the fastest lap of the race.

Plus the Las Vegas Strip Circuit didn’t suit McLaren, everything was wrong here. The battle with Aston Martin for the final fourth place in the Constructors’ Cup will be interesting. Although in Abu Dhabi we should see McLaren in its traditional strong form.

Aston Martin

By current standards, Aston had a very decent weekend. In general, we can commend the folks at the team for the way they responded to their otherwise recent increasingly poor form and brought an efficient rear and front wing to Vegas.

Fernando Alonso, starting from ninth, finished tenth, and it was at the start that he made something we’re not used to seeing from him – a mistake. It affected his whole race.

Lance Stroll, on the other hand, took advantage of every opportunity to move forward that the race offered him – the initial chaos, the right strategy, capitalising on the Safety Car, he also delivered a very good driving performance. He started nineteenth and finished the race in fifth position. Excellent result!

Alpine

Esteban Ocon showed that team direction wouldn’t have worked anyway. Compared to qualifying, Pierre Gasly was simply tragic, even taking into account that he completed 33 laps on the hardest set of tyres. His pace was simply not good, the result of all this being a final eleventh place.

Ocon was clearly the better driver in the race, who in turn capitalised on the Safety Car while driving really well within his capabilities. For a seventeenth place finish in qualifying… In the Constructors’ Cup, Alpine is in no man’s land anyway.

The Las Vegas Grand Prix was not a success for Williams

It looked promising in third practice, and then qualifying confirmed it. But the race didn’t go Williams’ way. It’s fair to say they were unlucky with the safety car exit. Alexander Albon went 34 laps in the second stint on the hardest set of tyres, Logan Sargeant even 35.

The American’s pace in the race, it must be added, was horrendous. Albon did set some better laps, but it was no miracle. Dropping from fifth and sixth at the start to finish twelfth and sixteenth – that’s just a huge disappointment.

Alfa Romeo, Haas, AlphaTauri

Zhou Guangyu was unfortunately tragic throughout the weekend. Valtteri Bottas looked like he might fight for some points after all, after practice and qualifying. However, he didn’t get off to a good start and I think he chose an ineffective strategy.

Everything was wrong here in the race. For Haas I would like to sum it up by saying that he is simply not good enough in the race, this is a long term fact. Nico Hülkenberg didn’t finish, Kevin Magnussen finished 13th far from the points. Even if their strategy had worked with regard to the Safety Car, I still wouldn’t have believed in any points. AlphaTauri in a word – a disaster, and a disaster all weekend long.

Bottom line – F1 in Las Vegas offered about all it could. A lot of beautiful battles, overtaking manoeuvres, a spectacular accident, Safety Cars and last but not least a huge show!

Source: F1, Las Vegas Grand Prix