Challenge F1 racers on the Las Vegas night track

The new track at the Las Vegas Grand Prix poses a big challenge for F1 drivers in this weekend's race.

Partial perspective of the Las Vegas F1 racetrack this weekend. Photo: F1

Getting used to a completely new track like Las Vegas is not unusual, as in the past few years, teams have been used to having to quickly grasp new tracks. The Covid pandemic has forced teams to quickly adapt to changing conditions with so many disruptions to the racing schedule in the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

The problem facing teams in Las Vegas is the unusual schedule, and the low temperatures will be a problem that teams will have to quickly find a solution to. For the first time in F1 history, a race will take place at midnight and be pushed to the next day. Unlike other night races, all races in Las Vegas will be held late at night - meaning there will be no sunlight to help heat the track surface.

The first practice session will take place on Thursday at 8:30 PM Las Vegas time, while the second practice session will take place from midnight to 1:00 AM on Friday. The third practice session will take place at 8:30 PM on Friday. Qualifying will then take place from midnight to 1:00 AM on Saturday. The race will officially start at 10:00 PM on Saturday instead of the usual Sunday.

For those involved in F1, the race will be reminiscent of Singapore because of its unusual timetable. But Las Vegas is even more extreme and bizarre. No action on the track starts until 8:30 p.m., and qualifying on Friday night ends in the early hours of Saturday morning.

A night race seems odd for a race that is meant to grow F1 in the US – 10pm in Las Vegas and 1am in New York. And it’s not convenient for F1’s traditional European audience, as it’s 6am on a Sunday morning in the UK. Under this timeframe, teams wake up mid-afternoon and go to bed at dawn.

"It was imperative that the race take place under the iconic Las Vegas lights," explains Las Vegas Circuit CEO Renee Wilm. "In a 24-hour town, 8pm on Saturday is considered prime time, as are many of the major shows and boxing matches held in Las Vegas."

However, the organisers also admitted that they had to consider the interests of traditional F1 fans, who are mainly based abroad. "We want to make sure that they can comfortably watch the race, in this case in the morning with a cup of coffee, just like we watch the races in Europe from the US. The race being held on Saturday night is suitable for them," added Wilm.

Las Vegas residents complained about the disruption to traffic, so organizers scheduled the race at night to minimize disruption, and the roads used for the race were opened for part of each day and closed for as little time as possible. This was a reference to the method used for many years in Monaco, where the F1 circuit was reopened to local traffic at the end of each day's race, and closed shortly before the start of the race.

The late start will see track temperatures drop to around 10-12°C, and the combination of cold and wet conditions at night could be devastating for tyres. It is likely that Las Vegas will approach the record for the coldest F1 race in history, which was held at Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada, in October 1978 when the temperature dropped to 5°C. The drivers' biggest fear is that the race will be interrupted by a safety car or even a red flag - a risk that is highly likely, as Las Vegas is a street track with fences close to the track and very little space in the corners.

Compare temperatures in Las Vegas to other races in the 2023 season. Photo: Weather Network

Tyre temperatures naturally drop as the car slows down, and restarting behind the safety car can be particularly challenging for drivers. They have to work through the first few corners or even the first few laps until they get the feel of the car, with the tyres hot and with the necessary grip. If the race is red-flagged, the prospect of starting on medium or even hard tyres – depending on what the driver has available – can be almost as challenging as starting in the rain.

With temperatures expected to be very low at this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix, F1 tyre supplier Pirelli has opted for the softest of the five tyre strengths designed for the 2023 season. The drivers will be using the hard tyre C3, the medium tyre C4 and the soft tyre C5 - the softest currently available. Pirelli's sporting director Mario Isola believes the C3, C4 and C5 will provide good grip.

"The minimum tyre pressures are 27 psi at the front and 24.5 psi at the rear, due to the expected low temperatures and the design of the track. Under low temperatures, the pressure difference between the idle tyre and the running tyre is significantly reduced. So, when the car is running, the tyre pressure will increase significantly less than at other tracks, due to the very low surface temperature of the track. Therefore, we think that the running tyre pressures will still be lower than at other tracks such as Baku," Isola said.

Las Vegas is not entirely new to F1, having hosted two F1 races in the 1981 and 1982 seasons. However, the track built in the Caesars Palace hotel parking lot is quite different to the one the drivers will compete on this weekend. The all-new Las Vegas Street Circuit features 17 corners and three long straights, with two DRS zones. The track is 6.12 km long, with an estimated top speed of 342 km/h. The finish line is at the corner of Harmon Avenue and Koval Lane, with the straight stretching from Las Vegas Boulevard to Sands Avenue, and the official race time is 50 laps.

Panoramic view of Las Vegas racetrack at night. Photo: BBC

Commenting on the new track design, Isola said: "It will also be a huge technical challenge for both the teams and us, as we go into this race with no real reference other than a computer simulation layout. The Las Vegas circuit is 6.12km long, second only to Spa this year in overall length, and features three straights and 17 corners."

The track surface is a mix of regular street asphalt, especially on Las Vegas Boulevard, with other sections of the track having been completely resurfaced for this week's race. And this will create an additional unknown. There will be no support races other than the F1 race this time around and the track will be reopened to normal traffic after the day's sessions, meaning the surface will gradually smooth out over time and improve in grip.

"We expect the cars to be set up at quite low downforce, similar to Baku or Monza, achieving high top speeds will be key to being competitive. All sessions will take place at night, with ambient and track temperatures unusually low for an F1 race, similar to what happened in pre-season testing in Europe. The long straights also make it more difficult to warm up the tyres in qualifying and keep them operating in the optimum temperature range. The challenge will be the same as in Baku, perhaps to a greater degree than in Las Vegas," added Isola.

"We'll all wait for the actual temperatures when the race takes place. If the predictions are anything like the European pre-season testing, the tyres take a long time to degrade, there's no surface graining and stuff like that. It's just a matter of waiting for the time to pass until the tyres warm up a bit," said Mercedes' race technical director Andrew Shovlin.

"What you need to do is wait until the race, you just try and identify the risks with the new track, calculate what your contingency plans will be. But like I said, if the prediction is too vague, it's very difficult to know how the tyres will perform," Shovlin stressed.

Red Bull struggled with the extreme heat and humidity in Singapore – the only race they didn’t win. Las Vegas is the other extreme, cold and with few corners to warm up the tyres. One of Red Bull’s strengths this year has been their ability to hold on to their tyres, performing well even when they’re worn out, by not overheating them.

However, that could mean Red Bull are vulnerable in the coldest temperatures of the year, especially if they can’t get their tyres warm enough in the short qualifying sessions. Red Bull struggled in the cold Australian Grand Prix earlier this year, with Sergio Perez crashing out in the first qualifying lap.

At the time, Red Bull explained that the Mexican had engine problems, but the way Perez struggled alongside teammate Verstappen that weekend suggested the RB19's struggles in the cold were no accident. Verstappen admitted: "I'm not experienced there. We don't know the grip, the track is completely new so there might be some surprises."

Minh Phuong

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