Max Verstappen says Las Vegas GP is 1 percent sport, 99 percent show،
LAS VEGAS — Max Verstappen called this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix “99 percent spectacle and 1 percent sporting event” after Wednesday’s opening ceremony on the street circuit.
The race, which will take place on Saturday evening, has been compared to the Super Bowl by Formula 1 executives, who are also the event’s promoters.
The hype leading up to the race weekend culminated with an opening ceremony on Wednesday evening, featuring Kylie Minogue and John Legend.
The drivers were then presented in front of the main grandstand on five stages along the pit straight.
“For me you can skip that,” Verstappen said of the ceremony. “We’re right there, looking like a clown. I mean, yeah…”
Asked if he had shared his opinions on racing with F1, Verstappen replied: “I don’t know, I guess they always make money whether I like it or not, so that is not mine!
“But I’m not going to pretend either, I always express my opinion on positive and negative things. That’s how I am.
“Some people like the show a little more, I don’t like it at all. I grew up just watching the performance side of things and that’s how I see it too. So for me, I like being in Vegas, but not so much for racing.”
Verstappen went on to say that he did not expect F1 to react to drivers’ opinions about the race, good or bad.
“We are not involved, so we just do it like this,” he added. “They decide what they do, right?
“I would do the same thing if I was an owner, I wouldn’t listen to the drivers. It’s my sport, I would do what I want with it if that was the case.”
The three-time world champion doesn’t have high hopes for the quality of racing on the new 3.8-mile street circuit, which includes a 1.2-mile straight along the famous Las Vegas Strip.
“There’s not a lot of turns to be honest…I don’t know,” he said. “It will also probably depend on his grip. It doesn’t look like he has a lot of grip, but we’ll go with the flow.”
I don’t think it’s that exciting, that’s the only thing. I already think for me a street circuit is not that exciting, especially with these new cars, they’re just too heavy.
“When you have low grip it doesn’t help. The scenery will be great as you go through the track, but the track itself is not the most exciting.”
“Driving an F1 car is much more fun with lots of high-speed corners, but here there aren’t many high-speed corners.”
