Fernando Alonso has led driver complaints on two fronts over Formula 1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, as he says changes need to be considered.
While Las Vegas has become a showpiece event for F1 in attracting global and commercial attention, drivers have raised concerns about the event.
The first issue Alonso wants to be considered is the track surface, which he says is borderline in terms of safety when it comes to the lack of grip and the excessive bumps.
“The circuit is fun because it's high speed,” said Alonso. “But I think the type of asphalt is not a Formula 1 standard, to be honest.
“It's too slippery and we cannot put the tyres in [the right] temperature. There is no grip and it's extremely bumpy at the limit of being safe to race.
“So I think for the future we need to talk with the FIA [to see] if this is acceptable or not for the following years.”
After suggesting that other street circuits like Monaco and Singapore are able to do resurfacing work, he sees no excuse for Las Vegas not to do the same.
Alonso was not alone in thinking something had to be done about the track surface.
Haas driver Oliver Bearman felt that considering Las Vegas was a quick circuit that was run in cold conditions, it would be much better if the surface offered more grip.
“Especially with this temperature,” he said. “I think with a warmer temperature you feel the effects of it much less.
“With the walls so close and the crazy amount of high-speed turns, it's a lot of risk. I think they can afford to resurface the track. I think that wouldn't be a bad idea.”
The schedule headache
It is not just the track surface that is in Alonso’s crosshairs, as he reckons that something needs to be done about its scheduling too.
The American West Coast race is placed at the start of a brutal end-of-season triple header, which Alonso thinks takes too much out of both drivers and teams in terms of travel distances and jet lag.
“If I'm totally honest, it's difficult for us to come here with the time difference and how far it is from Europe and Brazil two weeks ago,” he said.
“We go to Qatar now straight, and it's 17 hours [in a plane], with 13 hours time difference. I don't think any other sport in the world would accept that.
“So the circuit [is] OK, asphalt and the moment in the calendar for me is not.”
Las Vegas is slotted into the F1 schedule at the end of the year because it is a quieter time for the city, so it acts as a late-year boost.
But Alonso doesn’t think that is a good enough reason to justify the extra hassles that come with it.
“I heard that we do it now because it's the quiet weekend of the year for Vegas, but we cannot do things like that,” he said.
“If not, we will go to Monaco in February because it's quiet. There are certain things where we need to think about the sport first.”
The scheduling issue was something that Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) director Carlos Sainz fully agreed with, as he said that this was something that the grid had been “quite vocal about” with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.
“For me, it should be a back-to-back with Brazil because at least you don't have to go back to Europe to adapt to Europe, to then come back here,” he said.
“You just fly straight up to Vegas, do Vegas, then a week in between and then have the double header of the Middle East to end.
“In an ideal scenario, what are the reasons to not be able to do that in the calendar?
“For me I couldn't agree more with the fact that a triple header, Vegas, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, for the second year in a row, I don't think that's any good for anyone.”
The 2026 calendar currently has the Vegas-Qatar-Abu Dhabi triple header again.
