Pirelli predicts course of Las Vegas: 'Drivers will complain a lot!'
F1 News
- Ludo van Denderen
Not only will the Las Vegas Grand Prix be a big challenge for the drivers and F1 teams, especially for tyre supplier Pirelli. Never before has the new street circuit in the gambling paradise of the United States been raced, so it is quite a wait-and-see how the weekend will go.
In late November, there is an additional complicating factor in Las Vegas anyway: the temperature. The sessions are finished in the evening, and that is when it normally cools down to an average of seven degrees Celsius. Warming up the F1 cars' tyres is therefore definitely going to be an issue in the desert.
Isola has many question marks
And beyond that? "It's a step into the unknown, for everyone I believe," says Mario Isola, the biggest boss of Pirelli's F1 project. "Las Vegas will be cold, it's a street circuit. So we were working with the teams and we asked them for simulations in advance to try to understand how much energy is being put on tyres. We had information from the companies that are making the tarmac to understand how abrasive is the tarmac, and which is the level of creep we can expect.
"But there are still a lot of question marks on Las Vegas. We decided to use the three softest compounds in our range to try and generate grip. I can imagine a lot of track evolution and very low grip, so they will complain! It's fine. We will also manage this situation but it's a big unknown. A fast track, long straights, high speed and all conditions that are quite difficult to manage," Isola knows in advance.