Carlos Sainz is adding a new role to his resume come the Las Vegas Grand Prix: party host. The Ferrari driver is set to throw his own glitzy bash for fans during the race weekend next month, affectionately named after him, called ‘Smooth Operator’. 

Fans will have the opportunity to celebrate Formula 1’s return to Sin City with the ‘Smooth Operator’ himself (he’s slated for a special appearance) at the 12-hour dance party November 22-23 at ALIBI Ultra Lounge in the ARIA Resort & Casino. Though, if you want to be “welcomed” by the Ferrari driver,  Sainz recommends keeping your phone and cameras in your pocket, after he shared with reporters Thursday that his post-Mexico celebrations at a club were a “bit annoying” with “15 cameras on you while just having a fun time.” 

Andrew Lanzino, who runs MGM Resorts’ citywide event strategy, said the entertainment giant partnered with Sainz in an effort to offer fans an experience “unlike any other race of the year.” He added, “We’re creating a variety of ways for [fans] to have the time of their lives.” 

Carlos Sainz will throw a party at the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

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Aside from Sainz’s dance party — a first for drivers to actually host these types of affairs with the series — MGM Resorts’ 2024 programming includes the Shoey Bar at the Bellagio, inspired by Daniel Ricciardo. In its debut year, the bar was visited by the likes of Eva Longoria, Jeremy Renner and Mark Wahlberg, all of whom took part in the celebration popularized by the Australian. 

And although Ricciardo won’t be racing in Vegas, he will be well-represented in spirit as his Enchanté clothing brand is set to host a pop-up shop at The Cosmopolitan following the success of his event in Austin, Texas earlier this month. 

F1’s new global sponsor, LVMH, has also partnered with the casino giant to host a Dom Perignon Champagne Lounge in front of the Bellagio Fountains at Terrazza di Sogno. Elsewhere in the Bellagio, Ferrari will welcome fans into a pop-up boutique featuring luxury leather accessories, one-of-a-kind items and signed collectible pieces. 

Formula 1’s controversy over racing guidelines could be quickly put to bed if tracks had a rethink about gravel traps, claim a number of leading drivers.

The debate over F1’s Driving Standards Guidelines has erupted since the United States Grand Prix when a battle between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris exposed flaws in the system.

In particular, a clear onus on handing the advantage in a corner to the driver that reaches the apex first has opened the door for behaviour where some are now easing off the brakes early to ensure their nose is ahead – even if it risks them going in too fast and running wide on the exit.

Following discussions between drivers and the FIA in Mexico last weekend, a meeting has been scheduled for the Qatar Grand Prix weekend to try to revise the guidelines and get rid of any clear grey areas.

However, there is an alternative school of thought that has emerged – which is that if tracks had more natural deterrents against anyone running wide, such as grass or gravel traps, then the problems of drivers squeezing each other out and risking going wide removes itself.

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton suggested in Brazil that one of the biggest differences in dictating the aggression of racing these days, compared to when he started, was that tracks allowed drivers greater freedom to get things wrong.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, battles with Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

“I think when I joined, we didn’t have these big run-off areas, so when you first get in, you really had to build up to the limit,” he said. “You couldn’t go beyond it, go off track and come back on.

“That’s the thing I noticed the most when, around maybe Max’s time or maybe just before, they started having these big run-off areas, where the younger drivers were able to come in and really abuse those areas and not put the car on the grass, for example.

“I think that gave them a real good cushion of bedding themselves into the sport and finding the limit as where, let’s say, like from Fernando’s time and before that, it was, you couldn’t go beyond the limit. You’re in the gravel.

“Pouhon, for example, Turn 10 in Spa, for example, there used to be grass right beyond the kerb and gravel, which was definitely worrying when you used to go into a corner like that.

“I would say that’s been the biggest shift. It would be great to see the old school sort of way come back if possible. Gravel traps or something like that. Maybe not safe, but we’ll see.”

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon said that, as someone who was not supportive of imposing too many rules on drivers, track limits were a critical factor in dictating how everyone behaved.

“I’m not a big fan of rules when it comes to the race itself,” he said. “It needs to stay safe, obviously that’s the main thing, but I think the first issues are the track.

“If you put grass or gravel, things would be very different. We’ve seen a lot less overtakes around the outside in Turn 3 at the Red Bull Ring for example, compared with places with easy places to go off like Austin Turn 12. That is where the thought process is going to go now.”

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38, runs through the gravel

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

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Haas driver Kevin Magnussen felt that the current situation with the driver guidelines was ‘pretty messy’.

“I think the FIA is aware of that and looking to make changes,” he said. “They can see that it isn’t. It’s not great at the moment. There’s so much room to exploit these guidelines. They need to rethink it a little bit, go back to basics.”

And he concurred with his competitors that track design was a critical element to making improvements.

“The tracks make it incredibly hard because there’s all this run-off and you don’t even feel you go outside,” he said.

“Racing each other is too easy to just hang on to the outside. Then you try and have your front wing ahead at the apex, and again at the exit, and then try to make it look like you got pushed out.

“It’s all like it’s not real. You’re trying to make it look certain ways rather than just trying to get past.

“I just think that’s a shame, so gravel or something to deter on the outside of the track is going to help. And on those tracks I think they should just leave it to the drivers.

“Have a few rules like moving under braking and reacting to movement from the car behind. I think that’s going to need to be there. But the big problem is the tracks.”

MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin put a positive spin on today’s crash in Practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix, saying it will help him to know where the limit is at the Sepang circuit.

Martin lost the front end of his Pramac Ducati at the tight first corner moments after seeing that his title rival Francesco Bagnaia had posted a faster time late in the session. 

The accident brought practice to an early end for Martin, but the Spaniard’s best time still put him second-fastest and directly into Q2 on Saturday.

While falling on a day when factory Ducati rider and two-time champion Bagnaia was fastest in both sessions could be seen as a psychological blow for Martin, there is no major consequence to the incident given that he comfortably made the top 10.

Nor does Martin subscribe to the idea that the mishap will rob him of any confidence as he defends a 17-point lead at the penultimate round of the championship.

“I think it’s also positive that I crashed today,” said Martin, who is chasing a maiden crown. “Because I can see the limit and understand why I crashed. So it’s good to crash today!

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing, Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“I prefer to crash now than in the race. I like this track and the bike is working really well. I was feeling competitive throughout and I feel confident with our work.”

Martin confirmed that he had been trying to respond to Bagnaia’s lap of 1m57.679s.

“I was okay with my time attack, even if I almost crashed on my [previous] lap,” he said. “Then I went down the [start/finish] straight and saw I was second, so I said ‘okay, I will try to improve a bit more’. 

“But even at the first corner it was already too much, and I just crashed. 

“We [Martin and Bagnaia] were pushing – it was a normal day! We were pushing and still able to keep the gap between ourselves and the rest, so it’s impressive.”

Martin also explained that engine braking was a key factor in his crash, as was the case in previous accidents this season.

“I think we are struggling a bit with the engine braking,” the 26-year-old added. “We have quite a lot of grip on the rear tyre, so with the Ducati you need to slide the rear on entry because otherwise the front pushes. That’s why I crashed. 

“So the thing is to be really clever about how you use the engine braking. It’s [more important] than the set-up. It’s much better to stop [working on] the set-up and work on the electronics.

“All the crashes I had this season during races, like Germany, Jerez and Mugello, were the same. The rear was pushing the front. So I’m trying to be really precise on that – today we didn’t make it and I crashed.”

Double MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia has said he will boycott the season finale if it goes ahead in flood-hit Valencia as planned.

The factory Ducati rider, who is currently trying to reel in Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin as he chases a third straight title, is one of several to have voiced ethical concerns about sticking to the planned Valencia venue given the current flooding and loss of life in the region.

Despite the concerns of these riders and others in the paddock at this weekend’s penultimate event in Malaysia, Autosport understands that staging the race in Valencia remains the priority for MotoGP organisers – even if this means postponing the date from the originally planned November 15-17 weekend.

Having already outlined his moral issue with a Valencia race in the pre-Malaysian Grand Prix press conference on Thursday, Bagnaia dropped the bombshell on the first day of track action at Sepang. 

Circuit Ricardo Tormo after flooding

Photo by: Paco Alcobendas

“Even at the cost of losing the ultimate goal for me, which is to win the title, I am not willing to race in Valencia,” said the Italian, who trails Martin by 17 points ahead of the Malaysian GP.

“I very much hope that they will take into consideration the fact that on an ethical level and with what is happening it is not the right thing to do.” 

Bagnaia got his weekend in Malaysia off to a perfect start on Friday by going fastest in FP1 and then ensuring his passage into Q2 by topping the times in Practice.

Martin was second-fastest in the latter session after falling in an attempt to respond to Bagnaia’s late time.

The points leader’s best lap was however just 0.050s slower than that of the man pursuing him for the title.

“All year long we’ve been neck and neck with Jorge,” reflected Bagnaia. “We are used to these fights.”

Bagnaia was then asked if leading both sessions was intended as a psychological strategy.

“It’s difficult to go out looking to finish first in both sessions on Friday,” he said. “I’ve only done it before at Assen.

“Jorge ended up crashing, but I don’t think it was because of this. There is always a bit of pressure, it’s normal. But our goal is to win, not to intimidate anyone.”

Photos from Malaysian GP Practice

It would be all too easy for Armin Schwarz to pick the Toyota Celica GT-Four as his favourite car. After all, from a career that graced the World Rally Championship podium with four different manufacturers, it was in the Group A weapon that he claimed his only WRC victory in Catalunya in 1991.

Yet the machine the German selects instead never won a WRC event. Finishing third on the Safari Rally in 2001 may have been the second-generation Skoda Octavia’s best WRC result, but Schwarz enjoyed rallying it more regardless.

Schwarz, who joined Hyundai for 2002 to develop its MSD-built Accent WRC, believes the underpowered Octavia was underrated. Certainly, as the 61-year-old acknowledges, “the Octavia never was highly rated a potential winning car from all the other teams and drivers”. But in 2001, despite a persistent lack of torque, it did muster a few giant-killing results and on occasion challenged for podiums.

“It was close in Monte Carlo, but it happened in Safari,” says Schwarz, whose co-driver throughout his time at Skoda, Manfred Hiemer, died aged 62 in 2023. “It also would have been possible in Greece [where Schwarz finished seventh despite a largely trouble-free event, power the main complaint]; the tough rallies, the car was really good.”

At Toyota, Schwarz had been cast in a supporting role to Carlos Sainz, its WRC champion in 1990. But when he joined Skoda in 1999 to drive the first iteration of the bulky Octavia, ending a hiatus that followed being abruptly dropped by Ford in 1997, Schwarz was the clear number one. Although it isn’t always reflected in the results, Schwarz reckons he reached a competitive peak from having regular seat time that he’d often lacked in stints with Toyota and Mitsubishi.

“I did all the development tests,” he says. “I was the first driver in the Octavia and so there was a lot of trust on my shoulder. It was for me a chance that I took in 2001 because I knew I can set-up the car like I need it and get all the support from the team.”

Schwarz only managed one podium in the Octavia, but has fond memories of the underdog challenger

Photo by: Sutton Images

That counted for little initially as the car’s debut in Monte Carlo was an embarrassment due to problems with its engine management software. Schwarz suffered a clutch failure on his approach to the official start ramp in Casino Square, while team-mate Pavel Sibera didn’t make the start of the first stage proper either.

A distant fifth on the Acropolis in 2000, suffering from a fever, was Schwarz’s only points score, although there were signs of progress. Bruno Thiry had placed fourth on the 1999 Rally GB, while Schwarz delivered the Czech marque’s first-ever fastest stage time on Rally Catalunya in 2000.

“It was really bad weather,” recalls Schwarz. “And I think bad weather, always the cars showed their behaviour. It was giving you a lot of trust in difficult conditions.”

“If it would not dry up on the last two stages on Sunday in Monte Carlo, still today I’m pretty confident we would be on the podium, not Francois” Armin Schwarz

It was a different story when the Evo2 edition arrived, which coincided with “developments in all the respects of the team” run by Javel Paneba. Following a few toe-in-the-water outings in 2000, Schwarz went toe-to-toe with Monte Carlo specialist Francois Delecour in a Ford Focus for the final spot on the podium in 2001’s season opener, the eventual 20.7s gap belying how close it had been for much of the final leg. Autosport noted that the performance “has to go down as one of the bravest drives of the year”.

And following his Safari heroics, setting the fastest time on the opening stage to give Skoda the lead of a WRC event for the first time and its first-ever podium, fifth on Rally GB ensured Skoda finished level on points with Hyundai – but ahead on countback.

For Schwarz, one of the Octavia’s best traits was its handling resulting from its long wheelbase. “Compared to a Peugeot, a Citroen or a Subaru, it was a quite easy car to drive,” he observes.

This was especially important in the mixed conditions of the 2001 Monte. Schwarz believes on a fully dry rally, he would have faced an uphill task to reach the points, but his prospects were transformed when snow hit. Where rival manufacturers “have been very good on full snow, or full dry”, he recognised that the Octavia could work well in conditions where compromises were necessary.

Schwarz came close to beating Delecour to the rostrum on the snowy Monte Carlo

Photo by: Ralph Hardwick

“If it would not dry up on the last two stages on Sunday in Monte Carlo, still today I’m pretty confident we would be on the podium, not Francois,” he states.

Durability was its other key upside. Schwarz’s team-mate Thiry had cause to be especially grateful for this after the farcical events of Rally Argentina. A fire engine responding to a blaze started accidentally by a spectators’ barbeque overturned and crashed into the two parked Octavias in parc ferme, with Thiry still inside his car. Skoda director Jens Pohlmann was seriously injured, and both cars were withdrawn.

Third place on the Safari was the product of extensive testing, which Schwarz says reminded him of days with Toyota – the marque having long regarded Kenya as an important priority.

“You need to have a proper testing, a good development,” he explains. “Durability is the key for success in Kenya. So the strength what we had in 2001, the car was able maybe even to win.”

Schwarz says his ploy of pushing from the 117-kilometre first stage with a time of 55m05.0s was a deliberate strategy to put rivals under pressure. “Because nobody expects to be that fast in Safari,” he says. And it worked a treat, despite a puncture on stage three that dropped him to sixth at the end of the first day.

“That was the key to speed everybody up and more or less almost everybody ran into a big problem,” Schwarz remembers. “We didn’t run into any big problem. We had a couple of smaller [problems], but we kept it very linear until the end.”

Third on the Safari was the pinnacle of Schwarz’s tenure with Skoda

Photo by: Sutton Images

Francesco Bagnaia continued his fine form on Friday by topping the second practice session at MotoGP’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

The factory Ducati rider scored a psychological victory over points leader Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati) by putting in a 1m57.679s lap at the end of the session, to which the Spaniard fell trying to respond.

Martin holds a 17-point lead in the championship, but Bagnaia’s Friday performance sets him up well to cut that gap over the weekend as he tries to snatch a third straight world championship. The Italian was quickest in both sessions on the opening day at Sepang, having also topped FP1 in the morning.

Martin led the way for much of the session and looked the favourite after setting the initial pace in the final push for times, but Bagnaia delivered when it really counted in the final minutes.

Despite his fall at Turn 1 immediately after Bagnaia had set his time, Martin ended up second-fastest, meaning both can safely focus on qualifying after booking their spots in Q2.

Bagnaia’s team-mate Enea Bastianini was third-fastest as the GP24s looked rapid at Sepang, while his rival for third place in the championship, Marc Marquez, only just snuck into Q2 with the 10th-fastest time.

Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales’s late effort was enough to put him fourth-fastest, with Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez fifth-quickest.

Yamaha was able to celebrate both its riders making it through to Q2, despite Fabio Quartararo having lost an engine in the morning. The 2021 world champion was sixth-fastest, with team-mate Alex Rins eighth.

Splitting the pair was Pramac Ducati’s Franco Morbidelli, whilst Jack Miller was sole KTM representative in the top 10 with ninth-fastest time.

The Austrian manufacturer’s rookie star Pedro Acosta will have to try to get into Q2 via the back door in Q1, as the Tech3 rider could only manage 11th-fastest behind Gresini’s Marc Marquez. Miller’s factory team-mate Brad Binder was always playing catch-up after a fall at the start of the session, and placed 14th.

Marco Bezzecchi was another to fall, dropping his VR46 at the final corner midway through the session. He wound up 12th-fastest for VR46, with Johann Zarco (LCR) the best of the Hondas in 13th.

Fabio di Giannantonio’s stand-in at VR46 Ducati, Andrea Iannone, was 1.939s off the ultimate pace in practice. He was ahead of only Miguel Oliveira’s substitute at Trackhouse Aprilia, Lorenzo Savadori in 21st place.

Photos from Malaysian GP Practice