Ford Returning to F1

[twobjshelbys]

Well, most would have to admit that that was one heck of a race and an unequivocal home-run for the sport and Vegas in general. Even street circuit critical drivers like Max had to admit it was better than expected. The thing I think they got right is run off areas and general design of the track to keep things rolling and exciting. Very high speed with great passing and overtakes during the race. There was several times yellows came out that could have spoiled the rhythm of the race but they designed the track so carefully that they cleared easily and there was little interruption to the action. That is remarkable feat for a new venue. Looking forward to seeing that Ford logo back on an F1 car again!

I watched it on TV. I'd never seen a F1 race before but I thought it was well paced with enough action to mix things up. There was one turn that had a lot of sneak passes that if a first driver went wide the one right behind could come on the left and get by.

Lots of complaints by drivers early on about the track surface (besides water pit covers coming off) being slick and cold. Well, it's new asphalt. They also didn't like the fact that there were civilian vehicles on the streets during the day making them "dirty". Well, I'm sure other street circuits share that but they wanted to make it sound like it was a problem only here, just like the complainers failed to mention that at least two other circuits had problem with utility pits. Slick comes from two aspects: New asphalt and temperature. Sorry, this ain't gonna drive like the other desert venues. I think they were confused about the US Southwest desert. It gets cold here at night! During one of the practice runs they seemed amazed and confused that the road temp and air temp were the same (62F) Yep. That's the way it works. The surface will age and perhaps be a little more predictable next year, but the cooler desert temp and what it does to the race strategy is kind of a nice mixer.

I think the jury is still out on race time. Supposedly set to make it more accessible to Europe time but probably more realistically to minimize impact on the strip. I haven't heard anything about changing it for future races.

There is talk that some of the race features like temporary pedestrian overpasses might stay. Making them permanent might make things better.

The one thing that they did disturb was parking on the strip. The last remaining venues that didn't charge now do and those that had a locals pass cut it back from 4 hrs to 3 hrs so now I'll have to pay $40 to park for the U2 show coming up in a few weeks.

But by the end it seemed that most drivers and teams thought the track was OK.

Flagging is always disruptive to the rhythm, no matter if its F1 or anything else. But safety can also be a concern. I saw a clickbait article that said one driver radioed "home" during the time the safety car came on to pace for the cleanup of some debris. He said the safety car was going too slow and that he was losing grip on all 4 tires. Either speed up the safety car or red flag it. I get his point. Aging the track surface will help some.

Can't wait til next year!

 

[twobjshelbys]

DBK - some of those look like undercover/spy photos! LOL

Dr Frank - Vegas prices are more than COTA. They are reportedly the highest of all F1 races.

twobjshelbys - F1 has an agreement that up to 10 races may be held in Vegas but only 3 races are for sure.

Like I said earlier I think the pricing thing was badly managed. F1 prices were high and hotels followed. Then all of a sudden the prices started dropping and at one point there were hotel rooms that were thousands per night going for under $100 (I heard one at $18 but don't think it was a big casino/hotel).

If I were making odds for the future I'd bet more that there will be 10 years than only 3. It was mentioned during the early days that there was a 3 year clause but I understood it to be more that the terms of the contract could be renegotiated rather than terminated. F1 (Liberty Media) dumped a whole boatload of money both in their own property (240M for the paddock space) and for road improvements (practically rebuilding Koval St) to walk away after 3 years. The county commissioners and Las Vegas mayor would be mighty upset.

 

[twobjshelbys]

Well, the race is over and now the battle over who pays resumes. The county - see note 1 - claims they spent $80M on re-paving with some portion to be paid by Liberty Media. The "some portion" is under discussion. Like I said earlier F1/Liberty did foot the bill for a fair number of improvements that were done "while they were in the neighborhood". These were items that were scheduled and would have been done before the next anticipated re-paving so the decision was to take on those improvements now instead of tearing up the road again within the life of the roadbed.

Note 1: Everyone calls it Las Vegas, but the actual incorporated City Of Las Vegas southern boundary is south of the Strat at LV Blvd and Sahara Ave. The portion of LV Blvd south of that is in an unincorporated area called Paradise. Paradise extends south. The other side of the freeway is referred to as Enterprise. Thus, the governing both for most of what people think of Las Vegas is actually the Clark County Commissioners...

 

[2112]

Repaving less than 4 flat miles = $80M.

And I was wondering why our infrastructure is allowed to deteriorate.

 

[twobjshelbys]

Repaving less than 4 flat miles = $80M.

And I was wondering why our infrastructure is allowed to deteriorate.

That's chump change. You ought to hear them arguing about the new baseball stadium.

 

[dbk]

 

[dbk]

 

[twobjshelbys]

Great photos. It's amazing how far cameras have come.

F1 is having a sale on the leftover hats, etc for locals but it looks like you have to go in person.

 

[dbk]

All in all it was actually fantastic. The practice fiasco in FP1 was nothing new to a street circuit race; the pain point was that it occurred so late in the evening.

The only major downside to the event was the schedule. Coming from EST, having to immediately be not only on PST, but going to events that lasted until the wee hours in the morning was brutal. I can only imagine what it was like for the drivers and teams. I also think I'd like to see more motorsport based stuff within the gates. It felt odd vs. major sports car endurance racing that there was no real "midway" with a bunch of merchandise and other stuff to do. That was probably by design to keep people in the casinos. I also don't really like or care for all the ancillary entertainment stuff.

On the positive side...everything else. I was very impressed with the event staff at nearly every location. Everyone was super amped and helpful. The hospitality units were incredible (as they should be at the price). The Paddock Club Sunday ticket included a "recovery brunch" at the Sphere, and that was really bad ass. One of the coolest facilities on the planet and a good party. The track was actually quite good if simple and lent itself to some genuinely exciting racing, which is another street circuit rarity. Lucky that this came right as Ford is joining the party, and Carrie with Ignition Collective (who did lots of FGT WEC work including the 2016 Le Mans hospitality and is now doing Red Bull Ford F1) had me come along. Joey Hand and Harry Tincknell were in the hospitality and gave hot laps on the circuit in Dark Horse.

And on top of everything else, it was the visuals. This race was made for TV/the internet, and it did exceedingly well for that purpose. There is nobody that can see a car going 219 mph scraping a titanium skid plate leaving a rooster tail of sparks on the Las Vegas Strip with all the neon in the world as a backdrop and not think "Damn that's cool." The Sphere animations were really cool. The barrage of fireworks to close the show. It all worked, and I'm telling you now this will be the centerpiece of the F1 calendar going forward.

P.S, don't count on the ticket prices going down. The casinos are going to gladly subsidize this thing from here to eternity. As soon as I walked to the casino floor on Thursday afternoon, I knew the ticket prices were irrelevant. The amount of money being made at the gaming tables over 72 hours will subsidize all the pain in the world. This wasn't a convention of people betting at slots; I lost track of how many people I saw walking around wearing $250,000 watches.

 

[PeteK]

Dave, thanks for the first person view. It was pretty entertaining on TV too. The sparks flying off the bottoms of the cars was at first alarming, but since they were all doing it, I figured that was part of the tradeoff for running the cars as close to the ground as possible on a not-flat street course. Dramatic too. The Sphere going yellow during yellow flags was a good visual too.

 

[extrap]

Oh great, now I want a sphere.

 

[twobjshelbys]

Oh great, now I want a sphere.

We're going to see U2 there in a couple of weeks. My daughter wants to see Bono, I just want to see the inside of the sphere. Visuals and sound are supposed to be world's best.

The Sphere is owned by the same people that own Madison Square Garden. They want to build some more. The London one is getting pushback from zoning (just like Jeremy's farm store.)

 

[Stef]

I did velocity with FGT899 the weekend after Rally 13. It was a really good time.

I was also at Velocity after 13.
We were quests of Ford Performance at no cost.
Ford GT was the margue of honor.
Great weekend!

 

[2112]

Oh great, now I want a sphere.

I am in no way a tech geek but that thing is pretty damn impressive.
.

 

[KennethClay]

Carrie with Ignition Collective (who did lots of FGT WEC work including the 2016 Le Mans hospitality and is now doing Red Bull Ford F1) had me come along.

The LeMans hospitality was, hands down, the best corporate event I have ever been to. If they've got the same team on the job for Ford's F1 project, I'm stoked!

 

[Specracer]

Oh great, now I want a sphere.

Reported to cost ~$2.2B yes B (EDIT Sorry 2.3B)

Back in the day when there was no race in the US (before COTA), I said, they should do the Vegas streets. Its perfect, lots of great high end hotels, the entertainment, and the spectacle. Im glad it happened. We did not go, as I feared the 1st time gremlins (sadly even had to pass on a last minute opportunity, as I could just not physically make it work). I did, however, do something I have not done in a long time, I watched every session (note recorded, as mentioned the schedule was really dumb). It was really well done, and better, there was ACTUAL RACING that happened!!! It was far from a parade and even had several last lap passes including one on the podium. Hard to beat it, and I bet it will get better..

Im SURE we will go in the future.

BTW the old Hamilton F1 car that was auctioned, pictured above, exceeded auction estimates, and brought almost $18m, more than a Shumacher winning car.

 

[Stef]

Reported to cost ~$2.2B yes B

Back in the day when there was no race in the US (before COTA), I said, they should do the Vegas streets. Its perfect, lots of great high end hotels, the entertainment, and the spectacle. Im glad it happened. We did not go, as I feared the 1st time gremlins (sadly even had to pass on a last minute opportunity, as I could just not physically make it work). I did, however, do something I have not done in a long time, I watched every session (note recorded, as mentioned the schedule was really dumb). It was really well done, and better, there was ACTUAL RACING that happened!!! It was far from a parade and even had several last lap passes including one on the podium. Hard to beat it, and I bet it will get better..

Im SURE we will go in the future.

BTW the old Hamilton F1 car that was auctioned, pictured above, exceeded auction estimates, and brought almost $18m, more than a Shumacher winning car.

WHOA 2.2B....
You could buy 24 Lockheed F-35c's
with that along with some spare parts.

 

[Ed Sims]

I want to go where DBK went!

Ed

 

[fjpikul]

I thought you were done selling everyone's organs?

 

[QuickSilverShelby]

As an avid F1 fan I thought the race was a good one. I watched it on my computer and enjoyed it allot. I tracked ticket prices in the weeks leading up to the event and race day tickets had come down from the initial offering of $1,600 for a grandstand ticket to $776 for a seat. That was two days prior to lights out/green flag start time and there was a good deal of tickets available. On the Saturday morning of the race, tickets had risen to right $1,100 each. I was considering going but laziness got the better of me so in the end, computer/TV was my viewing choice.

I deem it a success for Vegas and I'm already looking forward to next years race.

QSS