Verstappen criticized Las Vegas GP for poor ticket compensation after a short practice
The Las Vegas GP has been promoted all year as one of the biggest races of the season. However, the race has recently come under fire. The weekend at Sin City has been questioned by fans as well as drivers such as Max Verstappen on whether the spectacle has outweighed the sport. Incidents at the GP throughout the sessions so far have contributed to this criticism.
FP1 in Las Vegas marked the first-ever session of the circuit but turned out to be the most disappointing. An exposed manhole cover wrought misfortune for Carlos Sainz and ended the session. Fans who were ecstatic to see cars blasting down the track were denied entry just minutes into the session. As their tickets remained unrewarded.
Max Verstappen was furious when he learned that some fans were being compensated with $200 gift vouchers in exchange for the experience of a lifetime being taken away from them. The World Champion has been dissatisfied with the Grand Prix all weekend, and this compounded his distaste for it.
Max Verstappen when he heard fans who attended on Thursday were offered a $200 store voucher as compensation for missing most of the on track action:
“If I were a fan, I would tear the whole place down.” 😡#F1 #LasVegasGP pic.twitter.com/lGp4nve31m
— Autosport (@autosport) November 18, 2023
The 10-place grid penalty for Carlos Sainz has not helped things for the Las Vegas organizers’ reputation. An issue with the track resulted in a huge dent in Ferrari’s pockets and their situation in the Championship. The community has become furious with F1. Fans have slammed the organization for their mishandling of what could have been a historic weekend in the sport.
Max Verstappen accuses Vegas fans of visiting the Grand Prix just to party
Verstappen hasn’t minced words when it comes to his dislike for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The 52-time race winner said F1 has focused way too much on creating shows around the world. Rather than the sport itself. Verstappen reckoned that F1 needs to make the viewers understand what the drivers do at the pinnacle of motorsports.
Max Verstappen added that spectacles like the Las Vegas GP are just opportunities for fans to indulge in partying and witness performance acts rather than to watch the actual races. The 3x World Champion said that the audience sees the Grand Prix days as “crazy nights out” rather than a day of competitive sport.
Most of them just come to have a party, drink, see a DJ play or a performance act. I can do that all over the world. I can go to Ibiza and get completely shitfaced and have a good time. But that’s what happens. Max Verstappen said, as reported by motorsport.com
Verstappen claimed that the emotion of the sport is gone with races like these, replaced instead with “the show of the sport around it”. The Dutchman put some of the blame on the street circuit format, saying the F1 cars don’t “come alive” unlike other “proper” racetracks like Monza and Spa-Francorchamps. Verstappen said the fans fail to appreciate the efforts of the drivers in the races and how much each of the 20 athletes put on the line.
