Early Sims of F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix Circuit Get Cool Reception by Engineers

The inaugural Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix is still two months away, but the 3.8-mile street circuit has already gotten the attention of team engineers in charge of mapping out setups and tire strategy.

The biggest early concern, engineers say, is the weather. And, no, it's not the typical desert heat often associated with Las Vegas. During November, Las Vegas is downright chilly by F1 standards.

Race-time temperatures for the night race—remember, the Las Vegas Grand Prix scheduled for Nov. 18, has a 10 p.m. local start time (1 a.m. ET)—are expected to be in the high 40s.

"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," said Jonathan Eddolls, head of trackside engineering at AlphaTauri. "The temperatures are going to be probably one of the biggest challenges. I think we're expecting circuit 10 degrees (50 degrees Fahrenheit) 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 tires to what we're used to in a normal season."

Ayao Komatsu, trackside engineer at Haas, is already planning his team's tire strategy to reflect the chilly track temps.

"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," Komatsu said. "(We're) 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 tires 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.

According to the National Weather Service, the average night time temperature for Nov. 18—right night—in Las Vegas is 46 degrees.

"That's often a region where you go winter testing, you do a run, it's very difficult for the tires to either get them switched on, or there may be graining and things," said Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin. "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."