With the 2023 F1 season nearing its end, the Las Vegas GP is just around the corner. As the hype around the most anticipated race of the season continues to grow, Max Verstappen has admitted, as per a recent report on Autosport, that the race in Sin City is more about the show and less about the actual racing.
On being asked about his expectations from the race, Verstappen said, “First of all, I think we are there more for the show than the racing itself if you look at the layout of the track.” He also commented that he’s not too interested in the whole thing and is just looking forward to doing his job and leaving.
The Las Vegas GP has been the Magnum Opus for F1 in the current calendar. After extended efforts to revive the race, the FOM finally acquired permission to race in the iconic Las Vegas Strip and wasted no time in adding in a third race on US soil.
The F1 group has already invested a huge amount of money to set up the race. What started out with a $240,000,000 investment to buy a 39-acre land plot for the F1 paddock, has expanded into a $560,000,000 construction project to host the biggest race of the 2023 calendar so far.
The Las Vegas GP faces immense protests from locals
However, not everything has been positive regarding the big party that is supposed to go down in Vegas. There have been innumerable issues surrounding the race, the biggest one being the fact that construction for the track isn’t finished yet, and there are only two weeks left till lights out in Nevada.
Apart from that, there have been instances of locals and tourists protesting over F1’s decision to block the view of the giant ‘Sphere’. F1 had put up privacy screens over all the glass bridges overlooking the ‘Sphere’ to ensure that no one, who hasn’t paid for the event, gets to watch the broadcast on the Sphere.
However, the locals weren’t too happy about the same and decided to tear down the screens at various places. There have also been speculations that F1 might also block out the view to the streets to ensure that not everybody can see the F1 cars zoom by.
Given the current situation, it will definitely lead to even more outrage and seems to be a confirmed recipe for disaster. Added to that, the exorbitantly priced tickets have also been an issue for a while. Overall, whether the Las Vegas GP will be a grand success or a mega disaster, is to be seen.
