No love for the Strip: Alonso slams Vegas 'non-F1 standard' track

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The glitz and glamour of the Las Vegas Grand Prix promised a dazzling spectacle, but for two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso, the race was anything but flawless.

While the Sin City street circuit offered high-speed thrills, the veteran Spaniard didn't hold back after a challenging evening saw him slip from a seventh-place start to a disappointing 13th-place finish, his car having sustained damage early on.

Alonso’s post-race critique was a blunt, two-pronged attack on both the quality of the asphalt and the logistical nightmare of the race’s calendar slot, suggesting the event is, quite simply, "not Formula 1 standard."

The Safety Concerns of an Unforgiving Surface

While the layout of the Strip-based circuit earned a thumbs-up for its pace, the actual surface beneath the tyres received a damning condemnation.

Alonso, never one to shy away from a controversial opinion, expressed serious concerns over the quality of the newly laid street surface, stressing that the issue is now a matter for the sport’s governing body to consider.

"The race circuit is fun, because it's high speed, but I think the type of asphalt is not Formula 1 standard. To be honest, it's too slippery and we cannot put the tyres in temperature and there is no grip.

“It's extremely bumpy, at the limit of being safe to race.”

For Alonso, this is not a minor quibble, but a fundamental flaw that needs urgent review, concluding that: "So I think for the future we need to talk with the FIA if this is acceptable or not for the following years.”

A Calendar Conundrum: Too Late and Too Far

The Aston Martin charger’s unfavorable review didn’t end there as he turned his critical eye toward the timing of the event. The late-November night race kicks off a brutal triple-header that sends the F1 circus from Vegas to Qatar and then Abu Dhabi, closing out a monumental 24-round calendar.

The demanding logistics, compounded by the significant time differences, are clearly taking a toll on the teams and drivers.

“And then the place in the calendar, if I'm totally honest, is difficult for us,” he added.

"To come here with the time difference and how far it is from Europe and Brazil two weeks ago and we go to Qatar now straight and it's a 17-hour plane and 13 hours' time difference. I don't think any other sport in the world will accept that,” he argued.

©Aston Martin

He summed up his overall feelings with a final, terse assessment: “So, I mean, circuit okay, asphalt and moment in the calendar, for me it's not, yeah, borderline.”

When quizzed on whether a simple date change would fix things, the F1 veteran offered a telling insight into what he believes are the wrong priorities at play.

“Yeah, yeah, maybe,” he conceded. “I mean, I think 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.

“If not, we will go to Monaco in February, because it's quiet, you know, but there are certain things that we need to think about the sport first.”

Clearly, while the spectacle was grand, the execution of the Vegas GP left the two-time champion with plenty of critical feedback for the sport's executives.