{"id":819935,"date":"2026-07-23T02:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T02:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/819935\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T02:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T02:39:13","slug":"las-vegas-grand-prix-f1-parent-company-are-reportedly-set-to-pay-fans-millions-over-2023-drain-cover-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/819935\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Grand Prix, F1 parent company are reportedly set to pay fans millions over 2023 drain cover incident"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the most memorable moments of the inaugural Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix<\/a> weekend didn’t happen during the race or even qualifying.<\/p>\n

It came in the first practice session of the weekend, when then-Ferrari<\/a> driver Carlos Sainz hit a drain cover, causing serious damage to his car’s floor and energy store, while also damaging then-Alpine driver Esteban Ocon’s car.<\/p>\n

The session was red-flagged and eventually canceled, delaying the second practice session by hours as crews worked to repair the circuit and ensure the other drain covers were secure.<\/p>\n

ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON\u2019T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!<\/a><\/p>\n

This delay led to thousands of fans leaving before the next session could get underway.<\/p>\n

So, not long after, attorney Steve Dimopoulos filed a class action<\/a> lawsuit saying that attempts to make good on the situation were not enough.<\/p>\n

\"Las <\/p>\n

Crews work to repair damage after a loose drain cover was hit during the first practice session of the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend in 2023. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton – Formula 1\/Formula 1 via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

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According to The Las Vegas Review Journal<\/a>, court documents revealed that a federal judge agreed and gave preliminary approval for a settlement with LVGP and its parent company Liberty Media Corp. of just over $3 million, which is slated to get final approval in November.<\/p>\n

“The settlement establishes a $3.05 million common fund for holders of approximately 32,000 eligible tickets,” Dimopoulos said in a statement to The New York Post<\/a>. “Individual payments will vary depending on ticket type, participation rates, attorney\u2019s fees, costs and administrative expenses.”<\/p>\n

Of course, the amount of money each person gets will depend on how many claimants there are. But you do the math: if all 32,000 eligible folks decide they want in, it would leave you with enough to buy a hat at the next Las Vegas GP if you’re lucky.<\/p>\n

One of the cheap hats.<\/p>\n

\"Carlos <\/p>\n

Then-Ferrari driver sustained major damage to his car after hitting a loose drain cover during practice ahead of the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix. (Photo by Simon Galloway \/ LAT Images)<\/p>\n

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Fortunately, the race went off without a hitch in the three years that it has been held. It’s now set to be a part of the F1 schedule through 2037.<\/p>\n

The drain incident caused further controversy in 2023 when the damage caused to Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari required a new engine, resulting in a ten-place grid penalty. That came as the Scuderia was in a tight battle with Mercedes<\/a> for second place in the championship standings.<\/p>\n

Matthew Reigle is a writer for OutKick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the most memorable moments of the inaugural Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend didn’t happen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,930,576,580,577,1483,231762,582,82],"class_list":["post-819935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula-one","tag-formula1","tag-las-vegas","tag-outkick-sports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}