Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
#f1 #formula1 #formulaone #motorsport #autoracing
Rarely do I get to watch an entire weekend of F1; all the practice sessions, qualifying, and the race... But also all the pre and post coverage that F1TV does, the pomp and circumstance, with all the interviews and all the commentary.
This weekend was one of those weekends where I was able to indulge in all the different coverage they had to offer though, and why shouldn't I watch all of the coverage? The race was happening right here in Viva Las Vegas!
I've already talked a bit about Formula One in the past, but I encourage you to read that article if you haven't done so already.
If you want my honest opinion, I think the coverage that F1TV does is incredibly comprehensive, and very entertaining. I like Will Buxton, I like Sam Collins, Laura Winter is pretty good. James Hinchcliffe even has his moments. If you were ever interested in watching a random race for yourself, I'd say it's a good service to patronize. I signed up for the entire year probably around this time last year because I was able to get the entire annual subscription for around $75. Maybe they'll do another promotion like that this year, 🤞.
F1TV = 👍👍
How Does F1 Work? 🏎
Quite simply; fast cars go around a track, the fastest of the fast cars wins.
NOW, if you are new to F1, all you really need to know is that it's a sport like any other, and there are a multitude of rules and regulations. Rules are constantly being challenged by each of the teams, sometimes in real-time. But that aspect of the sport is not as fanciful or dramatic as it is in something like the NFL where the head coach slams his headset down onto the field and yells at the referee. That being said, there is entertaining “radio chatter” sometimes between the drivers and their teams, and the announcers do mention when there has been a penalty issued by race control.
Fans who spend a lot of time watching the sport generally pick up on a lot of different rules as different things happen. Simply sitting down to watch a race from start to finish ensures that you will pick up on its basic structure and format relatively quickly, even if you have a lot of questions as to why a certain call is being made in the moment.
Drivers and teams pick up points at each race, and there are two championship titles; one for the driver (called a Drivers Championship), and one for the team (called a Constructors Championship). The Drivers Champion and the Constructors Champion do not have to be the same. A team who did not have a driver win the Drivers Championship can still win a Constructors Championship title, and each team has two drivers. Each individual race (called a “Grand Prix”) awards a podium to each of the top 3 drivers for that particular race. The higher up a driver places at the end of a race determines how many points they are awarded, and how many points their team is awarded. A driver must be in the top 10 positions (out of 20) to score any points.
So what happened at the Heineken Las Vegas Grand Prix? 🏁
George Russell came in first place for the race and snatched a rare opportunity (this season) for Mercedes to win the grand prix. Lewis Hamilton (also of Mercedes) came in second, but it's really the story of how he got in second place that is fascinating. Finally, Max Verstappen (of Red Bull) sealed the deal for his bid on the Drivers Championship for this season. He finished 5th in the race, but has accumulated enough points throughout the season that it is impossible for another single driver to score enough points to beat him. This is also Max's 4th consecutive Drivers Championship victory.
Red Bull have pretty much dominated since the 2021 regulation changes, and it has taken all the other teams this entire 4 years to figure out how to best utilize their cars to the maximum specification allowed by the rules.
While Mercedes hasn't had a very good season this year, they've always been respectable and Lewis Hamilton is still an amazing driver. Most would have taken me as a Verstappen fan back in 2015-2016, and I was big on Verstappen as a rookie. He was impressive even though he could be a little aggressive, sometimes to the determent of his performance on the track. That being said, there were times during Mercedes' dominance when Hamilton had to push from nearly insurmountable odds to come back to win an entire race, or get a podium finish when it seemed nearly impossible. Those were always the best races to watch (in my opinion), because those were the only times you could really see Hamilton's brilliance behind the wheel. The rest of the time he was just lapping everyone and creating insane gaps of 30 or more seconds ahead of the next closest car.
It was nice to have another night like that again, where Hamilton had to fight from the mid-pack to get on the podium. The Mercs were just sucking up the frigid desert air all weekend, absolutely loving it.
Not all the cars enjoyed the cold though, Pierre Gasly of the Alpine team had to retire due to a power unit failure. This was after he had an amazing qualifying where he started 3rd on the grid for the race.
Even before the race, Hamilton was leading in EVERY Free Practice Session, so I expected him to take pole (or, first position) in Qualifying. Unfortunately a lock-up of his front brakes in round 3 of Qualifying doomed him to 10th on the grid for the start for the race. But even so, Q1 and Q2, Hamilton and Russell had the fastest cars.
Toto Wolff (CEO of the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team) was grinning like a giddy school boy in the pre-race interviews. When asked whether he thought Lewis was going to have good race pace, he even flat out stated that he thought Lewis could take the win... and Hamilton almost did. But it's rare for a team lead to not be diplomatic in interviews before and after a race.
Starting from 10th position, Hamilton just began dominating almost immediately, taking places left and right, but then dropping down from 2nd to 5th and having to battle back to 2nd. In the end, both the Mercs were performing at levels we haven't seen in nearly a decade.
Russell hasn't had the luxury of the success that Hamilton has had over the years. Russell has only been driving for Mercedes since 2022. Before that, he drove for the Williams team. Pre-regulation changes in 2020-2021, Mercedes seemed like the right constructor to go with as a younger driver looking to make a name for themselves and win championships. Unfortunately the Mercs just haven't looked that good for the last couple of seasons, mainly due to the car, so for Russell to win this race is really quite impressive, and a joy to see. It really showed that he can lead the pack when the car he's driving performs well.
At one point Russell was 32 second ahead of Lewis Hamilton. By the end of the race though, Lewis had cut that lead to only about 6 seconds, absolutely incredible.
For context: 10 seconds is an eternity of time when there are fractions of a second separating each of the cars' individual lap times. And for the cars to be doing 210+ mph down the Las Vegas Strip is quite astonishing and ironic. Just stop to consider that most people who drive the Strip will never get to experience going faster than 25 mph under normal circumstances. To see that piece of tarmac/asphalt turn into strip of raceway, it becomes quite an incredible stretch of road.
I called Lewis to win the race, and had him really high up on my fantasy team... If I were a betting man, that's who I would have dropped money on after watching the Free Practice Sessions, and even the first two rounds of Qualifying.
There are only two more races left in the season and Lewis is going to be moving from Mercedes to Ferrari next season. There is a very real possibility that Hamilton could beat Schumacher's record for total number of Drivers Championships in a career—right now Hamilton ties Schumacher's record with 7 Drivers Championships. Schumacher himself is famous for leaving Ferrari and going to Mercedes to win more titles. So it would be poetry for Hamilton to go from Mercedes to Ferrari and win some more Drivers Championship titles. He has it in him, the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix was evidence of that. Though, I did expect Lando Norris of McLaren to be much higher at the end of the race than he was. Instead Carlos Sainz of Ferrari took the bronze with 3rd place.
Sainz is a good driver, and his time at Ferarri has been fruitful, but his teammate, Charles Leclerc, likes the spotlight. Charles, also known as the “The Man from Monaco,” is at Ferrari for a reason, he is a talented driver himself, but he hasn't quite hit the highs of a successful career yet. We'll see what happens when he's joined by Hamilton next season (or in approximately 4 months, give or take).
A lot of how the race shookdown was due to the temperature, and the wind. I noticed the Mercs overheating early in the season this year, back in March or April. They worked out the overheating issue after a couple races, but they didn't fix it entirely. Vegas was one of the coldest races on the schedule this year, and the only other cold weather races (Canada and Great Britain) saw a version of Mercedes that was similar to the performance in Vegas. So there is quite possibly a cooling issue with the cars that is getting worked out even as I type this, or that has already been worked out for the new cars next season.
The next race on the calendar is next weekend in Qatar. Normally I wouldn't bother to watch that race because the Drivers Championship is already decided, but there is still a battle for the Constructors title. Let me know if you'd like to read more about Formula One.