F1 teams expect challenge in first Las Vegas GP next month after early simulator running, especially with the weather condition and track temperature.
The Las Vegas GP is still one and a half months away, but the F1 teams are already in preparation mode as they do with any grand prix, especially when it is to run for the first time. The layout is a typical street course but high speed certainly.
The tarmac will be brand new as well going through some famous buildings. Considering the timing of the year and the timing of the grand prix on Saturday, the biggest hurdle at the moment which the F1 teams suspect is the weather conditions.
The air temperature and the subsequent track temperature will be challenging for the F1 teams, where getting the tyres to work will be key. They have had testing in winter-like conditions in Barcelona, but being in race mode is totally different.
Here’s some F1 team engineers speaking on the challenges –
Ayao Komatsu: “Yeah, I think it’ll be a big challenge for us, especially our team, with the tools we’ve got in terms of a pre-event simulation, more limited, let’s say, than Mercedes, so we’re going to have a big challenge on our hands. But yeah, still a very different temperature window. So we’ve got to get the tyres to work, but if I had to choose hot or cold, I would choose cold conditions at the minute. So hopefully you can get it to work and it’s a challenge we’re looking forward to.”
Jonathan Eddolls: “I think, so far, from the work that we’ve done, it’s got many long straights, quite a few low-speed corners, not so much high-speed content so maybe a track similar to Baku, that sort of layout. The temperatures are going to be probably one of the biggest challenges. I think we’re expecting circuit 10 degrees of ambient, so very much like the winter test. But then, you know, in many years, we’ve done winter tests in Barcelona at those sorts of temperatures. So it’s not going to be completely new to us. But definitely, it’s quite a step away in terms of where we’re going to be operating the car and tyres to what we’re used to in a normal season.”
Andrew Shovlin: “Yeah, I think it’ll just depend on exactly how cold it is. Because if the track is down in single figures, that’s often a region where you go winter testing, you do a run, it’s very difficult for the tyres to either get them switched on, or there may be graining and things. And then sometimes you just wait until it warms up a bit. So actually going to have to sort of race and qualify in those conditions, it will be interesting, but you just try and identify the risks with the new circuit, work out what your contingencies will be, whether you need any sort of specific car spec to deal with that, and we’re going through those at the moment. But as I said, if it’s at the very cold end of predictions, it’s difficult to know how they are going to work.”
Here’s progress video from June 2022 to August 23: https://x.com/F1LasVegas/status/1696917226119422243?s=20
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