P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our Guide to the 2023 Las Vegas GP

Episode Date: November 13, 2023

We’re in Vegas, baby! Ahead of what could be an unprecedented week for Formula 1, we’re here with all you need to know about how the race came to be, how it's affected the local area and which teams will suit the track. Plus, the big question: will it be any good? Tickets for our UK live tour are nearly sold out! You can purchase them right HERE!You can sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to exclusive episodes you won't hear anywhere else, every P1 episode ad-free, full driver interview videos, early access to tickets and more!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P-1 podcast. We are talking about the penultimate race of the season and everyone's got questions about what on earth are we going to be looking forward to this weekend on Bellingham because there's a lot to talk about. And I don't think this is going to be a straightforward, chilled weekend for many reasons. No, I think this could well be one of the,

craziest Formula One races in terms of like the whole buildup to it and everything to ever exist, whether that's a good or bad thing we'll dive into. And there's a lot of opinions on this track. And yeah, it's going to be interesting because boy, has there been a lot of chaos and craziness already and we haven't even started racing there yet. No, we have not. And this isn't actually the first time they have raced in Las Vegas. It took place back in the 1980. It took place back in the 1980s at a different track, which was essentially in a car park. So if you want to find out more about that particular race, we have done a full podcast about it over on our Patreon, which is our short view back to the past series. So if you want to go and check that out and find out the absolute

like, oh, let's race in Vegas. And it's very less glamorous than what they've got in 2023. If you sign up to our Patreon, you support this channel and you get access to that exclusive podcast series, add free podcasts, access to the private discord, early access to events, and much, more. Right, let's start, I think at the very beginning, Tommy, about how this circuit actually came about. So in March 22, it was announced that Las Vegas would host a Grand Prix in November 23, down the Vegas strip. Now, I don't know about you, Tommy, but when I heard this, my first reaction was one word, how. Yes, yeah, yeah, very much, much so. Obviously, this is a long time ago. Actually thinking about this now, like March 22, obviously, that's, you know,

off the back of one of if not the most insane Formula One seasons we've ever had going into this new era of cars. And it's like, well, new era like F1's absolutely booming after this amazing season. It's like, we're going to race in Vegas. This is going to be absolutely incredible. And yeah, it definitely was a case of like, how is that going to work? And also another thing, I think that one of my first thoughts was like, this is F1 kind of elbowing Monaco out the way being like, let's do a new Monaco that we own. You reckon?

You reckon they're trying to house them out? I think so, yeah. That's because you're in love with Monaco and you're just being protected, aren't you? I hope I'm wrong. That's what I'm trying to do. But, oh God, Marsh, 22, what a throwback. That was when we thought the cars were the greatest thing since Slice Break. and that they could all follow each other.

And that was the sort of time, wasn't it, with Charles and Max battling in Baku, and Charles actually winning a race. Leading the championship by a mile. By 43 points over Max Verstappen. That was good times, wasn't it? And then Grace was born, and then she ruined everything. So in February 2020, 3,

so this is this year, before they've had a race, before they've had a race, they're confirming a 10-year deal, which means that they'll be able to host the race and essentially close the Vegas strip. Now, there has been a lot of chatter about Vegas and Formula One and the absolute carnage that has unfolded since they've started to build it. This isn't a case of Monaco where they just whack up a few pit buildings,

they cause a bit of a bit of congestion for a few weeks, and then it's, you know, we're done. They've had to resurface everything. They've had to build these absolutely enormous grandstands. They've essentially changed Vegas. And look, I am putting myself into a Vegas resident that does not give a flying bleep about Formula One. and my beloved Vegas strip with so many amazing features have been boarded up, blocked, and so on and so forth for months on end.

And this is going to happen for 10 years. Yeah, it's going to take a long time. Obviously, we mentioned Monaco earlier and like you said. Monaco has been doing it as well for years and years and years, especially, yeah, I think modern Monaco, it's like clockwork. They know exactly what they're doing. And it's also not the busiest place in the world, I guess.

And they're kind of used to it. Apart from that queue for the train station, my God, tell me, when we tried to get that train, that was mad. That was the train that wasn't out to Nice and. Yeah, one lift that takes you up to the top of thousands of people. So monoceros not perfect. Yeah. Yeah.

So, yeah, Vegas has had that level of chaos, I guess, around the whole weekend. You only have to go on TikTok and Instagram. and there's a few YouTube videos out there of residents that are just like, what an earth is going on here. And you've got to think as well. Because at first I was kind of like, you know, these people complaining about a touristy kind of event going on when you live in Las Vegas,

it must be really bad for the... Because this is the place that, you know, has this kind of thing all the time. They've built a blumen sphere that looks like a... with big screen, that looks like a giant emoji. It's outrageous, that, though.

It is outrageous. I'm looking forward to seeing it, actually, just for pure chaos and ridiculousness. I'm going to put your face on it. Are you? I think that are custers. You and Frank. More than what we're...

Yeah. But this is the thing, like, it must be horrendous for them to be complaining that much because it's just affecting people's lives, like, And I think the worst of it appears to be the fact that people can't, that, you know, you're not going to get a view, even if you live there. Whereas Monaco is a bit different.

They kind of put barriers up and stuff. But Vegas, it's very much like, you know, put the boards up and all that kind of stuff. Question from Oshelaka. If F1 truly cared about gaining the American audience, then why put up the barriers to obstruct the view from businesses? I understand more profit, but it doesn't help bring in a non-racing or even casual watcher. I completely agree to some extent with this.

Of course, Formula One is a business. They're going to try and utilise as much as they possibly can, especially from this because they have paid to put this on, although I was watching another YouTube video around this whole Vegas thing and a bit of research on it. And F1 applied for Las Vegas themselves to cough up a huge amount of money to essentially help host the Grand Prix. I think you may have watched the same video I did.

It's very much time to watch if you've... And so you can't even say like, oh, you know, F-1s just put every penny into this. They've been trying to save money everywhere they can. And I wonder whether there's a slight bit of... What's the word? Just sort of believing Formula One's further ahead than they actually are. And they're like, well, America's taking it on now.

Yeah, a bit naive, I suppose, in that sense. And I still feel like there's a lot further to go with Formula One and America to really truly be embraced as a sport in the long run. I'm not talking about the short run. That's great. But Max Verstappen's starting to dominate. Fans will turn away because we don't have that chaos of 2021. We don't have that drive to survive drama going on every single race weekend.

What happens if we have a period of five years where someone dominates? So for me, I'm completely with Oshelaka here saying that, Why don't you just embrace the whole thing? You're charging an outrageous amount just to be there anyway, still put up the right parameters in order to not cause massive congestion in certain parts where people might be peering over a wall or something. But you have to integrate rather than be like, well, the circus is here, you have to pay $1,000 to get in,

or you're not even getting a sniff of it. Also, one way to, I guess, compensate the residents that have had to put up with with the chaos because, yeah, we're not really gone into too much about it, but I think if I was a tourist as well going to Vegas, and I didn't, like I say, know anything about the Grand Prix, a lot of the landmarks you can't even see, they've chopped down trees and things like that, and it's all just boarded up,

and you've got to think this is one weekend, like all this for one weekend, and it's going on, and you know, the amount of tourism that a place like Las Vegas must bring in was to be absolutely insane. Like so many people go there to see it. And yeah, you're kind of covering it up. And surely a good way is for these residents that have been making all these videos

and YouTube videos and stuff about like, this is an absolute joke. I can't, you're not going to be able to stand this for another 10 years. It's absolutely ridiculous. The traffic's awful. Like, can't get to work. Can't do this, can't do that.

Yeah, they said that they make them fall in love with F1, right? Exactly. going to be the exact opposite of that. Yeah, they're going to hate everyone. Three times as long to go to work. They were saying that there was not only the road that they'd try and get to, sometimes they'd then divert and go to the road along. But then there's also works going on for four roads along.

And it's a massive thing that's going on here. It's not a small track. It's not a Monaco. And for that, it's, I can see why it's turning away a lot of Vegas residents, whether it's genuinely going to cause a negative outcome overall, I'm not so sure. Depends how good the weekend is. But the actual people there, I can understand why they're so, so peeved off. Yeah, exactly. One thing I think that's worth mentioning that I don't agree with that the residents have done and kind of complained about is obviously

the bridges and I think one of the most viral videos that's gone around is them peeling the kind of tape away from the advertising boards being like, look, we want to see the track and all this kind of stuff but as has been mentioned by quite a lot of people you know you can't you can't have bridges obstructed full of people yeah full of people because of course you're going to watch it say like silverstone right when when when if if silverstone had a view on the wellington straight on that bridge that you go over at silverstone you're going to want to stand there and watch it but then you're obstructing everyone that needs to get in and out of the circuit around the other side so like you can't have people because it's going to be an amazing view and then people will just

stand on, stand on bridges. So that, from that side, absolutely like, doesn't make sense. But the thing, what it sounds like from these videos I've seen is the residents that still have only just found out how they're going to get to work and the race is next week is that, you know, they're having to go to like this special car park and then they're kind of funneled into this area where they're not going to be able to see anything and they go into through this like unique kind of walkway to get into the track where they will not be able to see the race and stuff just so they can get to work which does seem a bit bit extreme for from from from everything I've seen so far it is very much a kind of it feels like they've tried to do a monaco and it's

they're realizing how difficult uh that is basically yeah yeah they're trying to to do a Monaco in one of the busiest, craziest places being Las Vegas on the actual main strip. They've gone, how hard can we make it? Yes, that's essentially what Formula One have done. But yeah, I'm completely on that side of things. I think boarding up businesses with advertising, etc., is a bit too far, or just to basically block their view, unless they pay a certain fee, is pretty harsh. I've actually seen recently, Tommy,

that the ticket prices and the hotel prices have plummeted. And I've actually gone and bought my mom and my sister access to Thursday so they can go and watch practice because it was so much cheaper than what they were trying to flog it for. Now they've realized, oh God, no one's coming. We've overpriced this by about three times. Yeah, the ticket prices are seen dropping. There's a lot of hotel prices dropping

because I think they expected all these people to come. and they could just pay the enormous fees that it's costing Formula One by essentially having lots of rich people come and want to be part of it. But it's quite clear that that's not going to be the case. So maybe they do need to start letting some of the residents see. So there's enough people there. And also I think we said about the naive approach, but it's also quite an arrogant approach, I think, as well,

with how high they've tried to price this Grand Prix that's never happened before. Yes, it's the inaugural Las Vegas Grandp, well, technically not, there was one in the car park, but there's, you know, of the new generation, yeah, okay, cool,

it's really great and everything, but you're pricing out a lot of people that might, like true F1 fans that may want to go and visit Vegas on a once-in-a-lifetime experience have to pay thousands upon thousands of pounds just to be able to go and experience it. Why would they?

Go to Hungary. You know, you get in for a couple hundred quid and it's one of the best experiences you'll have. Yeah, exactly. Let's stop on the old rant because that hasn't even happened yet but there are some things to be ranted about and we totally understand that.

Let's take a look at the track then. Oh, I don't know if I feel like crafty there. Let's take a look at the track. It's a 6.201 kilometre circuit, anti-clockwise, 17 corners and a 1.9 kilometre straight. Now I'm having a look at the track map right there. I've also had the privilege.

I mean, the F-123 game is out. But I've got to. gone round the track on the game a bit. And my God, I'm bad, really bad around this track. Difficult. And what do we think? What's your first thoughts, Tommy, on the track? My first thoughts are that it's very unique. And I've seen a lot of people complain about it, right? And my first thoughts were actually that, and I hope this is the case, that it kind of felt very similar reaction to something like Baku, right? When that got announced, everyone was like, what a joke, what is this track?

It's just a massive straight and loads of 903 corn is absolutely ridiculous. And then there were two banging Grand Prix and suddenly it's everyone's favorite race in the whole wide world. And then they had five terrible ones and they're like, but for some reason, people still, yeah, kind of forget about the terrible ones. And they're like, yeah, Baku's crazy, isn't it? It's absolutely mad. and we F1 fans are a fickle bunch, let's be honest, because if this produces absolutely crazy chaos, exciting best race of the year,

and we'll get into this, but could well be very crazy indeed, we'll be loving it. We won't care for all the millions and billions of dollars spent. We won't even care that it's down the strip, We'll just want an exciting, crazy race. And if it delivers that, we could end up getting to the point where we're like,

oh, yes, it's Vegas next. That's always absolutely bonkers. And that's how I kind of was my first thoughts, that everyone's roasting it. But it was exactly the same reaction to back out. When I look at the track map, I genuinely, and this isn't just because we're going, because we could be going and be thinking,

well, this track could be terrible. The circuit themselves aren't sending us out there. I think this track could breed carnage. I genuinely do. There are two massive straits leading into very heavy braking zones. And you've also got a small little straight after term four as well. On paper, it looks all right. I think it's a bit awkward in some areas.

6, 7, 8, 9 feels like quite a very, quite an awkward little segment of the track. But of course, you know, they are literally trying to race around Las Vegas. So it's not like they've chosen these exact degree of corners. But I genuinely think there is something here. Some bits feel a little bit like Miami in some ways when I was driving the track as well. But yeah, on first thoughts and first look, I think it could be all right. But it really depends on the other factors. But we'll get into that very shortly.

Question from Immanuel Thorpe. Which team do you think the track? or suit the most? Red Bull. No, I'm going to go out on a whim here, Tommy, and this might give you a indication as to where I'm going to put my predictions. Ferrari.

I think Ferrari could be lit here. Ferrari struggle with tire wear, which necessarily usually means, I don't know why I said necessarily, which usually means they struggle a little bit with the overheating of the tires. And where to hovey the tires There is very cold in Las Vegas

Which is a problem for later, yeah Yeah so for me I think Ferrari I genuinely do, I'm backing it to the hill Well they got pole at Monza Which is of course a very quick track Lots of long straights I also believe Baku, we've got Paul and Baku

Charles Leclair Thank you very much dab on that I don't know why you dad That very current meme but yeah Vegas yeah you're right a lot of people going

a lot of people when we put the questions out going why is this just a red ball track there's also the kind of other side of the coin that I think it could be a case of is either suits Red Bull down to the ground and then miles ahead

or we get another Singapore and of course Singapore Red Bull were just nowhere and I feel like it's going to go one way or the other really with with it because they struggled with you know the bumps in Singapore they had to rid the ride height and stuff and it could very well I think we'll get into into this next with the whole weather and everything that's going to happen with

that but the form book everything I've read the form book is going out the window with how this race is going to be because I tell me stop it you're getting me excited It's going to be chaos. I can't see how it's not going to be chaos with everything that's going on, the circuit layout, the weather, everything. So, yeah, excited to see how it happens. And with the track layout, you mentioned as well, maybe this is just the COVID calendar that we had.

But it has made me, because we always roast new tracks, Formula One fans, you see a track map and you're like, oh, what's that? It looks like spider pig or whatever and all this kind of stuff. It does. It does. It's a pig on the ceiling, yeah.

It's upside down. It's a pig upside down? Yeah. But I am looking forward to a new track. It adds something new, like a bit of spice. And I think there is something to be said about as going to the same venues again and again and again. And when you do get a new track,

it is something exciting, whether it's going to be good or not, we'll see. But it's that unknown. It's that kind of you get to watch practice and you don't know what the track looks like and you're learning it in practice and things like that. I really enjoy that. So that is an element that I'm really looking forward to,

just something new. So you're telling me you're going to enjoy FP1, Tommy? I will. I'll be there no matter what, literally. You're tuning in there with your head out of the window. Love it. Right, let's get on to the big talking point then. This is something that we both believe

is going to cause absolute carnage for this Las Vegas Grand Prix. And that is the weather. And of course, mixing with that the time of day, of course, it's a night race. It is, well, 10pm start time. It is expected to be between 5 to 10 degrees, which is 41 to 50 Fahrenheit, when the race happens. And when the other sessions happen, and when the qualifying happens. It's absolutely insane.

Nadia Bunny 88 comes in with the question. question, how much do we think the temperature is going to cause chaos? I am of the opinion, and that is why Tommy has said about the form book, that this is going to throw all things out the window. And this isn't just purely, I'm not just, I should just say it's going to be terribly boring, shouldn't I? I should learn from my predictions here. But it should, it should, this is, Formula One cars aren't meant to run in five to

10 degree temperatures. The tires aren't meant to run at 5 to 10 degree temperatures. We are going to see a completely different weekend where the drivers are going to be struggling with just getting tire temperature in there. The tires are going to react differently in terms of how they wear. We look back to maybe the 2020 Eiffel GP where that was through COVID and the whole calendar that was going on. Yeah, and it was really, really cold. And the drivers back then were saying that, you know, the tyres will have a massive risk of graining because you're going to be pushing too hard too soon on the tyres when they're too cold. But obviously in qualifying, you need to go fast at some point. So I'm also, you know, my brain's going mental here. I'm like,

wait, well, could we see more than one lap before we then go for a hot lap? Could we maybe even see, do you remember a few years ago when the mediums were sometimes used as the fastest tire because you can do a few laps and then go for a flying lap? You know, the softs might not work in qualifying the way that they expect. So many unknowns, if it was a sprint, I genuinely think Logan's sergeant podium. I don't see how this race cannot be essentially like a turkey 2020 times 10 because the weather, like you say, right, five to 10 degrees is going to be absolutely freezing. Formula 1 cars are not made to run in those conditions.

the coldest ever Formula One race was five degrees, but that was in the late 70s in Canada. But like you say, we have seen it at the Eiffel GP in Turkey where it's been a bit colder. But those tracks have... I can't think of a worse track layout either for a cold race.

And I think that's what is... Because high-speed corners warm up the tyres. And this is always a problem in the hot races that you're trying to call your tyres down and you ease off into high-speed corners and things. There are no real high-speed corners to warm the tyres up. So if you think... 10-11, that's probably it.

10-11, maybe in 12. So they're going to have to essentially cook their tyres through 10-11 and 12, because the long straight, they're going to be on two-kilometer straight doing absolutely nothing. The tyres are going to be cooling down like crazy, and then they've got to go into a really heavy braking zone

on a new track surface as well, And let's not forget, not just the tires, the brakes as well. The brakes are going to be freezing, which means you're going to spotting your breaking point could be different lap after lap as you generate some heat into those brakes. It could feel like a almost like a wet race if it's not even raining because they're just going to have no grip. And dare I say that like as long as it's all, you know, a safe race and everything, they are the kind of races I love because while we want to see Formula car cars go fast, the entertaining ones are always the ones where they struggle for some

kind of grip because it means there's mistakes and there's different lines through different corners and things like that. So this is going to be crazy. A lot of the drivers have spoken about it basically being like, yeah, it's going to be interesting in inverted commas because the track. Like say, it's not suited for a cold track. There's not really a lot of places to warm the tyres up.

Like the hard tire is going to be horrendous. Well, they even use it. Hard tire ain't gone be touched, mate. They won't be touched. Yeah, and I think that all of these things are just going to be so, so interesting to see how teams go about it.

I think they're going to be, yeah, very much thanking the law. Lord for three practice sessions this weekend so they can at least do their programs and figure out what the best way is to go. And also, I've heard that maybe Friday, Saturday, it could be raining, which I mean... If they have a washout in practice and they don't get relevant running, the race will be absolute chaos. genuinely like, will there even be enough finishes to score points? Yeah, so the long forecast at the moment, at least on BBC, says Thursday and Friday, are raining.

Why? When we go to a race, Tommy, I don't want rain. Apart from Monaco, that was fun when it, like, chucked it down for about two minutes and caused carnage. Well, not even that much carnage. But, yeah, I think we've done our bad thing, Tommy, and set so, so many high expectations right now. But we're going with it. It's going to be a great, great weekend. I think the unknown is genuinely exciting, though.

I think that's what. what this may be, you know, a lot of stuff's wrapped up. And this is what the end of the season needs. Something new and unknown. And I think that is despite all the complaints. You know, I'm not going to sit here and pretend it looks like the greatest track layout of all time and it's not really chaotic buildup and all this kind of stuff. But it is exciting to have a new race that's unknown, crazy conditions.

I, yeah, it's going to be very interesting indeed. I'm actually, even just talking about this, I'm actually excited for it. I know a lot of people are like, oh, it's just silly. I'm not there for the hype, but it's not even the hype of like it being in Vegas. It could be anywhere. Yeah. It's, it's Formula One insane. Yeah, exactly.

Lovely. Although Bahrain's a great track. One final thing I was going to say, which is, it's going to be. be very clear quite quickly as to who's done their homework as well when we get to Vegas in terms of on the SIM. Yeah. You know, could that mean that perhaps the younger drivers that are more used to sim racing and, you know, not just obviously in the Formula One SIM, but there's a lot of homework

that you can do. You know, even playing the Formula One game to a small degree might genuinely help just be able to figure out this track and how they go about it. So, yeah, I'm fascinated to see Max Verstapp and go three seconds quicker than anybody else in FP1. I was literally about to say the very same thing. Maybe that's my crazy prediction that he's going to be at least the second clear of everyone else. But we will do that.

We will do the predictions at another time. Tommy! We have come to the end of this Las Vegas chat. What are your final thoughts? Obviously very generic final thoughts, but really looking forward to going to the race, seeing new parts of America because we're doing our, obviously,

insane road trip as well. So really excited for that. And yeah, let's hope all the hype lives up and we've not just crushed all your dreams by saying it's going to be the craziest race ever and then we get a procession. Yeah, fingers crossed for our sakes more than anything, Tommy A. But yes, we will be out in Vegas, as you know. We might well be doing a meetup. That's kind of TBC at the moment. So stay tuned to our social media. If you want to come and say hello to us, we might be doing something with Pocustars, which would be really cool. But yeah, as I say, just keep an eye out for that. And we will see you soon.

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