F1 The Wash Up - Previous 2024 Race Weekends

[Festerz]

Commentators talking about the cold temps in Las Vegas reminds me of the last time I was there in March 2019. There was light snow about. Definitely gets cold at night in that desert town in the winter months and shifting it to a date closer to the middle of the year makes sense if they intend to keep it a night race.

 

[largebus]

Commentators talking about the cold temps in Las Vegas reminds me of the last time I was there in March 2019. There was light snow about. Definitely gets cold at night in that desert town in the winter months and shifting it to a date closer to the middle of the year makes sense if they intend to keep it a night race.

8 degrees is better than 38 degrees at 10pm, which it would be for the middle 4-5 months of the year.

 

[Rustin Cohle]

McLaren are not a serious racing team.

 

[gaskin]

Look at that. McLaren screwing their drivers with timing again. How ****ing dumb are these campaigners?

 

[ptrg]

Russel was spot on - track clearly ramped up at the end there, with everyone going faster than the previous. Ridiculous Mclaren had Oscar crossing the line with a minute to go in the session..

 

[Duck Farmer]

He said competitive.

Maybe you're right about Alpine.

 

[largebus]

The pasta guns will be jamming from overuse when Hamilton goes there.

 

[Gunf]

I am amazed Max managed to drag that piece of shit to 5th

Also Gasly has been on fire for a while

 

[Duck Farmer]

Russel was spot on - track clearly ramped up at the end there, with everyone going faster than the previous. Ridiculous Mclaren had Oscar crossing the line with a minute to go in the session..

Yeah, good call by Russell.

 

[Gunf]

I hope tomorrow ends with
Lec
Sainz
Gasly
Vers
Russel/Oscar

Would really spice up the constructors

 

[ptrg]

I hope tomorrow ends with
Lec
Sainz
Gasly
Vers
Russel/Oscar

Would really spice up the constructors

So Lando into a wall?

 

[Gunf]

So Lando into a wall?

Na he can finish behind Hamilton who is at the back of the above pack

 

[Festerz]

8 degrees is better than 38 degrees at 10pm, which it would be for the middle 4-5 months of the year.

Maybe for spectators but not for F1 cars, or more specifically their tyres, which do not operate at max efficient at 8 degrees centigrade.

The reason the race is being held near midnight in LV is to avoid high heat during daylight hours - but doing it during the start to the US winter months makes little sense.

I did not say move the race to the summer months but closer to the middle months. As you can see from this table of avge temps for LV. Having been a visitor to the town there are many better options than mid/late Nov to stage the race, especially if you are going to schedule events late at night in the middle of the desert.


This table is even better in that it shows that the months November - March is the worst possible time to hoold an F1 event in Las Vegas if track performance matters. About half of winter nights in Vegas sees the temperatures drop below 4 degrees C and freezing weather happens on average 10 nights a year.



The issue for North American races is fitting scheduling for the latter end of the season after the peak European schedule has finished. But I understand from the Sky F1 team that rescheduling the LV race to a warmer month is already under active consideration.

 

[largebus]

Err no. F1 cars, and more specifically their tyres, do not operate at max efficient at 8 degrees centigrade.

The reason the race is being held near midnight in LV is to avoid high heat during daylight hours - but doing it during the start to the US winter months makes little sense.

I did not say move the race to the summer months but closer to the middle months. As you can see from this table of avge temps for LV. Having been a visitor to the town there are many better options than mid/late Nov to stage the race, especially if you are going to schedule events late at night in the middle of the desert.

View attachment 2173731

I don't disagree re timing but I doubt Liberty care much about whether the tyres are at optimum efficiency. Why would they move Canada to May when snow in Montréal is not unheard of?
It's all about "the show" and not impacting the value of the other races in the region, otherwise they would've run this either side of Miami or COTA or Mexico.

 

[Festerz]

I don't disagree re timing but I doubt Liberty care much about whether the tyres are at optimum efficiency. Why would they move Canada to May when snow in Montréal is not unheard of?

The answer is of course that the majority of F1 races are in the Northern Hemisphere and when you're planning a year long schedule to maximise global audience numbers you must have a fair % of them outside the northern hemisphere summer and shoulder months.

 

[Cromulant]

Maybe for spectators but not for F1 cars, or more specifically their tyres, which do not operate at max efficient at 8 degrees centigrade.

The reason the race is being held near midnight in LV is to avoid high heat during daylight hours - but doing it during the start to the US winter months makes little sense.

I did not say move the race to the summer months but closer to the middle months. As you can see from this table of avge temps for LV. Having been a visitor to the town there are many better options than mid/late Nov to stage the race, especially if you are going to schedule events late at night in the middle of the desert.

View attachment 2173731
This table is even better in that it shows that the months November - March is the worst possible time to hoold an F1 event in Las Vegas if track performance matters. About half of winter nights in Vegas sees the temperatures drop below 4 degrees C and freezing weather happens on average 10 nights a year.

View attachment 2173737

The issue for North American races is fitting scheduling for the latter end of the season after the peak European schedule has finished. But I understand from the Sky F1 team that rescheduling the LV race to a warmer month is already under active consideration.

All this makes sense except its not hot during the day in Vegas in November.

Think of Alice Springs near Winter.

 

[Festerz]

All this makes sense except its not hot during the day in Vegas in November.

Think of Alice Springs near Winter.

Hence my comment that it makes little sense to hold a midnight race in LV in November.

 

[largebus]

The answer is of course that the majority of F1 races are in the Northern Hemisphere and when you're planning a year long schedule to maximise global audience numbers you must have a fair % of them outside the northern hemisphere summer and shoulder months.

Mate did you even read the rest of that post? You're basically repeating what I said. It's about the show, maximising audience numbers as you say, weather conditions and tyre temps be damned.
They don't want to hold it either size of COTA or Miami because it would impact domestic interest on the race, even though it would make climatic and logistical sense to do so. They'd run a race in a blizzard if it meant more eyeballs and ticket sales.

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

Commentators talking about the cold temps in Las Vegas reminds me of the last time I was there in March 2019. There was light snow about. Definitely gets cold at night in that desert town in the winter months and shifting it to a date closer to the middle of the year makes sense if they intend to keep it a night race.

I don't mind that it's an outlier for track and air temperature at all, IMO that's the one good thing about Vegas is that it's not a European summer track and different teams perform strongly here.

I'll admit I hated the idea of Vegas when it was announced and was ready to write it off after Covergate last year but it's actually a good circuit to watch.

 

[Festerz]

It's about the show, maximising audience numbers as you say, weather conditions and tyre temps be damned.

Explain to me how a 10 pm US Pacific Time for the Grand Prix quali and race maximises audience numbers for Europe where the majority of F1 viewers are; or even in the US?

10pm in Las Vegas on Sunday night is 1 am Monday in New York and 6am Monday in London by my reckoning. Hardly the time to capture peak viwers.

The East Coast is the US’s motorsport heartland btw, but fans in the east coast of US have to contend with the race lights going out at 1am. That is clearly not sustainable if Liberty wants to build a big TV/streaming following in the US.

ESPN TV ratings for last years Las Vegas GP shows that outside of Nevada their ratings struggled - barely registering in states east of Arizona.





Anyway I'm done arguing the point - which is or was that the current race time makes little sense from either a purist motorsport or global viewing perspective. Is good for us in Oz and to spice things up on track though.

 

[Bradesmaen]

At least Qatar and Abu Dhabi are closer to the UK

By about 2 hours. You think it's far but it's not. It;s about 8 hours to UAE/Qatar and 10 and a bit to Vegas from London.

 

[largebus]

Explain to me how a 10 pm US Pacific Time for the Grand Prix quali and race maximises audience numbers for Europe where the majority of F1 viewers are; or even in the US?

10pm in Las Vegas on Sunday night is 1 am Monday in New York and 6am Monday in London by my reckoning. Hardly the time to capture peak viwers.

The East Coast is the US’s motorsport heartland btw, but fans in the east coast of US have to contend with the race lights going out at 1am. That is clearly not sustainable if Liberty wants to build a big TV/streaming following in the US.

ESPN TV ratings for last years Las Vegas GP shows that outside of Nevada their ratings struggled - barely registering in states east of Arizona.


View attachment 2173757


Anyway I done arguing the point.

If TV numbers in Europe/North America were the only factor then why are there races in China, Japan and Australia, in the early morning/middle of the night their time? It's almost like there are other continents with billions of people as well. If those ratings were all that mattered they would've shitcanned the Australian GP years ago.

Probably the best solution is putting Miami in November because it isn't as susceptible to cold snaps, because they're seemingly adamant on not 2 US races back to back.

 

[Bradesmaen]

Explain to me how a 10 pm US Pacific Time for the Grand Prix quali and race maximises audience numbers for Europe where the majority of F1 viewers are; or even in the US?

10pm in Las Vegas on Sunday night is 1 am Monday in New York and 6am Monday in London by my reckoning. Hardly the time to capture peak viwers.

The East Coast is the US’s motorsport heartland btw, but fans in the east coast of US have to contend with the race lights going out at 1am. That is clearly not sustainable if Liberty wants to build a big TV/streaming following in the US.

ESPN TV ratings for last years Las Vegas GP shows that outside of Nevada their ratings struggled - barely registering in states east of Arizona.


View attachment 2173757


Anyway I'm done arguing the point - which is or was that the current race time makes little sense from either a purist motorsport or global viewing perspective. Is good for us in Oz and to spice things up on track though.

It's 7am in mainland Europe, 6am here (Dublin & London). I think unless it's a day GP they aren't getting viewing from Europe anyway so they just go for the spectacle.

 

[Vader]

All this makes sense except its not hot during the day in Vegas in November.

Think of Alice Springs near Winter.

The decision to hold the LV F1 GP at night is all about the Las Vegas strip owners not wanting the strip shut down during the day. They're not overly happy with it being shut even in the dead of night, but they just weren't going to tolerate having it during the day.

 

[Vader]

Explain to me how a 10 pm US Pacific Time for the Grand Prix quali and race maximises audience numbers for Europe where the majority of F1 viewers are; or even in the US?

10pm in Las Vegas on Sunday night is 1 am Monday in New York and 6am Monday in London by my reckoning. Hardly the time to capture peak viwers.

The East Coast is the US’s motorsport heartland btw, but fans in the east coast of US have to contend with the race lights going out at 1am. That is clearly not sustainable if Liberty wants to build a big TV/streaming following in the US.

ESPN TV ratings for last years Las Vegas GP shows that outside of Nevada their ratings struggled - barely registering in states east of Arizona.


View attachment 2173757


Anyway I'm done arguing the point - which is or was that the current race time makes little sense from either a purist motorsport or global viewing perspective. Is good for us in Oz and to spice things up on track though.

The decision to run it at night isn't being driven by viewer numbers or temperatures. It's due to Liberty having a burning desire to have a race in Las Vegas, and midnight being the only time the Las Vegas locals would allow them to run it.

It's more about the prestige of having a race there than it is about actual viewers.