Formula 1 returns to Las Vegas this year. In addition to the new circuit, there may be one more challenge waiting for the teams – unusually low temperatures.
It will be held in Las Vegas at the end of November. In the case of American races, we are usually used to late evening times our time. This time, however, the race in the USA will, from our point of view, be very similar to the just finished Grand Prix of Japan.
In Las Vegas, it will be late at night. Qualifying starts at midnight local time, followed by the race on Saturday at 22:00 local time (Sunday at 7:00 our time).
All it takes is a red flag and qualifying can go into the local early hours.
At that time, temperatures can even drop below 10 °C, and given that it will be driven after dark, the track will not have much more.
The record will probably not be broken. The coldest race in history was the Canadian Grand Prix in 1978, when the air was only 5°C. By the way, the hottest race was F1 in Bahrain in 2005. The thermometer showed 42.5 °C.
Low temperature can be a problem especially for tires that will be difficult to get into the operating window. If riders fail to do this, crumbling can occur.
Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin said this was not entirely new to the teams as cold temperatures were common at pre-season testing in Barcelona. However, teams do not have to go there in the morning for qualifying and can wait for the Catalan sun to warm up the track. In addition, there was no race in Barcelona this year, so the teams do not have a sharp experience with the current tires.
Similar to Shovlin, AlphaTauri Chief Engineer Jonathan Eddolls sees this as well. “One of the biggest issues will probably be the temperatures,” Eddols told Motorsport.com.
“I think we’re expecting an air temperature of around 10C, so very similar to a winter test. For many years, we have carried out winter tests in Barcelona in such temperatures, so this will not be completely new for us.”
“But it’s definitely unconventional in terms of where we’re going to run the current tires compared to what we’re used to in the regular season.”
If anyone is looking at the temperatures in Las Vegas with mild optimism, it’s Haas. The American team has a relatively solid pace in qualifying, but then falls behind in the race due to problems with overheating tires.
“It’s a very different temperature window, so we have to force the tires to work,” said chief engineer Ajao Komacu. “But if I had to choose hot or cold, I’d choose cold conditions at the moment!”
“I think it will be a big challenge for us, especially for our team with the tools we have in terms of pre-race simulation. Our tools are more limited compared to Mercedes, for example.”
2023-09-26 18:41:38
#Tea #bačkori #dice #Teams #fear #cold #temperatures #Las #Vegas
