Dimopoulos law firm, working in conjunction with JK Legal & Consulting, have launched legal action against the Las Vegas Grand Prix organisation and their contractor as they look to get refunds for F1 fans who got shafted during the early hours of Friday morning.
The firm is looking for over $30,000 in damages for each of the 35,000 fans that attended on Thursday evening/Friday morning.
First practice had to be abandoned after just eight minutes of green running as Carlos Sainz hit a loose water valve cover, severely damaging his Ferrari. The Spaniard was fortunate to escape without any life-altering injuries or worse.
Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari
Practice was delayed by 150 minutes as they had to make sure the track was safe to continue the weekend.
With FP2 getting pushed back to 2:30 am, it meant no fans could watch the session as they were removed by security officials at 1:30 am. On Friday, a joint statement was released by the Las Vegas GP and F1 to try and justify it.
However, that has failed to satisfy the fans and the Dimopoulos Law Firm as they seek compensation for fans who are rightly annoyed at the situation.
“The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, negligence, and deceptive trade practices against the defendants,” who are the Las Vegas GP and TAB Contractors Inc, the company who are involved with maintaining the street circuit.
Lead lawyer Steve Dimopoulos explained their efforts to get their money back. According to the Dimopoulos Law Firm LinkedIn page, “Dimopoulos has recovered millions on behalf of clients in Nevada, Florida, and Michigan, the three states in which he is licensed.”
“We will vindicate the rights of the fans that travelled great distances and paid small fortunes to attend, but were deprived of the experience.
“The manhole cover seals that were supposed to surround the manhole cover were installed, worked on and inspected by defendant TAB in the course and scope of their contract to work on the subject track and make the track race-ready.
“The work on the track performed by TAB, including installing the subject failed manhole cover and concrete work sealing the manhole cover, was completed only days before the ‘practice run’ event and the track was not in the race-ready condition at the time of the event.
“F1 and/or its contractors and safety organisations had a duty to inspect the track to make sure that it was safe for use by the racers and was race-ready for the ‘practice run’ event” and “failed to detect the flaws and/or poor installation of the subject manhole cover sealed by TAB and failed to ensure that the track was race-ready for the ‘practice run’ event.”
A Las Vegas GP spokesperson gave a short answer when asked for their response.
“We cannot comment on the litigation. Our focus is on ensuring that our fans have an entertaining experience in a safe and secure environment which is always our top priority.”
