Alonso calls out Las Vegas surface: “On the limit” and not F1 standard
Fernando Alonso didn’t bother dressing it up. After a scrappy Friday in Las Vegas, the Aston Martin driver said what a lot of the paddock’s been grumbling about for three years: the track surface still isn’t right.
“The asphalt doesn’t meet Formula 1 standards,” he said, arguing it’s too slippery, too bumpy and too cold to switch the tyres on properly. “It’s on the verge of being unsafe to race on. We need to talk to the FIA about whether this is acceptable for the coming years. The circuit itself is fine, but the asphalt and its position on the calendar are at the limit.”
It’s a familiar critique for a race that has divided the sport since it landed on the calendar. Las Vegas is blockbuster theatre — neon, celebrities, the Strip shut down for a midnight sprint — and Formula 1, which promotes this event itself, is fully invested. But beneath the lights, the detail work still isn’t where drivers want it. FP2 was interrupted again by manhole-cover trouble, a problem the event promised it had left behind after year one, and grip levels remained well below par as temperatures plunged.
Alonso’s point about timing isn’t incidental. Drop an ultra-smooth surface into desert air at night and you get tyres that refuse to wake up. Drivers skate, confidence drops, and the bumps you could manage with temperature suddenly feel like landmines. In Vegas, the walls are close and the straights are long; when it’s low grip and high speed, everyone pays attention.
Oliver Bearman echoed the theme after practice, calling it “the least enjoyable street track I’ve driven” and, bluntly, “dangerous.” He wasn’t complaining about the layout itself — most drivers still enjoy the theatre and the tow fights on the Strip — but the combination of low grip and concrete wasn’t doing much for morale. “Normally [street tracks] are really, really fun,” he said. “This one is really, really low grip, which is not a great combination when you have the walls very close.”
The underlying tension here is simple: Vegas is an F1 project, not a traditional promoter deal. That changes the conversation around accountability and longevity. Barring something dramatic, it won’t just vanish from the schedule. And Stefano Domenicali, F1’s CEO, underlined that position again this weekend, describing the third edition as the “best yet” and promising another post-race debrief to raise standards further. “We intend to stay here long-term,” he said, pointing to the scale of investment and insisting the series will “act” on areas that need work.
It’s not that the paddock wants Vegas gone. Teams know the power of a US night race dripping in spectacle, and plenty of drivers privately enjoy the chess game of slipstreams and brake temperatures the Strip encourages. But there’s a threshold. A surface that can’t hold together properly or provide consistent grip, paired with winter-night conditions, will always test the limits of what drivers consider acceptable risk.
There are fixes. Some are unglamorous but necessary: permanent solutions for street fixtures; a more aggressive or more compliant asphalt blend; a resurfacing programme that respects the unique loads of modern F1 cars; and a serious conversation about whether a marginal November slot is setting the race up to fail before a wheel turns. Other elements — like the show around the race — are fine. The sporting core needs the same attention.
Alonso put it clearly: he’s not against the concept, just the execution. He wants the FIA to make the call on what’s safe and what’s not, and for F1 to decide if it’s willing to do what it takes to get there. The series wants iconic. The drivers want confidence. The solution is somewhere between a barrel of asphalt and a better date on the calendar.
For now, the lights stay bright, the music stays loud, and the Strip stays shut. But if Las Vegas is going to be more than a postcard, it has to feel like a proper grand prix from the cockpit — not a white-knuckle ride on a cold, shiny street.
