Leclerc feels sorry for GP organization: 'I was sad about the criticism'

Criticism of the organisation of the Las Vegas Grand Prix has been harsh in recent days. In particular, the chaos on the opening day - with an ultra-short first practice session and a second session where the public was not welcome - caused wonderment. For his part, Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur was furious about the loosened pit lid, which caused Carlos Sainz to write off his car.

However,Charles Leclerc, the Spaniard's team-mate and the polesitter for the Grand Prix, took issue with the organisers of the first Grand Prix on the legendary Strip after qualifying: "I mean, I was sad yesterday to see how much criticism there was around the track. Of course, it wasn't good enough and that is clear to everybody but obviously, we must not forget also how much work there has been from many, many people to make this event work and I think it looks amazing."

"I really hope we have an exciting race tomorrow to really show what Formula 1 is and yesterday was obviously a pretty bad start but I think it's an amazing venue for Formula 1. As I said, we are a sport for sure and we need to keep the DNA of the sport, which is the most important thing for everybody. At the same time, I believe that opportunities like this need to be taken and a little bit of show around the track to attract people that maybe wouldn't have come to a Formula 1 race is needed."

Leclerc wants right balance between show and sport

However, Leclerc does feel that the balance between sport and show should be right: "That's why I'm not so happy about the show just before the race because I think this is a time when we need to focus on what really matters, which is racing and on the other hand, I think the venue and the event looks amazing and there's been a lot of hard work in order to get there, which has to be appreciated and then at the end of the weekend, we'll obviously look back at all the things that didn't go well in order for these things to not happen. It is clear that it's not acceptable what happened in FP1."