Formula 1 set for coldest race ever as fears grow over temperature in Las Vegas
Formula 1 teams are taking a plunge into the unknown this weekend at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, with cold temperatures adding an air of unpredictability to the race.
The famous entertainment capital of the world is in the middle of a desert, but with a race time of 10pm, it could get chilly for spectators and competitors. While temperatures in the daytime are around 20 degrees celsius, that drops into single figures once the sun goes down.
Forecasters are predicting temperatures of around eight degrees celsius on Saturday night, which could cause problems for the F1 teams, who don’t have data from previous races to rely on, with the event taking place on the brand-new Las Vegas Strip Circuit. The 1978 Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal currently holds the record for the coldest F1 race at five celsius, but even if it doesn’t break the record, Las Vegas will cause problems.
Tyre temperature is a huge thing for engineers, who know that long straights cause cooling. Vegas not only brings cold temperatures – it also has three long straights which could cause havoc with drivers’ tyres.
Former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn previously worked as F1’s motorsport managing director and was therefore involved in the concept of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. He recently admitted that the cold temperatures were not taken into account in the planning process.
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“The one thing we hadn’t considered initially, but the tyre company have dealt with, is it gets very, very cold at night,” he told talkSPORT. “So when the race is happening, which is Saturday night, it has been known to drop down to three or four degrees.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix will take place in cold temperatures at night (Dan Istitene/Getty Images)“So, it can be really quite cold and of course getting the cars to work in those temperatures can be a challenge. The tyre companies have done some work to make sure the tyres can cope with that. We’re definitely facing some new challenges which we’ve never had before, but I think it’ll be spectacular.”
Spectacular for fans, who may well be hoping for a shake-up of the Max Verstappen domination, but a potential nightmare for engineers. Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has explained just how difficult things might be.
“It’ll just depend on exactly how cold it is,” he said. “Because if the track is down in single figures, that’s often a region where you go winter testing. You do a run, it’s very difficult for the tyres to either get them switched on, or there may be graining and things. And then sometimes you just wait until it warms up a bit. So actually having to race and qualify in those conditions, it will be interesting.
“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 that at the moment. But as I said, if it’s at the very cold end of predictions, it’s difficult to know how the tyres are going to work.”
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