03/06/2024
NEWS STORY
Liberty Media CEO, Greg Maffei has promised that there will be less disruption to the city of Las Vegas when it hosts F1 again later this year.
Contrary to speculation, last year's race turned out to be quite entertaining, with the only low point of the weekend being the loose drain cover that caused Friday's second practice session to be delayed by several hours, which in turn meant that thousands of fans had to be ejected before the session finally got underway.
However, construction of the circuit and its facilities, which include a permanent paddock and pit complex, meant many months of disruption for the city and its businesses, with some legal suites still understood to be ongoing.
Maffei has promised that with the first race underway, things should be noticeably better this year and going forward.
"I hope we get a race nearly as good, or even better," he replied, when asked what he expects from this year's event. "I hope we have no track failures early, that would be nice, there was a heartache or two early.
"I think we'll be smarter, we'll be more efficient, we'll probably be less disruptive to the community," he added, "we'll probably understand better and better what fans want."
"Tearing up the strip for a year and having to lay down and create the actual track was a monumental task that F1 pulled off," admitted Brian Yost, head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. "That's where the stresses and angst came from in the local community.
"That doesn't have to be done every year," he added. "Now in these subsequent races we have a much smoother ramp up to the race itself. I think things dissipate at this point."
In a first for the sport, and what might well be the shape of things to come, F1 is the actual promoter of the Las Vegas event, and has invested over $500m in its drive to make it the stand-out event on the calendar.