Max Verstappen was unimpressed with the opening ceremony for Formula 1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, remarking that he felt like “a clown” during the entire occasion.

To celebrate the inaugural round at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, an event with live musical performances and the drivers being raised on large platforms to the crowd was held.

However, Verstappen, who previously stated that F1’s expansion into Las Vegas was “more for the show than the racing”, vented his disapproval of the ceremony.

“For me, you can skip this,” he said. “It’s not about the singers. We are just standing up there, looking like a clown. I mean, yeah.”

Asked how much he considered a show and how much of it a sporting event, Verstappen reiterated his stance that the Las Vegas GP is “99% show, and 1% sporting event.”

The three-time champion concedes he’s not enthused by the opportunity to race in Sin City for the first time in his career.

“Well I’m looking forward to trying to do the best I can, but then I’m not looking forward to this,” he mentioned in relation to the show. “You have some races where you always look forward to it a little bit more than others.”

Expanding further, Verstappen added: “Not a lot of emotions to be honest. I just always want to focus on the performance side of things, I don’t like all the things around it anyway. I know of course in some places that is part of it, but let’s just say it’s not in my interest.”

However, the Dutchman did admit that he could “understand” the sport’s continued approach towards maximising the growing interest towards F1 in the US market.

“You can look at it two ways, business side or sport side. Of course I understand their side as well. I’m voicing my opinion on the performance side of things,” he commented.

“We are not a stakeholder, so we just go with it. They decide what they do, right,” he continued. “I would do the same if I was the owner, I wouldn’t listen to the drivers. It’s my sport, I would do with it what I want if that would be the case.”

Verstappen also downplayed that his status as a household F1 name could cause the sport’s owners to consider making changes to reduce the focus on the spectacle.

“I don’t know, I guess they still make money if I like it or not, so it’s not up to me,” he contended. “But I’m also not going to fake it, I just always voice my opinion on positive things and negative things. That’s just how I am.

“Some people like the show a bit more, I don’t like it at all. I grew up just looking at the performance side of things and that’s how I see it as well. So for me, I like to be in Vegas, but not so much for racing.”

Pressed on whether he believed he could make a difference by speaking out, Verstappen retorted: “It’s also not my aim that it makes a massive difference. But when you ask me a question and I feel like I want to answer it, I’ll answer it in an honest way.”

“If someone wants to go in this direction, you want a lot more show attached to the programme, then I guess we have to deal with that,” he added. “As long as everything goes well they can say everything is working well, let’s see how long fans also like this.”

Verstappen also discussed his dissatisfaction towards the track layout, explaining that this generation of F1 cars are too cumbersome for street venues.

“I don’t think it’s that exciting, that’s the only thing,” he noted. “I think already for me a street circuit is not that exciting, especially with these new cars, they are just too heavy.

“When you have low grip that doesn’t help. The scenery will look great, driving through the strip, but the layout itself is not the most exciting. Driving an F1 car is a lot more fun with a lot of high-speed corners, but around here there is not many high-speed corners.”

Lance Stroll says drivers are “not trying to be Hollywood stars” in the wake of a mixed reception to the opening ceremony of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

A 30-minute music show took place on the grid on Wednesday evening with the 20 drivers introduced to spectators at the culmination of the ceremony.

Stroll was also one of several drivers who opted not to attend an event at the Wynn hotel later on Wednesday evening for which F1 boss Stefano Domenicali had requested all drivers be present.

“It’s not really my thing,” said Stroll on the ceremony. “Didn’t sign up for that part of it all.

“I mean, we’re racing drivers, you know. Yeah, I think sometimes kind of… goes too much in the whole like Hollywood star side of things, you know. I just like racing cars, not trying to be a Hollywood star.

“I guess for the sport it’s great we come to places like this, we expand the American market, it’s great for the team, great for the business, Formula 1 needs to think about that.

“It’s huge, huge for the valuation of the business, sponsors, attracting more sponsorship, hopefully more American sponsorship, three races in America, but I hope we don’t just go into the kinda avenue of these kinds of races and lose the purity of Formula 1 as it’s nice to have the balance.”

Stroll also revealed that he missed Aston Martin’s track walk amid confusion over timings, mistaking 02:00 on Wednesday for 02:00 on Thursday.

“I don’t even know what time it is anymore, I’m just here, [it’s a] bit of a funny schedule,” he said.

Sphere Entertainment Co. has announced a collaboration with the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix that will feature custom race content for the innovative Exosphere.

The 360-degree event venue, adorned with screens to broadcast visuals inside and out, will demonstrate a variety of exciting exterior visual content produced by Sphere Studios.

Along with custom Grand Prix content, partnering brands on the event will be displayed on the world’s largest LED screen.

As well as this, throughout the build-up to the event, the Sphere will display driver cards for all 20 members of the F1 grid, ensuring their likeness will loom large over Vegas.

F1 driver helmets will also be represented on the Sphere, serving as an avant-garde backdrop for passers-by, but it is understood that red and yellow graphics cannot be displayed on screen during sessions for fear drivers will assume they are red or yellow flags.

“We are looking forward to partnering with the FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN SILVER LAS VEGAS GRAND PRIX in the inaugural year both for Sphere and the Grand Prix in Las Vegas,” said Joel Fisher, Executive Vice President Marquee Events and Operations for MSG Entertainment.

“This is one of the world’s premier sporting events, and we are ready to showcase Sphere to our global audience via F1 – both in person in Las Vegas and watching around the world – demonstrating the unparalleled technological and creative capabilities of the Exosphere.”

“Sphere’s Exosphere doesn’t just complement the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, it elevates it to new heights, turning every lap into a mesmerizing experience for fans in attendance and watching on TV globally,” said Emily Prazer, Chief Commercial Officer for Las Vegas Grand Prix, Inc.

“Picture real-time pole positions, thrilling podium celebrations, and a dynamic showcase of all 20 drivers and their iconic cars displayed larger-than-life. We are excited to have Sphere at the heart of race weekend.”

The Sphere will be one of many unique aspects of the Las Vegas GP. The race marks the first time the venue shall be used as part of a live event broadcast.

F1 is also breaking new ground along with Spher entertainment in the heart of Nevada.

The Grand Prix marks the first time that F1 is acting as a promoter of a race event and will be the first time F1 cars race down the iconic strip.

As part of the build-up required to put on the event, F1 has spent over $200 million to build the pit and paddock complex.

The inaugural Las Vegas GP marks the sport’s return to the city since the second of two ill-fated Caesars Palace Grands Prix in 1982 and lights out shall commence at 10pm local time on Saturday November 18.

Formula 1 will make history this weekend when the sport takes over the Las Vegas Strip for a maiden night race in the city, 41 years after it last played host to the championship.

In amongst the festivities of the event, the weekend is an objective step into the unknown for teams who will need to battle an off-set weekend schedule and ambient temperatures of around 10 degrees Celsius when the Strip is cast under moonlight.

While Las Vegas twice played host to the premier open-wheel series in 1981 and 1982, a return to Sin City some four decades later presents further jeopardy for teams in that there is no historic data to guide preparation before turning their maiden laps of the brand new, 6.2km long street circuit.

While drivers will have been able to take to their respective simulators at home and at their team’s factories, they will still effectively be working from scratch before a first foray onto the temporary street circuit for the first time on Thursday evening.

A congested 2023 calendar, which sees the final five rounds take place over the course of six weeks, has presented a further logistical challenge to drivers heading into the penultimate round of the year.

“There’s still a lot to do. I still need to go on the simulator. I still don’t even know the track, to be honest,” admitted three-time champion Max Verstappen in the post-Sao Paulo Grand Prix press conference.

“So, the last time I tried it on the F1 game, I think I hit more walls than I was going straight. So, let’s hope that’s not the case when I start driving there!

“It’s going to be very different to here [Interlagos]: very low temperatures, of course in the night there. Street circuit. We have no experience there. We don’t know the track grip. All new. So maybe it will give you a few surprises. I don’t know.”

“I’ve done my simulator session [for Las Vegas] already,” Carlos Sainz said in Austin last month. “Must have been 50 or 60 laps, which is normally what I like to do when it’s a new track.

“I think the big thing there, as you said, will be the temperature and how the tyres behave in those temperatures. Given the track layout – very long straights – a tyre will cool down on those straights.

“Then, getting into a corner on a very low downforce setting, like we’re expecting in Vegas, on a cold tyre, on a new surface, I think there could be many variables for tyres and temperatures in general to be a big talking point that weekend.

“You can be as prepared as you want, but until you see what happens on the car, you cannot react,” the Spaniard warned.

Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg also stressed the importance of this weekend’s FP1 session in getting up to speed at the Las Vegas street circuit.

“No driver will have had extensive preparation for this one, so practice is going to be important,” contributed the German.

“I don’t normally do a track walk, so let’s see if I do one here, could be a unique way of seeing all the sights of the Vegas strip.”

With very little to go by in terms of real data, teams will also be plunged into the unknown in Las Vegas.

“Apart from the uniqueness of the city itself, I consider the layout to be a mixture of tracks like Baku, Miami and Jeddah,” shared Ferrari’s senior driving simulator engineer, Erik van der Veen.

“There are very long straights which are not always straight and not so many corners, which pushes the car in the direction of minimizing drag and therefore running lower downforce.”

The Las Vegas Grand Prix is expected to be one of F1’s coldest races with temperatures forecast to drop below 10 degrees at night. This means that getting the tyres into the right window could prove critical in the battle for pole on Saturday morning when trying to strike a balance through the high-energy corners at the risk of graining.

“Racing in a place as unique as Las Vegas at night, with winter approaching, will produce conditions we do not usually encounter during the season,” Van der Veen continued.

“The expected temperatures are far below the window in which we usually race which means it is very difficult to know what to expect, even more so because it is a brand new circuit on which we have never raced before.

“Fortunately, over the past few years there has been a lot of development in the models of both the car and the tyres which give us a better idea of what to expect in these conditions.

“Nonetheless we have to consider a wider range of conditions than usual to make sure we are as ready as we can be and, more importantly, be ready to react to anything that happens.”

As for how best to generate and maintain tyre heat and grip, that will be another unknown for teams until cars hit the track for the first time.

“As the sessions are held at night, the track and air will both be cold. This will affect the car setup in terms of PU and brake cooling but, more significantly, is expected to alter the tyre behaviour,” said Williams’ head of vehicle performance Dave Robson.

“We expect that generating temperature in the tyre without damaging the tyre surface will be key to generating good grip. Exactly how best to achieve this will depend on the new track surface and how it has aged since it was laid.

“The unknowns of a new track, unusually cold conditions and the complexity of running through the night will act to level the playing field and give every team an opportunity to outperform their underlying cars,” added an optimistic Robson.

“We are under no illusion that this will be a tricky test for the whole team and the drivers and whilst we will not be complacent, we know that we can be agile and effective in these circumstances.

“This weekend is a good opportunity to stretch our gap to AlphaTauri in the Constructors’ Championship and we will take every chance to do just that.”

Pirelli Motorsport boss Mario Isola said that “the target is not a secret” regarding a smaller, lighter tyre construction for the 2026 Formula 1 season.

A key target of the incoming regulation overhaul for 2026 is to reduce the size and mass – or at least limit it – of the cars on the F1 grid, in a push to improve racing.

Wide-body regulations in 2017, coupled with ground effect regulations of 2022 and 18-inch tyres have all contributed to an F1 car’s minimum weight of 798kg.

Pirelli – the sole F1 tyre supplier through to 2027 with an option of a further year – seeks to mitigate this weight increase by investigating a smaller tyre construction.

“In 2026, we have a completely new car, probably a new tyre size,” Isola told select media. “Smaller, lighter tyres, it’s possible.

“It’s not defined yet, but the target is not a secret: that is to design lighter cars, more agile cars and tyres are a part of the weight of the car.

“So, it can be that we have to supply smaller tyres.

“If we have to supply smaller tyres as we did in the past, we will change again in 2026.

“It’s part of our agreement with Formula 1 to follow the request of the stakeholders to design a tyre that is always in line with the target defined by all the stakeholders.”

Size is one of the only routes left at Pirelli’s disposal to reduce the weight of the tyres, with the Italian brand already utilising weight-saving technology in its current construction of F1 rubber.

“The elements in the construction, we are already using materials that are high technology materials that are very light,” Isola added.

“So, our research and development on new materials – we have a dedicated department for reinforced materials and compounds – are always looking at improving the resistance of the material, keeping the weight as low as possible.”

With Pirelli’s thinking caps on looking ahead to 2026 and the target of reducing weight, F1 fans could see the promise of more nimble and agile cars overall in the near future.

Whilst the 2022 ground effect regulations were designed to improve racing, the size and mass of the current generation of cars limit drivers’ ability to go wheel-to-wheel.

In 2023, cars are approximately 5.63m in length, 2m wide and 95cm tall – combined with the aforementioned minimum weight limit of 798kg without the driver.

This has caused not only Pirelli to rethink its strategy for 2026, but also F1 to look for shorter, narrower and lighter cars altogether.

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella insists that it is not only searching for aerodynamic improvements from its 2024 Formula 1 car to catch Red Bull.

Since introducing a sizeable upgrade in Singapore, McLaren has registered five podiums in the past six races to emerge as Red Bull’s most consistent contender.

Despite Oscar Piastri pipping Max Verstappen to victory in the Qatar Sprint race, the Woking-based squad have been unable to land a breakthrough grand prix win.

Lando Norris challenged Verstappen through the opening stages in Brazil, but the Dutchman was eventually able to ease away to comfortably triumph over the McLaren.

That prompted Stella to admit that McLaren’s biggest deficit to Red Bull now stood on the tyre management side as the reigning champions could rely on better degradation.

But amid the team’s progress on its 2024 challenger, Stella asserts McLaren must make progress in areas unrelated to outright downforce to become a match to Red Bull.

“We have set some targets, let’s say, but I can’t say in which area and how,” the Italian revealed to Autosport. “But what I can say is that it’s not only aero.”

When asked to address how much of its tyre degradation concerns could be attributed to the aerodynamics and then the mechanical side, Stella replied: “It’s a combination of both. I can’t say much more than that.” 

Having already opted to change concepts mid-season, both Ferrari and Mercedes have expressed that they will opt to pursue all-new philosophies with their 2024 car designs.

But with McLaren’s upgrades this year constantly delivering the expected gains from the factory, Stella believes the side is in a strong place heading into next season.

“In fairness, where you are with next year’s car partly depends on where you are this year, because that’s the starting point pretty much for everyone,” he explained.

“But it depends on the gradient of development. This gradient [at McLaren] started in July, pretty much, and there is such a long period which is just about the work you do on next year’s car.”

Having begun the year conceding it had missed development targets with the MCL60, McLaren struggled immensely before launching a heavily revised car in July.

Stella has expanded upon the challenge the team has encountered throughout the campaign with introducing parts that didn’t align with its initial launch-spec concept.

“The car we launched in March, there are some elements that have been developed with continuity, but most of it has been developed in discontinuity,” he said. 

“Especially when it came to the floor, bodywork, rear wing, and to some extent the front wing. 

“We just needed to kind of go into different concepts and start to get them to work. It wasn’t just a linear iterative development of the starting concept of the launch car.”

Pirelli Motorsport Director Mario Isola is expecting the maiden Las Vegas Grand Prix to provide a “major technical challenge” for both teams and Formula 1’s tyre supplier.

This weekend’s highly anticipated Las Vegas Grand Prix promises to be a blockbuster, but concerns remain over forecasted low temperatures during the circuit’s inaugural event.

Early forecasts from Williams suggested conditions could reach as low as six degrees Celsius during the race, but more recent data shows temperatures just north of 10 degrees.

With on-track action to take place under the floodlights, teams are likely to struggle in bringing the Pirelli rubber up to operating temperature.

“It will be a major technical challenge for both the teams and us, as we head into this race with no real references apart from simulation,” Isola warned this week.

“Nobody has ever actually driven the 6.12-kilometre Las Vegas Strip circuit before, which is second only to Spa in terms of overall length this year, characterised by three straights and 17 corners. 

“The surface will be a mix of the usual street asphalt, especially on the actual Strip, as well as other parts that have been completely re-asphalted for the occasion; adding another unknown element.”

With no support races featuring on the weekend’s programme, grip will come at a premium for drivers on F1’s first visit to the Las Vegas Strip.

Streets will be reopened to normal traffic for large parts of the day, cleaning Pirelli rubber laid down onto the tarmac creating further difficulties for teams and drivers.

“We’re expecting the cars to run quite low levels of downforce, similar to Baku or indeed Monza: hitting a high top speed will be key to being competitive,” Isola added.

“Those long straights also make it harder to warm up tyres in qualifying, as well as keep them in the right window: the same challenge as seen in Baku, which will probably be more pronounced in Las Vegas.”

Pirelli has selected the C3, C4 and C5 tyres for the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend – the softest compounds available.

Speaking at the Brazilian Grand Prix, Isola noted that the upcoming race will prove a “step into the unknown” for all involved.

“It is a step into the unknown, for everybody I believe. Las Vegas will be cold, it’s a street circuit.” he acknowledged. “So we were working with the teams and we asked them for simulations in advance to try to understand how much energy the layout of the circuit is putting on tyres.

“We had information from the companies that are making the tarmac in order to understand how abrasive is the tarmac and which is the level of grip we can expect. But still, a lot of question marks are on Las Vegas. We decided to use the three softest compounds in the range to try to generate grip.

“I can imagine a lot of track evolution and very low grip. So they will complain! It’s fine. We will manage also this situation. But it’s a big unknown. Fast track, long straights, high speed and all conditions that are quite difficult to manage.”

Lando Norris admits he is reluctant to be drawn on discussing McLaren’s chances in Las Vegas, having been surprised by the team’s competitiveness in recent rounds.

Formula 1 is embarking upon its inaugural visit to the Las Vegas Strip Circuit this weekend for the first round of a doubleheader to conclude the season.

Norris enters the third and final event in the United States of 2023 having recorded five podium finishes in the past six rounds to rise to fifth place in the Drivers’ Championship.

While it began the year struggling to score points, McLaren has become a regular front-running contender since introducing a revised car in Austria in July. More upgrades to its MCL60 in Singapore further cemented its status as Red Bull’s closest challenger.

Although Norris expected the Woking squad to be on the back foot in Brazil, the Briton bagged pole position for the Sprint race and comfortably ended the grand prix in second.

However, Norris, asserts that he has abandoned trying to anticipate McLaren’s pace heading into a given race weekend.

Asked in Brazil if he predicted McLaren to fare well in Las Vegas, Norris said: “No idea. I mean, I don’t think we were expecting to be as competitive here as we have been. So we’re still surprising ourselves.

I gave up on guessing where we’re going to be nowadays. I mean, probably after Bahrain I didn’t want to think of where we’re going to be. But yeah, it comes and goes, you know.

“I think everyone expected Mercedes to be extremely strong this weekend [Brazil] and they were nowhere. [Everyone] expected Ferrari to be a bit more competitive and weren’t, so I think no one really knows. Everyone just guesses and presumes but no one knows until we just get on track. So just let’s wait and see.”

Despite the glitz and glamour of the Las Vegas event set to partially dominate the headlines during the weekend, Norris insists that his priority remains on the driving side.

“I just want to do the driving, and that’s why I’m here,” he added. “I’m not here to do all the interviews and enjoy all of this stuff.

“I love Formula 1 because I love to drive and compete against these guys and race and do all of that stuff. And even since I’ve started, the media has risen a lot more, but in the business world, it probably makes sense because there’s more money and all of those things, and that’s normally how it works. But as drivers, it’s not the thing that we enjoy too much of, but some perks of it, I guess.”

Christian Horner has revealed details about his battle to keep Adrian Newey at Red Bull after the legendary Formula 1 designer came within “half an hour” of switching to Ferrari.

Off the back of four consecutive double world title wins with Sebastian Vettel between 2010 and 2013, Red Bull slipped from their seating atop the pecking order amid F1’s switch to V6 turbo power units in 2014.

The regulation shakeup heralded the beginning of Mercedes’ reign of dominance and paved the way for Vettel’s departure from Milton Keynes to Maranello.

Storied F1 designer Newey then also looked set to follow the German had it not been for a meeting with Horner in an English pub.

“We went from winning ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13, four on the bounce, and then a massive regulation change to the engine and our engine supplier completely missed the target,” Horner told the Eff Won podcast last week.

“And at that point, Vettel leaves because of the engine, Adrian came very close to leaving, he was within about half an hour of signing [for Ferrari].”

Newey is undoubtedly the sport’s most decorated designer, having played a role in 12 Constructors’ championship-winning cars.

Having helped the likes of Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve all to Drivers’ titles with Williams, Newey went on to do the same with Mika Hakkinen at McLaren before being pried away from Woking to new-start Red Bull in 2006.

After transforming Red Bull into a title-winning force in under a decade, Horner was acutely aware of the risks that came with losing Newey from his arsenal.

“Ferrari came hard for him,” the Red Bull Team Principal continued. “They promised him the world. You can have a Hollywood lifestyle, fly into the factory from Monaco every day and you won’t pay any tax and you can design a road car and this, that and the other.

“I managed to persuade him to stay by saying: ‘We’ll do a road car. If you want to do a road car, we’ll do a road car.’

“He said, ‘Well, how?’ – and I said I have no idea, but we’ll find a way. We’ll make it. We’ll make it happen.”

What came from the conversation between the two Red Bull stalwarts was the starting point for Newey’s Valkyrie project produced with then-technology partner Aston Martin.

“I went to [then-Aston Martin CEO] Andy Palmer and said: ‘Look, we’ve got arguably the best designer of all time, you’ve got two great brands. We’re not going to finance the car but it makes sense to bring these two things together,'” he added.

“And that’s literally in a pub in England, that’s how it happened.”

While Red Bull’s relationship with Aston Martin came to an end in 2020 ahead of Lawrence Stroll’s rebranding of Racing Point the following year, the 1,160hp, 6.5 Litre V12 Valkyrie began production in November 2021.

In October 2023, Aston Martin unveiled plans to enter the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship with the Valkyrie AMR Pro.

Williams is one of three teams along with Alpine and McLaren to reveal a tweaked livery design for this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Formula 1’s inaugural visit to the Las Vegas Strip Circuit has already inspired half of the grid to introduce revised colour schemes with more set to follow.

Firstly, the engine cover and rear wing of Williams’ FW45 car feature the ‘Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas’ sign and the lights synonymous with the city’s vibrant scene. Meanwhile, the word Williams is also included in the form of a unique font illuminated as a testament to the Neon Boneyard.

Las Vegas marks the third and final race in the United States on the current calendar and Williams currently boasts the only American driver in the field, Logan Sargeant.

The legendary Grove-based outfit was triumphant during F1’s last visit to Las Vegas with Alan Jones winning the first-ever Caesars Palace Grand Prix held back in 1981.

Elsewhere, Alpine has collaborated on a promotional campaign with skate and streetwear brand Palace to produce a refined version of its conventional 2023 livery.

The Enstone squad’s two drivers – Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon – will also be sporting modified race suits designed by Italian sportswear brand Kappa, the team’s sponsor.

“We are so hyped to be kitting out BWT Alpine F1 Team’s car, drivers and pit crew for the Las Vegas Grand Prix: a street race at night in one of the most mental and beautiful places on Earth,” Palace expressed.

David Gendry, VP, Alpine Sponsoring, Partnerships and Communications added: “We are super excited to unveil this unique collaboration with iconic brand Palace together with our partner Kappa. It was a first for Alpine to work on such a co-project where trendy fashion meets sports brands so perfectly.

“The creative process and exchanges these past few months have been incredible and it is with great pride that we unveil a unique livery for the A523, inspired by the desert that surrounds Las Vegas. The team will also proudly wear the Palace Kappa for Alpine team kit this weekend.”

McLaren has teamed up with Jack Daniel’s for its ‘Make it Count’ campaign, which sees the company’s branding placed on the sidepod rear and engine cover of the MCL60.

The blue that accompanies the papaya on McLaren’s standard colour scheme has been removed to produce a look that is similar to the team’s previous ‘Stealth Mode’ livery.