The third edition of the Las Vegas Grand Prix is set to once again be the coldest race of the Formula 1 season, with a night race in November featuring temperatures in the low 50s. That provides a unique challenge for all of the teams, so who better to talk us through the idiosyncrasies than the trackside engineering director of the team that scored a one-two here last year: Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin.
“Las Vegas is difficult. This is a track where you bring the low-downforce Monza package and you run more or less that. And actually, we’re at quite high altitude here [2,000 feet -Ed.], so you lose even more downforce by virtue of the fact that you’ve got thin air.
“It’s very difficult for the drivers to control the car with the low downforce. But with the length of the straights, there’s no option to run a big wing because you’d be losing so much in the straight line. You’d never ever make it back.
“It’s a challenging street track. It’s very, very fast. The walls are very close to you. You’ve got to use all the circuit that’s available. Mistakes get punished. But the drivers just do the usual thing of building up as the grip’s improving.
“Beyond just the downforce level here, if you’ve got tire temperature, you’ve got grip. That’s the key thing. It’s not like a normal circuit where you really feel the differences in the wing level. The overriding thing here is can you get the tires in the window? And if you have and someone else hasn’t, you can end up being a second quicker.
Low-speed corners require running the car low to match. Sam Bagnall/Getty Images
“We’ve got some choices available to us on wing levels. Our approach has been to not create unnecessary differences to 2024, so that’s defined where we’re going to start with the car.
“You need to factor in that the track will be low grip to start, so you need to reposition the car to get more stability in it compared to where you would expect to be in come qualifying. And there’s lots of options available.
“But once we see what problems we’re dealing with – are we getting the tires hot enough? Are they too hot? Is it an oversteer balance, an understeer balance? Are we graining the tires? Once we know the answers to those, then we can look at the specific solutions to those problems.
“You’ve got to run the car low because of the low-speed corners. Therefore, at the apex, you want the car to be as close to the ground as possible. So then on the straights, you’ll be hitting into the road. But for a street circuit, it’s actually pretty smooth. There are some notable bumps but overall, it is quite smooth and you can get the car quite low.
While a street circuit, the surface is relatively smooth, although there are still plenty of tire-wearing elements in play. Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images
“You’ve got some really big stops like Turn 14 – it’s about the biggest hit on the brakes you’ve got on the entire calendar. But honestly, with this lap, the most important thing is how you got the temperature opening the lap.
“It’s quite a busy opening sequence. And if you haven’t got the grip there, you’re either locking fronts or sliding. So the main thing is, can you build that temperature in the out lap? And it’s one of those circuits where if the lap starts well, it normally finishes well, because in a normal qualifying lap, you’re actually trying to keep the tires cool. If the driver has a snap, that puts in temperature, which will then punish him with less grip. This is actually one of the very few circuits [where] you don’t need to worry about that. So the drivers can let the car slide around a bit – it doesn’t cost them in the way that it would at almost every other circuit.
“You’ve got to look at the tire temperature in different ways. You’ve got the bulk, which you need to build that temperature to get the rubber soft, so it will generate grip. And that’s one of the things you’re doing on the out lap.
“But then far more transient than that is what the surface is doing. And as soon as you hit the brakes, you start building surface temperature because you’ve got sliding. As you go into the apex, as you get on the power, more and more of that surface temperature is built. And that’s the thing that really drops on the straights.
“So one of the challenges here is actually when the drivers hit the brakes, the tires are too cold to generate good grip. And that initial hit, you could end up with, the grip’s a bit low, it’s easier to lock the fronts; they won’t get that nice sort of feeling of the rear of the car’s planted.
“But you’ve got to trust that as you go into the braking phase, that temperature will come up and the tire will start to grip. That’s one of the things they’re just sort of getting used to in free practice is how that grip comes.
“You see a different performance order here quite often. It is difficult to liken it to any others because the only time we experience these temperatures of winter testing in Barcelona, and that’s a very different circuit as well.
“If you took the ambient temperature and the track temperature out of the equation, then it wouldn’t be so different to Baku or perhaps Montreal. However, that puts the tires in a region where we don’t ever race on any other track on the calendar.
“That is the thing that makes it so unusual, apart from the fact it’s quite a peculiar place. When you saw where they were trying to host a race, you thought it was almost impossible to build a circuit here that made sense. But actually it’s a fun track – it offers up good racing and hopefully it’ll do the same on Saturday night.”
AT A GLANCE:
Race distance: 50 laps/192.6 miles
2024 pole time: 1m32.312s (George Russell, Mercedes)
2024 winner: George Russell, Mercedes
Before each Grand Prix, Pirelli provides the teams with race strategy scenarios that are in theory the quickest, based on the particular tire compounds available that weekend. This is defined by extensive calculations taking into account numerous tire-related factors.
This approach requires a different methodology to that used by the teams, even if the objectives are similar. All the data is processed by proprietary software designed to identify the optimal strategies for one car on track, with the aim of completing the race in the shortest time possible.
The first information to be analysed concerns the performance difference between the compounds, as identified in pre-event analysis carried out by the modelling and simulation group. Then, added to this is historical data relating to tire degradation from previous years at the same track, along with data from the same compounds already used at earlier races during the current season.
A key parameter in the calculations is performance life, which is the maximum number of laps a tire can cover before its performance drops to a level where it is preferable to replace it. These elements, along with other factors, make it possible to estimate lap times for each compound and, by also taking into account variations in fuel loads, to identify the ideal windows for tire changes.
A key factor, which the teams consider of great importance when deciding on a one- or two-stop strategy, is the time taken for the car to come down the pit lane, carry out the tire change and rejoin the track, which varies from circuit to circuit. Analyses are updated throughout the race weekend, to include data from track sessions and what the Pirelli engineers have learned from the product.
The teams, having more data relating to their own cars, often use what’s known as the Monte Carlo method. This also takes into account random variables such as traffic, the likelihood of the safety car being deployed and how straightforward it is to overtake at each track, especially in the DRS zones.
HEINEKEN LAS VEGAS GRAND PRIX WEEKEND SCHEDULE (all times ET):
Thursday, November 20
7:25pm – 8:30pm – Free Practice 1, ESPNEWS
10:55pm – 12:00am – Free Practice 2, ESPN2
Friday, November 21
7:25pm – 8:30pm – Free Practice 3, ESPNEWS
10:55pm – 12:00am – Qualifying, ESPN2
Saturday, November 22
10:55pm – 1:00am – Las Vegas Grand Prix (50 laps or 120 minutes), ESPN
