In the end, what matters is how much money remains below the line. Still, the gambling of Liberty Media and the F1 series raises big questions, writes Urheilu’s editor Mika Halonen.
Mika HalonenSports journalist
The return of the Formula 1 series to Las Vegas will determine the future of the entire motor racing royalty. This was the line of many experts and international media.
Since the American media giant Liberty Media bought the F1 series in 2017, the series’ viewership and sponsorship money have been on a positive upward trajectory. Especially due to Netflix’s Drive to Survive series, interest has grown exponentially in the United States as well.
But of course we want more growth somewhere. Liberty Media believed that the return of the Las Vegas race to the F1 calendar is a crucial step in its growth efforts.
– Many Americans have started to love formula one. But many still don’t know about it. I think the night race on The Strip on Saturday will change that, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei your line.
In general, race promoters are ready to pay huge sums to get their race into the F1 series.
However, the F1 series has trusted so strongly in the appeal of Vegas that it was ready to give up its familiar models. It has paid up to 500 million dollars out of its own pocket for the construction and marketing of the competition area.
Read more: The pictures tell you what kind of F1 circus is coming back to Las Vegas – which is why it will determine the future of the entire sport
We talked about the gamble played by the F1 series and Liberty Media, considering how big a farce the previous Vegas tuning of the Formula Ones was in the 1980s.
– A lot would have to go wrong for this to come close to the inglorious legacy that the Caesars Palace race left in the F1 history books, The Athletic wrote referring to the 1981 and 1982 barked Vegas races.
The respected sports media managed to write the ominous words, which, based on the opening day, hit the nail on the head.
On Friday, the first exercises had to be interrupted because of a loose manhole cover. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz drove into a well deck and wrecked his car badly. Team manager Frederic Vasseur it went really well.
The first exercises were stopped after ten minutes of driving. All manhole covers on the track were examined. The second exercises got underway two and a half hours late, i.e. at 2:30 am local time.
The talk of the night’s practice was that the spectators had been removed from the venue. According to the race organization, the reasons were logistical. Autosport by fans had to leave because the security teams ran out of work.
Quite a start, considering how much the ticket prices for the most expensive race of the season were raised during the race. Even many drivers like Charles Leclerc and Valtteri Bottashad already opened up about the high ticket prices of the Vegas race.
As for manhole covers, this has of course been seen before, for example in 2019 in Azerbaijan. In any case, the quality of the Vegas track also raised concerns in advance. The streets of the City of Sins are so full of potholes that it was one of the reasons why the construction of the track took a lot of time and money.
Building the race somewhere other than the main street on The Strip would have been cheaper and angered less locals. But it wouldn’t have suited the F1 gamble.
Before the F1 weekend, the media reported how demand for hotels and ticket prices on the resale market had dropped radically. Local people and businesses were outraged by the continuous construction work and traffic interruptions.
The world champion was furious Max Verstappen too. He was completely exhausted by how many show events the drivers had to attend before the race. According to him, the Vegas race is 99% show and 1% sports event.
The Dutch star was right, of course. At least the team manager of Mercedes Toto Wolff will do everything to ensure that this is the case in the future as well. Even though Sainz could have been dangerously injured in the encounter with the pit deck at over 300 kilometers per hour, it didn’t bother Wolff.
– How can you talk bad about an event that sets new standards for everything? Wolff charged his colleague Vasseur and wondered why they were talking about “some damn manhole cover”.
– Give thanks to the people who have been organizing this competition. “They’ve made this sport bigger than it’s ever been,” Wolff said.
In the end, the decisive factor is, of course, how much money remains below the line. And more precisely, how much of it is left with a longer sample, because the contract between F1 and Vegas is ten years. When the evening race on The Strip is over, no one may remember the pit cover.
It’s unlikely that Verstappenkaan will complain when the salary rushes into the account.
What kind of poker player skills can be found in Liberty Media and the F1 series? In any case, this gamble still raises big questions.