As outspoken as ever, Max Verstappen slams Las Vegas event as "99 percent show and one percent sporting event".
The Dutchman, who has made no secret of his dislike of the Sprint, one of Liberty's key additions to the sport in a bid to 'spice up' the show and bring new fans on board, today left F1 bosses even more unimpressed when he hit out at the latest addition to the calendar.
However, this isn't just any new addition, for in this case, F1 is the promoter of the event and has effectively bet its shirt on its success, to the tune of half a billion dollars.
At a time the teams are falling over themselves, along with the media, to drive the hype, the three-time world champion admitted that he was left totally underwhelmed by the event.
"Not a lot of emotions, to be honest," said the Red Bull driver when asked how it felt to be in Las Vegas. "I just want to focus on the performance side of things. I don't like all the things around it. It's 99 percent show and one percent sporting event.
"I know, of course, there are some places where it is part of it but, let's say, it's not in my interest," he added.
Referring to the opening ceremony, he said: "For me, you can skip this... we are just standing up there, looking like a clown. I mean, yeah..."
"I guess they will still make money whether I like it or not," he added, "so it's not up to me. But also I'm not going to fake it. I will always voice my opinion on positive things and negative things. That is just how I am.
"Some people like the show a bit more. I don't like it at all," he admitted. "I grew up just looking at the performance side of things, and that's how I see it as well, so for me, I like to be in Vegas, but not so much for racing."
Despite his negativity towards the event, the Dutchman doesn't believe F1 bosses will be bothered.
"We are not a stakeholder, so we just go with it," he said. "They decide what they do, right? I would do the same if I was the owner, I wouldn't listen to the drivers. It's my sport, I would do with it what I want if that would be the case."
Other than the hype, the Dutchman isn't impressed by the track or even the timing of the event.
"It's not many corners, to be honest," he said. "It will also depend on how grippy it is. It doesn't look like it has a lot of grip. But we'll go with the flow."
Asked if he thinks the track will be tricky, he said: "It might be, but honestly, it can also be very good. I don't know. At the moment, no one really knows where we're at. I think it's more fun that we just go out there, feel the conditions, feel the grip, and then just try to settle in and see what happens.
"From the sim work I've done, what was most important was just to learn the track, to be honest. We tried some things in terms of set-up, but when you don't really know how bumpy it's going to be, how grippy it's going to be, then you can't really go into detail compared to some other tracks where you more or less know what kind of grip you're going to get.
"So even there, it's still hard to nail the setup. It's really a bit of guesswork that goes into it. But also you prepare yourself for certain kinds of scenarios like higher grip, lower grip, medium grip, and once you get on track then you see a bit more how it feels and what you need to change as well."
From Vegas, the circus heads straight to Abu Dhabi, and he fears the difference in time zones will be a problem.
"Here it's not so much a problem," he admitted, "but then we have to fly to Abu Dhabi. It's already twelve hours difference, but also a completely different time zone.
"Basically, we live on a Japanese time schedule, almost different days. I don't really get that. That is very tiring, and also, at the end of the season that we have to do this, it doesn't really make a lot of sense."
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