Cold temperatures in Las Vegas, Ross Brawn admits: “We didn’t think about it”. F1 did not consider the temperature factor when designing the Las Vegas track.

Ross Brawn’s Admission
When on Sunday, November 19, at six in Europe (GMT time zone), in Las Vegas at 10:00 PM local time, the F1 Grand Prix will kick off, the mercury column of the thermometer is likely to be below 5°C. Qualifying is scheduled for midnight, and teams are already wondering how many warm-up laps will be necessary to try to bring the tires up to temperature (some have even hypothesized, without exaggeration, as many as 4 ‘warm-up’ laps).

The concerns about the temperatures that teams and drivers will have to face during the Las Vegas weekend are more than understandable. The city circuit on the ‘Strip’ has very few fast ‘banked’ corners where it’s possible to warm up the tires properly, while it has many straights where the tire temperatures drop. The Strip’s straight measures 1.9 km. Every Safety Car risks turning restarts into a game of chance.

Former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn, a guest on the British broadcaster talkSPORT, admitted that they did not consider the temperature factor when designing the Las Vegas track: “Initially, we didn’t take into account that it gets very, very cold at night. During the race, the temperature can drop to 3-4°C. Making the cars work at those temperatures will be a challenge. The tire supplier has done work to ensure that the tires can cope with this situation. Surely, we will face new challenges that we have never encountered before, but I think it will be spectacular.” – the former motorsport engineer and Formula One team principal concluded, ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.