Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Formula 1 and Las Vegas Grand Prix organizers have agreed to pay about $3 million, reported as $3,047,986, to settle claims from fans affected by the disrupted opening night of the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, when a manhole-cover failure wrecked Thursday practice and left spectators with only eight minutes of running.
The case stems from the first practice session of Las Vegas' debut race weekend, when Carlos Sainz's Ferrari struck a loose manhole cover on the Strip circuit. The impact forced an immediate stoppage after less than 10 minutes and caused extensive damage to Sainz's car, reported to include the chassis, engine, floor and battery. Esteban Ocon's Alpine was also damaged in the incident.
What followed turned a track-safety failure into a fan-compensation dispute that lasted for years. With every channel and manhole cover on the circuit needing inspection and repair, the second practice session was delayed by more than two hours and eventually pushed back to around 2:30 a.m. local time. By then, the grandstands were empty after spectators had been cleared out, leaving many ticket holders without the on-track action they had paid to see.
That lost Thursday running became the center of a class-action fight against Formula 1, Liberty Media and the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The plaintiffs initially sought far more than the final settlement, with reports variously putting the claim at $3 billion, $5 billion or roughly one billion euros. The case was then at least partly dismissed in 2025, but the complaint was amended and the proceedings continued, leading to the current agreement.
The settlement does not include any admission of liability. Formula 1, Liberty Media and the Las Vegas Grand Prix have denied wrongdoing, and the agreement moves the dispute toward resolution without a full court fight. In a statement to The Athletic, the Las Vegas Grand Prix said: "We are pleased that this matter has been concluded with a fair solution for our fans and that there is now a way forward."
The pool of affected fans is significant. One report said around 32,000 spectators would be able to submit claims tied to the disrupted Thursday at the 2023 event, a figure that underlines how widely the fallout spread beyond the two damaged cars and the cancelled first session.
The settlement terms are aimed directly at those ticket holders. Fans with Thursday-only tickets or three-day packages who bought directly from the Las Vegas Grand Prix organizer or through Ticketmaster are expected to be contacted automatically about compensation. Those who bought through other ticketing portals must file claims themselves, with the deadline set for August 27.
The process is not fully complete yet. Final court approval is reported to be scheduled for November 4 in Nevada, a step that would formally close one of the most embarrassing off-track episodes of Formula 1's recent U.S. expansion and settle the financial consequences of the Las Vegas debut's most damaging mistake.