Las Vegas’ schedule raised eyebrows even before the event, and it turned out that fears were realized.
Extenuating circumstances meant practice took place between 2:30 am and 4 am local time early Friday morning, with mechanics not getting to bed until 8 am or 9 am.
Everyone in the paddock was struggling with the timetable, accentuated by the lengthy flight and time zone shift from Europe, while those in hotels that faced the track were awoken mid-sleep by security performing daily room sweeps.
Qualifying started at midnight (3 am ET) while the race began at 10 pm (1 am ET), which is hardly great for fans in much of the US.
“The running schedule has been brutal for the team,” said Red Bull boss Christian Horner. “I think everybody is leaving Vegas slightly fucked. I think we need to look at how we can improve that for the future. Maybe we need to run it earlier in the evening.”
Daniel Ricciardo joked the paddock “had been delirious” after the extremely late finishes and was shocked to learn that next year Las Vegas is at the start of a triple-header that includes Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
“No way. Alright,” Ricciardo said. “That does not have my vote. And now knowing that, they need to bring it [the race time] forward, because we’ll be wrecked, especially at the end of the season.”
The flip side is that Formula 1 personnel do tend to have the attitude of getting on with the job.
“Sleeping has been difficult—it’s the first time adapting here, coming from a busy last six weeks, and it’s a huge time shift,” said Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough. “The first time we went to Singapore we thought it was a bit odd, but we all got there.”
Read the full article here