On November 18, 2023 the Formula 1 will return to Las Vegas. It will be on Saturday, something that hadn’t happened in the category since the 1985 South African GP.
Even if there is more than a year to go, in the world capital of the show, the atmosphere of the Maximumso much so that this weekend Red Bull caught rolling one of his cars into a casino.
Yes, between gaming tables and slot machines, the Red Bull car darted across the casino carpet of the Wynn Las Vegas hotel to the amazement of who was there and who made images transcend through social networks.
Users of Twitter, Instagram Y tick tock Videos in which the Austrian team were seen shooting Red Bull on the streets of Las Vegas as part of an advertising campaign had already gone viral.
The champion car of the season was not used but the RB7 of the 2011 season with which Sebastian Vettel won the second of his four titles.
Although it has not been confirmed who was driving, It is believed to be the Mexican Sergio Pérez. Is that Checo will be at the party that Formula 1 has organized for this Saturday in the city of Nevada as part of the launch of the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix. In addition, the presence of Lewis Hamilton, Giorgio Russel Y Aless Albano.
The event, which will have its main action in the mythical palace of caesar and will end with a show of DJ Alessiowill include a free public presentation in avenue of las vegasthe main boulevard of the city, so that fans can see the F1 cars a year before the long-awaited race.
“We are delighted to welcome our fans at the launch of the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix”announced the CEO and president of Formula 1, Stefano Domenicali.
“The event will become a fixture in the city and on the world sporting calendar, so it is important that local fans celebrate and celebrate with us from the start. This party is a small but exciting taste of things to come next year.or, when all the Formula 1 teams come to The Strip, “he added.
Formula 1 had raced twice in Las Vegas in the early 1980s on a temporary track that was built in the Caesars Palace Casino parking lot and was therefore called Caesars Palace Grand Prix. It was there that the 1981 and 1982 titles were decided, when the Brazilian Nelson Piquet and the Swede Keke Rosberg were crowned respectively.
Thus, forty years later, the city of Las Vegas will once again organize a Formula 1 Grand Prix in the 2023 season, so there will be three tests in the United States, along with those in Miami and Austin.
The circuit where Reutemann lost the title
Until 1980, New York was the home of the United States Grand Prix for two decades. However, Watkins Glen International’s outdated facilities and financial debts to F1 took it off the calendar and led to the entry of Las Vegas.
It seemed like the perfect destination for a championship match because glamor would be assured at Caesar’s Palace Grand Prix. Although far from the glitter, there was a layout set up in the most emblematic hotel parking lot in City of Sin (city of sin).
“It’s a pity that the Formula 1 world championship has to be resolved in the parking lot of a luxury hotel”criticized Jacques Laffite, one of the protagonists of the definition, in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport.
It didn’t seem the same to Bernie Ecclestone, who was already the boss of Formula 1 and had signed a three-year deal. Even if this bond has never been respected because, in fact, the layout in a parking lot didn’t turn out to give the show fans wanted and in 1982 it was played for the second and last time.
Although Las Vegas was not yet what it was in those days, it was already a regular venue for boxing and the legend of Muhammad Ali had passed through there. But setting up a ring is not the same as creating a track and it was conditioned by the perimeter of Caesar’s Palace, so the original idea that the track measured 4,136 meters and added 16 curves could not materialize.
“After a clever layout, the track was at the current 3,650 meters with a succession of 14 curves”, wrote Clarín’s special correspondent, José Chiclana, in his chronicle, where he described that “next to the building there is a parking that belongs to the hotel “and that” a circuit has been drawn on it “.
As a result, the six million dollars invested in its construction were handed over a flat and repetitive design with a crooked “M” shape – like a coiled snake – that did not represent the vigor of the city.
In 1981, Carlos Reutemann was the leader of the championship Despite the favoritism that Williams had publicly shown for Alan Jones, and had arrived earlier than the rest of the pilots in the United States, even though his trip from Cap Ferrat, where he settled during his time in Formula 1, included three planes to connect Nice. – Paris, Paris-Chicago and Chicago-Las Vegas.
It was eight days before the last Grand Prix when he got on a Datsun and made two reconnaissance laps of the circuit set up in the parking lot of Caesar’s Palace.
“I look back and see that I have been leading the championship for six months and Now I enter this race with only one point ahead. This is like having none. If he had at least two, it would be enough to speculate. But with one I just have to think about winning, or going out ahead of Piquet and Laffite, which is the same, “he told Clarín.
On 16 October Reutemann set the best time. Although he was not as fast as he was in the first qualifying session on Thursday, he remained on pole that Friday.
The day wasn’t going to end well, though. On board the mule-the Williams with frame 12, her favorite-, Lole had a bad joke with Piquet in training.
“I was coming out of a very strong corner, I crashed into the Brabham and without time to steer I touched it and the front grille bent. The car was repaired right away, but when I go out again I notice that that car was not the obedient car I had on Thursday. Contrary to my original ideal, I had no choice but to take charge 17, which I didn’t like at all ”, acknowledged the Santa Fe native in the book” The Days of Reutemann “(Alfredo Parga / 1998).
I was not wrong. The day after losing the title by one point, finishing eighth in the Las Vegas GP, three behind Piquet, Reutemann wrote a column for Clarín entitled “Why I Lost the Title”. There, he said that he used frame 17 and that “I personally had planned to race with the 12, which was the one I had set my time with on Thursday”. “But the people on the team told me it was preferable to do it with the 17 because it was a new frame and the 12 also had a lot of kilometers,” he said.
Source: Clarin
