Three specific colors will be banned from the ‘Sphere’ this weekend. Formula 1 is taking over Las Vegas and its new viral venue from Thursday through Sunday.
The course, which looks extremely cool in a new drone video, will drive right past the Sphere and its 580,000-square foot exosphere. The race will be run after dark and the glowing ball will be lit up.
F1 will be using it for advertising and promotion, as well as a hangover brunch on Sunday. It will be a large part of the weekend.
Nearly 1.2 million LED pucks make up the 16K display. Each puck contains 38 LED diodes. Each diode can display 256 million colors.
In the interest of drive safety and cohesion, F1 and the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile decided to ban three of them. They decided that the Sphere will not display anything that can be misinterpreted by the drivers. That specifically includes a ban on the red, yellow and blue colors on light panels that help to direct drivers on the side of the track.
Joel Fisher, executive vice president of Marquee events and operations for MSG Entertainment, was responsible for the agreement between the Las Vegas Grand Prix and the Sphere. He told Autosport that everything has been tested to ensure that there will not be any issues.
It’s all safe […]
They’ve come here at night and tested different colors and different things on there. And we know what we shouldn’t show.
— Joel Fisher
As for what will be displayed on the Sphere, Fisher offered a preview of what is to come.
There’s going to be some live footage, there’s helmets, there’s driver cards, there’s ads, there’s all those types of things, and some other surprises.
— Joel Fisher
The Sphere and F1 will comply with the FIA’s requirements. They are not worried about any confusion among the drivers. Red, blue and yellow will not be displayed on the exosphere.
It will be interesting to see how the Sphere avoids such prominent colors, but it sounds like they have a plan. F1 has an opportunity to do some pretty cool things!