LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Over two years after the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, a class action lawsuit between Formula 1 race ticket holders, Liberty Media and the Las Vegas Grand Prix has been settled.
You may remember this all stemmed from the first practice session of the 2023 event and the infamous water valve cover that was ran over by then-Ferrari, and now-Williams driver Carlos Sainz.
NOVEMBER 2023: Team principals discuss water valve cover incident
The incident caused the first practice session to be canceled and the second practice session to be significantly delayed Thursday night and into early Friday morning. Because the delay was so long, fan areas were closed at 1:30 a.m., which means many left the track before the second practice session.
"The precautionary step of removing all of the water valve covers on the entire track and filling them with sand and asphalt was undertaken. The entire process, from determination of the issue to remediation, took approximately five hours," according to a statement that was jointly released by Formula 1 and the Las Vegas Grand Prix the next day. "The decision to remediate in this way was taken out of an abundance of caution and because the safety of drivers, trackside marshals, officials and our fans is always our highest priority. We thank the contractors who worked expeditiously to resolve the situation so quickly."
The next day, several fans also filed a class action lawsuit, claiming they should be reimbursed for not being allowed to watch the second session.
On Feb. 19, a federal judge ruled that part of that lawsuit will be dismissed. Federal court records state that while the ticket holders have shown they "have plead a cognizable legal injury sufficient to survive the Motion to Dismiss", they have failed to sufficiently prove their breach of contract and Nevada Deceptive Trade Practice Act claims.
New federal court records state that on Oct. 29, 2025, "the parties reached a class action settlement agreement in principle that, if approved by the Court, would fully resolve this consolidated class action."
The records also state that any decision on F1 and the Las Vegas Grand Prix's motion to dismiss the case will be stayed.
"This stay will permit the Parties to complete confirmatory discovery of their agreement reached in principle, finalize and execute a long-form class action settlement agreement, and prepare and file the necessary motion papers for preliminary approval of the class action settlement."
The preliminary approval of the settlement is set to be filed on Jan. 15, 2026.
I reached out to Las Vegas Grand Prix officials to see if I could learn more about the proposed settlement and received the following statement.
"Unfortunately, we cannot comment further. We can solely point to the court filings at this time."