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Despite $500,000,000 Investment by Liberty Media, This Driver Asks All The Credit for Las Vegas GP

Sabyasachi Biswas
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NFL Super Bowl and Las Vegas GP a Double Whammy for Sin City as Things Look Bleak for the Strip

The 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix is undoubtedly the most awaited F1 race this season. This will be the third race in the calendar in the United States, and fans worldwide are eagerly waiting for the Grand Prix. Amid all this, Daniel Ricciardo made a startling claim where he said he is responsible for the Las Vegas GP, as per the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy.

Following the introduction of the Miami GP in 2022, FIA and Liberty Media brought together the Nevada race, which is slated to take place in November this year. For this, Liberty Media made a staggering investment of $500,000,000 and became the race promoters themselves.

In this race, Liberty Media wants the hold of everything, from ticketing to parking to accommodation to hosting, everything together. However, Ricciardo has something else in mind, as he now wants the credit all by himself.

Daniel Ricciardo wants almost all the credit for the Las Vegas GP

Back in 2017, Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo sat in a press conference when they were asked about an upcoming possible race venue in the United States. Answering this, Hamilton said Miami, whereas Ricciardo said it to be Las Vegas.

As both the drivers’ wishes have come true, the Honey Badger now wants the credit for his wish around six years back. Talking about this, the 34-year-old said, “Coming to existence, I think it was 2017 I asked for it. Look, I don’t want to claim everything but I’ll claim like 98% of it, yeah.”

Even though the Las Vegas GP was listed for this year, there was no Honey Badger for this year on the grid until he joined AlphaTauri to replace Nyck de Vries.

How could Ricciardo be an important figure for F1 at Las Vegas GP?

Daniel Ricciardo is surely one of the most recognizable F1 drivers around the world. His stardom reaches a higher level in the United States as he holds the North American country very close to him.

Furthermore, Netflix’s Drive to Survive played a massive role in building his profile in the US and Canada. The Australian was regarded as the second most known face of the sport after Hamilton, the seven-time world champion.

Now, with Ricciardo back, both his fans and the driver himself will be delighted to drive around the glitzy and glamourous tracks of Nevada. However, he needs to recover from his injury first and make sure he returns to AlphaTauri and is fit enough to race.

About the author

Sabyasachi Biswas

Sabyasachi Biswas

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Sabyasachi Biswas is an F1 journalist at The SportsRush. With over one and a half decades of love for the sport and five years of experience in the field, he dreams to be a regular at the paddock when the lights go out. A Red Bull fan and F1 fan in general over the years, he enjoyed watching Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen dominate the track. Apart from F1, he's also a big-time Madridista and Federer fanatic. He was a sub-junior level footballer, won inter-district quizzes and debate competitions back in school. A travel freak throughout, he tries different cuisines and learns new cultures whenever he's away from the keyboard.

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