Las Vegas Grand Prix | GTAMotorcycle.com

Las Vegas Grand Prix

So 8 minutes into the first practice on Friday they blow the lid off a manhole and trash one of the Ferraris. Great job organizers !
Yikes. I thought they welded down manholes for races. The side effect to ground effect making thousands of pounds of downforce is hundreds of pounds of upforce on manholes.
 
And now for practice 2 they had to clear out a grandstand and all the fanz!!
The Ferrari needs a new chassis but the FIA won't let them change it without a grid penalty.

BTW all the live race times like 3AM, 1AM are to avoid TV conflicting with football.
 
Last edited:
Yikes. I thought they welded down manholes for races. The side effect to ground effect making thousands of pounds of downforce is hundreds of pounds of upforce on manholes.

Wow, I remember that Indycar movie with Sylvester Stallone where they were racing down Avenue Road and popping manhole covers. I thought that was just to dramatize the scene, and thought it was ridiculous at the time. Now I'm trying to wrap my head around the physics.
 
OK, they've corrected the story and it's a water drain cover. Much smaller and lighter than a manhole cover. This guys is lifting it with one finger on each hand.

1700229274946.png
 
Wow, I remember that Indycar movie with Sylvester Stallone where they were racing down Avenue Road and popping manhole covers. I thought that was just to dramatize the scene, and thought it was ridiculous at the time. Now I'm trying to wrap my head around the physics.
Something like 1600 kgs of downforce at full speed. 65% of that is ground effect. About 100 sq ft of area (probably much less effective area but being conservative). Force isn't evenly distributed over the area but that's too complex for this quick calc. Peak force will be well above average force. That is about 0.17 psi average upforce on the road. How big is that cover? 8"? That's at least 9 pounds of upforce on that cover (and probably two or four times that when the peak pressure area passed over). It could also have been bounced out by a tire.

That center bolt is probably supposed to engage locks to keep it in. If the locks were working, it probably didn't need welding. It appears to be missing the entire locking mechanism (picture shows different brand as EJ doesn't make their locking mechanism easy to find). Probably some moron unscrewed too far and dropped it into the pit and left. No welds and no locks and up it comes.

10 grid place penalty for crashing into the black cannonball that organizers left on the black track is absolutely ridiculous.

ValveBoxLid-LockingStyle_260x.png
 
Last edited:
Hahahahaha this is EXACTLY what I expected of this race
 
Wow, I remember that Indycar movie with Sylvester Stallone where they were racing down Avenue Road and popping manhole covers. I thought that was just to dramatize the scene, and thought it was ridiculous at the time. Now I'm trying to wrap my head around the physics.
I remove driveway paving stones using a vacuum cleaner with a foot on the hose. Sometimes having things suck is good, sometimes not.
 
a-drain-cover-lodged-itself-out-at-the-las-vegas-gp-v0-31xczhhj9u0c1.png
It’s not a drain. It’s a shutoff valve. Like the one on your lawn but with a surround set in the pavement.
 
That doesn’t look like it should fly loose .glad somebody didn’t get it in the face shield


Sent from my iPhone using GTAMotorcycle.com
With the damage to the female part, I am wondering if it was actually hit by a car. Ti skid plate hooked on the edge would explain the lack of lock and no small welds would hold up to that impact.

EDIT:
From this article with included slowmo video, I'm almost sure that the car caught on the lid while it was in place.

 
Last edited:
Can't be much worse than a spring from someone's suspension.

75
Something small like a spring or valve cover could still make it past the wishbone. Better odds though as there is a good chance it hits and the wishbone takes a bunch of the energy.
 
Something small like a spring or valve cover could still make it past the wishbone. Better odds though as there is a good chance it hits and the wishbone takes a bunch of the energy.

Hungarian GP 2009. Before the implementation of the Halo
 
I checked out ticket prices the other day, not much under $1000US. A few around 850-900.

Not a good start at all.
From Reddit:

I have to vent my frustration as someone who was sat in a freezing grandstand for 6 hours tonight, only to get kicked out right before FP2 started. I'm a 20+ year fan of Formula 1, I have been to races on 3 continents and grew up with the sport ingrained in me since childhood. I spent school time as a kid drawing versions of the race track that could run on the Strip. Seeing those cars tonight was suppose to be a dream come true. But instead F1 decides basically spit in Las Vegas' collective face instead.

Little known fact, Las Vegas is an extremely diverse city. We have a population from all over the globe, and strong pockets of F1 fandom. Lots of these hardcore fans, myself included, were there tonight. Why? Because the $200+fees Thursday-only ticket was the only ticket we could responsibly afford. That kind money gets you an entire weekend in Melbourne at Turn 1 for christ sake.

It's also bad enough that our "local" Vegas race has us watching at a worse time than half the season schedule, or that it's bone-chilling cold out in the dry desert air, or that the worst grandstand tickets for the weekend were literally more expensive than paddock passes at some EU races, or that they've brought an absolute transportation nightmare to the city for the past 12 months...

But despite everything, us local F1 fans, excited for this race were still there in force tonight. We waited 6 hours in the cold for literally any info on FP2. Many of those grand stands were still half-full at 1AM. We didn't get updates, the F1 presenters weren't acknowledging issues track side, nothing.

Just loud pop music blaring in our ears for 6 hours while we battled the cold and ate the mostly-cold and bad "complimentary food" and drank our $27 cocktails.

But whatever, F1 was here. We were all still so excited. The vibes were good. We didn't care that it's 1AM and we all had work in the morning. F1 is here, this is our one shot to see these cars, and then... they kicked us all out... AND HAD THE SESSION ANYWAY.

The workers were apologizing, insisting they would have stayed but their bosses wouldn't pay. The brought in the cops because people wanted to see the FP2 that they god damn paid for. People were getting threatened with trespassing.

Tonight, a massive group of real F1 fans, vintage jackets, gear, the works got slapped in the face. A group of people that were likely the last shred of good will remaining in Las Vegas. We were all so excited to see our heroes on track in our home town, and we all got treated like suckers. What a gut punch. I know there have been plenty of situations where F1 did fans dirty, but nothing like this, in my opinion.

We were all leaving the track, disappointed, being told the night's over... while hearing the cars start up. What a surreal thing to see so many passionate F1 fans filled with such disdain for a sport we're all suppose to love. I wanted to just be in the area on Saturday, to hear the cars have a race I can't afford to attend, just because I love this sport so much... but now I don't even feel like watching on TV.

And they made it clear, we're not getting refunds. Thanks F1, you clearly care about our city and the folks who live here /s

ps. i'm sleep drunk and running on pure frustration, this was a wall of text, but god damn it F1 why would you do us like this? so many new F1 fans i know in attendance tonight to, and i'm just so distraught that this is their first time attending

edit: to the people blaming unions and the city of Vegas... Vegas hosts bigger events that go later than this regularly. EDC gets 170k people a day for 3 days and doesn't end until the sun is up. y'all blaming our workforce for F1 being too incompetent to account for delays, overtime, or extra shifts, AFTER deciding 12AM sessions are a good idea, is insane. vegas can make any event happen smoothly, it's up to the organizers (in this race's case: f1/fom) to organize
 
Something small like a spring or valve cover could still make it past the wishbone. Better odds though as there is a good chance it hits and the wishbone takes a bunch of the energy.

Found the still from Massa's onboard camera right before the spring hit him in the face.

x1080


you can just make it out at the 0:06 mark

 
Last edited:
As much as I thought the whole wishbone / halo thing didn’t help the look of the car , it’s saved so many lives and injury I can’t believe it took so long to be developed.
Like that HANS device that should have been mandatory in Nascar ( regardless of how we feel about nascar)


Sent from my iPhone using GTAMotorcycle.com
 
sorry for the slight derail, this one still freaks me out.

how the heck he walked away, blows me away....

 

Back
Top Bottom