Horner demands schedule change: ‘Everyone’s leaving Vegas slightly fuc***’

One criticism of F1’s return to Las Vegas was the lateness of the start times.

After the manhole drama on Friday, FP2 didn’t start until 2:30am local time, while qualifying was at midnight.

With the race taking place at night, the sessions were scheduled later to accommodate better for a European audience (Qualifying was at 8am in the UK, for example).

To make things more difficult for the teams, the next race is happening this weekend in Abu Dhabi, which is 12 hours ahead of Las Vegas.

Speaking after Max Verstappen’s 18th victory of the year, Horner wants to see changes made to the schedule, even if it doesn’t suit a European audience.

“It’s been a big event and, like in anything, there’ll be a bit of a debrief to go through what was good and what needs a bit of polishing,” Horner said.

“When you look at the interest there has been in this race, it has been phenomenal. As a first event, of course, there are going to be many lessons to learn.

“I think one of the things we look at is the running schedule because it’s been brutal for the team, and all the men and women behind the scenes. I think everybody’s leaving Vegas slightly fuc***.

“We need to look at how we can improve that for the future. We’re running so late at night, so maybe we run it a little earlier in the evening.

“You’re never going to keep every television audience totally happy. This is an American race, so if you run at eight o’clock in the evening, or something like that, it would just be a bit more comfortable for all.”