Why Ferrari is confident Las Vegas circuit layout can help SF-23 be competitive. Ferrari is cautiously optimistic for Las Vegas GP amid Red Bull weakness.

The configuration of the Las Vegas Grand Prix track is anticipated to favor Scuderia Ferrari, according to English senior performance engineer Jock Clear, who believes it will be a positive event for the Maranello team as Ferrari still hope to recover the gap to Mercedes in the 2023 Formula 1 Constructors Championship in the fight for a second place finish behind Red Bull.

This year, Ferrari has demonstrated strong performance on certain street circuits, notably excelling at the Baku City Circuit and at the Mairna Bay street circuit. The victory secured by Carlos Sainz in Singapore marked the only non-Red Bull win in the current Formula 1 championship.

The upcoming race in Las Vegas incorporates a 1.1-mile straight along the Strip, followed by a course that winds through a combination of permanent and temporary circuits. It is expected that most teams will opt for a low-downforce setup.

Reflecting on the last low-downforce track at Monza, where Ferrari secured pole and led in the initial stages before Max Verstappen claimed the win by passing Carlos Sainz, Jock Clear envisions a promising weekend for the Italian side. He also pinpointed areas where the SF-23 package may have vulnerabilities compared to the Red Bull RB19 single-seater.

“Las Vegas is going to be a good one. All our indications are that it is going to be a low downforce circuit, and as such, we are confident that we can be competitive there, but [we still have] a tricky car.” – senior performance engineer Jock Clear explained, ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection! Click here to enter the F1 online Store and shop securely! And also get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!

“Let’s not beat around the bush, it comes in and out of the window quite quickly, and the struggle for us has been to understand why that is. I think we understand that most of it might be in the DNA of the car, so for next year, we are focusing on making it a much more benign car, one that doesn’t have such a narrow operating window. In a race, you can’t operate in a narrow window because the race is long, temperatures change, the tyres, and you need a bit of a broader operating window to have a really good race. That is where Red Bull’s strength is – their operating window is very wide.” – Jock Clear concluded.