The combination of F1, the queen category of motorsports, synonymous with the highest technology and luxury, with Vegascity of gambling, weddings and parties, known as the capital of the world entertainment and sin, has been great for the owners of F1 since they announced its inclusion in the calendar from 2023. A ticket making machine, the place that perfect so that clients who spend the most money on the circuits can experience a unique, exclusive and unforgettable weekend. But as it happened last year, for the pilots, at the party Vegas This turned out to be a complication on the track.
F1 returns to the capital of snowfall (USA) last year, a city where it had already been run in 1981 and 1982 in a hotel parking lot. This time we are competing in the new urban circuit located on the famous avenue The Stripin front of the most famous hotels and casinos in the world. A spectacular venue, especially when competing at night, under the magnificent lights of its buildings and the 54,000 square meters and 1.2 million LED screens of the ‘Sphere’, the famous 112 meter high globe looking out on the track. It’s great to run at night and leave that beautiful image in the world, but there’s one detail that one probably doesn’t think about: the temperatures. That asphalt is pure ice for the mighty F1, a slippery track.
Las Vegas is located in the middle of the desert snowfall and at the end of November, the temperatures are not the best for cars and tires. This Friday, in Free Practice 2, at 10:00 pm local time, the track temperature is 11 degrees, far from the 30, 40, or 50 that usually exist on other tracks. That, along with dirt on the track due to daily traffic, means drivers can’t find a grip and struggle to set their times.
“It was a complicated first day on a difficult track with very little grip that left us with a strange feeling in the car,” said Carlos Sainz. Meanwhile, Verstappen, who arrived thinking of his first chance to be crowned F1 champion for the fourth time, sank in the second session. “The problem for us was undoubtedly the tires: we had no grip and it seemed like we were driving on ice,” commented the current king of F1 after the 17th.
In this context, for the classification this Saturday (Friday night at Vegas), the key is the challenge of warming up the tires for a fast lap and keeping them in the right temperature window on the long straight, where the tires cool down and lose grip.
That may have marked the ‘quality’ of Saturday, as Alonso warned. “It’s not easy. The tires get cold after a long straight and it is difficult to put them in the right window. But it happened last year, it’s not a surprise,” he noted. But what goes wrong for some is usually a blessing for others. The track characteristics seem perfect for Ferrari, but its weakness this year is warming up the tires for ‘qualy’. And the other side is Mercedes. From being in the lead with Hamilton. Maybe the cold will give Lewis a good chance say goodbye to Mercedes on her latest success.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
