F1 and Las Vegas Grand Prix Reach $3.05 Million Settlement Over 2023 Drain Cover Fiasco

Formula 1's inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix in November 2023 will be remembered as much for a loose drain cover as for the racing itself. Nearly three years later, that mistake is costing Liberty Media Corp. and the Las Vegas Grand Prix millions of dollars.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a federal judge has granted preliminary approval to a $3.05 million settlement covering roughly 32,000 eligible ticket holders from that first practice session. Final approval is scheduled for November 2026.

What Happened On the Track

During the first practice session of the 2023 Grand Prix weekend, then-Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz struck a loose drain cover on the Las Vegas street circuit. The impact caused serious damage to his car's floor and energy store. Then-Alpine driver Esteban Ocon's car was also damaged in the incident.

Officials red-flagged the session and ultimately canceled it. Crews spent hours repairing the circuit and checking every other drain cover on the track before the second practice session could begin, according to Fox News.

That delay pushed the second session deep into the night, and thousands of fans who had paid for grandstand and general admission tickets left before it started. For a first-year event billed as a showcase for Las Vegas and for F1's push into the American market, it was an embarrassing start.

The damage to Sainz's Ferrari required a new engine, which triggered a 10-place grid penalty later in the season. That penalty landed in the middle of a tight fight between Ferrari and Mercedes for second place in the constructors' championship standings, giving the mistake real competitive consequences on top of the public relations damage.

The Lawsuit

Attorney Steve Dimopoulos filed a class action lawsuit arguing that the Las Vegas Grand Prix's attempts to make things right with fans, which reportedly included partial credits or gestures at the time, fell short of what ticket holders were owed for a canceled or severely disrupted session they paid to attend.

A federal judge agreed there was enough merit to move forward, and has now preliminarily approved a $3.05 million common fund to resolve the claims.

"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. "Individual payments will vary depending on ticket type, participation rates, attorney's fees, costs and administrative expenses."

Attorney's fees, administrative costs, and the actual claims-participation rate will all be subtracted before any money reaches fans. If every one of the 32,000 eligible ticket holders files a claim, the per-person payout would be small, likely closer to the price of event merchandise than a meaningful refund. Class action settlements rarely see full participation, so individual payments could end up somewhat higher than a straight division suggests, but nobody should expect a windfall.

What's Still Unresolved

The settlement requires final court approval, scheduled for November 2026, before any payments go out. Neither Liberty Media nor Las Vegas Grand Prix organizers have issued a detailed public statement admitting fault as part of the deal, and preliminary approval of a class settlement is not itself a finding of wrongdoing. It resolves the litigation without either side having to prove its full case at trial.

The race itself has run without a repeat of the drain cover problem in the two Grand Prix weekends since 2023, and the Las Vegas Grand Prix is under contract to remain on the F1 calendar through 2037. Whether this settlement changes how the event handles future disruptions, or how F1 more broadly handles fan compensation when sessions are scrapped, remains an open question heading into the sport's continued expansion in the United States.