Sports Newsletter

Max Verstappen won the Las Vegas Grand Prix after initially disliking the excess and opulence of the event. The event was filled with Sainz did manage to take part in FP2 following major repairs to his car after the Ferrari struck a water valve cover while travelling at almost 200mph on the track’s longest straight, the iconic Strip of Las Vegas Boulevard.

His car came to a halt opposite the Bellagio casino and when Sainz emerged he was clearly concerned at what had happened. The FIA had to stop the session to check safety of all the drain covers on the 1.2-mile straight to confirm their integrity.

Ferrari’s team principal, Fred Vasseur, was furious and during a testy press conference was vehement in his displeasure. “It is just unacceptable,” he said. “It cost us a fortune. It’s just unacceptable for F1 today.”

Tempers were clearly running high in the aftermath. As F1’s grand plan appeared to be unravelling, the Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, was uncharacteristically equally as furious in his defence of the sport. When it was put to him that the incident was an embarrassment, his response was vitriolic.

“It is completely ridiculous. How can you even dare to talk back about an event that sets the new standard? You’re speaking about a fucking drain cover that’s been undone,” he said. “Give credit to the people who have set up this grand prix, that have made this sport much bigger than it ever was, [F1’s owner] Liberty has done an awesome job.

“Just because in FP1 a drain cover has become undone we shouldn’t be moaning. Talking here about a black eye for the sport on a Thursday evening? Nobody watches that in European time anyway.”

Yet there was moaning and doubtless too wailing and gnashing of teeth within the hierarchy of F1 because people very much were watching in Las Vegas and the US. By the time FP2 finally began, plenty of people were also paying attention in Europe and the incident was far from the opening to the race F1’s owners had anticipated.

For the first time Liberty Media is organising and promoting a meeting itself with the aim of building the sport in the US, a market in which it is eager to expand. The costs of putting the race on in the heart of Las Vegas are believed to have reached as much as $700m, with F1 having bought land, constructed its own permanent pit and paddock building and resurfaced the track.

That it was an issue with the track has made F1 look amateurish in front of the very new fans it is trying so hard to bring in. Then to add insult to injury those fans, many of whom had paid a fortune to be there, could not even watch what running there was.

Nor was the initial problem in practice a minor issue. As Vasseur noted, it was a major impact and potentially dangerous. Pictures of the underfloor of Sainz’s car showed it had sustained serious damage and the drain cover was dragged clear from the concrete surround intended to hold it in place.