"Surely ‘sorry’ should have been first on the list?" - David Croft unimpressed by F1 Las Vegas GP's statement issued after disastrous first day

F1 commentator David Croft recently gave his opinion on the statement of F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and Las Vegas GP CEO Renee Wilm over the FP1 and FP2 debacles.

The first practice session was cut short to nine minutes after Carlos Sainz's Ferrari was hit by a drain cover that was dislodged from the track surface. The repairs took quite some time, and the second practice session had to start two and a half hours later.

The organizers then decided to send the fans back home because of the tight schedule of their staff, given how they needed to be ready for the rest of the race weekend.

Domenicali and Wilm subsequently issued a statement about the entire incident, highlighting how the track engineers fixed all the drain pipes and why the fans were sent back home. However, David Croft claimed that even though the full explanation of the situation was great from the F1 seniors, they never apologized to the fans.

He pointed out that the word 'sorry' was not present in the beginning, middle, or end of the entire statement.

The F1 commentator took to X (formerly Twitter) to write:

"Whilst a full explanation of what happened yesterday is always welcome, there are lots of words in this statement. Surely ‘sorry’ should have been first on the list? Such a shame that it wasn’t the first, the last, or anywhere."

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F1 and Las Vegas GP CEOs explain the reason behind sending fans home after FP1

After the drain pipe fiasco in FP1, FP2 got delayed by two and a half hours. After both sessions were over, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and Las Vegas GP CEO Renee Wilm released a statement explaining the reasons behind sending the fans back home amid the delay.

They talked about how they were concerned about the security officials, transportation staff, and hospitality personnel who were working extremely late hours and had a tight schedule for the next three days.

“First, we were concerned about our public safety and security officials who had been in service for a long time and who are being asked to work for the next three nights. We thank Clark County’s Metro. Second, we were concerned about our transportation employees, who are responsible for driving our fans back to hotels. By Federal law, they were bumping up against the amount of time they can legally and safely drive buses,” the statement said.

"Finally, our hospitality staff needed the ability to clean and resupply our guest areas to ensure that the fan experience is optimal for everyone over the coming days,” the statement concluded.

The second practice session of Las Vegas GP got underway late at night, with no fans on any stands around the circuit.