Everything you need to know about the coming 2023 Las Vegas F1 GP
The 2023 Formula 1 season is getting closer to its end, and the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix will come this weekend as a big circus at the end of the calendar. The event will be the 21st of the 22 scheduled races in the 2023 calendar and we surely expect Red Bull and Max Verstappen to dominate the Grand Prix.
Back to Cool Las Vegas after 41 Years
In what is expected to be the coldest race in Formula 1 history, the 6.201 km Las Vegas Strip Circuit is expected to provide a challenge to drivers in terms of keeping tyre temperature throughout the weekend, especially during a night event.
Max Verstappen will look for a sixth consecutive victory this weekend, although he doesn't seem to be enjoying the entire Las Vegas experience. A win for the Dutchman would be his 18th of the season, extending his own F1 record for a single campaign, and it would also be the 20th for Red Bull in 2023, the most for any F1 team in a single year.
Red Bull's dominance has been incredible in 2023 and it also has Sergio Pérez in second place in the standings, 32 points ahead of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton. With a 28-point gap behind the seven-time F1 champion, Fernando Alonso has scored 198 points for Aston Martin and is closely followed by McLaren's Lando Norris with 195 points.
Norris has finished on the podium in five of the last six races and the McLaren package could be the biggest 'threat' to Red Bull in the upcoming events.
In terms of teams' standings, Red Bull is clearly in front with 782 points (the highest in F1 history), followed by Mercedes (382 points with Hamilton and George Russell). Ferrari is third with 362 points with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, while McLaren (282 points with Norris and Oscar Piastri) is fourth, 21 points ahead of Aston Martin (Alonso and Lance Stroll).
2023 Las Vegas GP Facts & Figures
The 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix will be the 76th Formula 1 World Championship race held in the United States (fourth-most in history among countries) and the last of the trio of races in the country in 2023, after the Miami Grand Prix and the US GP at Austin.
The country has hosted seven different GPs by title, including the Indianapolis 500 (11 between 1950 and 1960), US Grand Prix (four different eras since 1959), US Grand Prix West (eight between 1976 and 1983), a couple of Caesars Palace GPs in 1981 and 1982, Detroit GP (from 1982 to 1988), Dallas GP in 1984 and the Miami Grand Prix since 2022.
The Las Vegas GP coming up on Saturday, November 18th will be the eighth different race celebrated in the US.
No other country has hosted more different GPs by name than the US, with Italy coming in second place with five (Italian, Pescara, San Marino, Tuscan, and Emilia Romagna GP).
The United States will have a 12th different circuit hosting a Formula 1 Grand Prix, the most of any country.
Las Vegas hosted the Caesars Palace GP in 1981 and 1982 in the parking of the Caesars Palace Hotel. The races were won by Alan Jones and Michele Alboreto, driving for Williams and Tyrrell, respectively.
Las Vegas Strip Circuit Track info
The 6.201 km Las Vegas Strip street circuit has 17 corners and a huge straight of 1.900 km in the third sector that will demand tremendous engine power and efficiency throughout the weekend.
Formula 1's official website gives a short review of what the track will be like for the weekend's inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix: "Located in the heart of Las Vegas, the new 6.2km, 17-turn street circuit winds its way past iconic locations like Caesars Palace, the Bellagio, and the Venetian. With average speeds expected to match Monza, otherwise known as F1’s ‘Temple of Speed’, there promises to be plenty of action and overtaking."
Saturday night's race will go for 50 laps and a total distance of 310.05 km.
The first sector includes a twisty section for the first four corners, and it is then followed by a shorter straight and a 90-degree right-hander Turn 5 that will send cars into another twisty section that is formed from corners six to nine. Then, the circuit has two fast corners, Turns 10 and 11. The big acceleration zone, which includes the second DRS area, in sector 3, goes from Turn 12 to 14.
The final section of the track includes an 800m straight that has a high-speed left-hander that will send cars into the start-finish zone to complete the lap.
2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix - Tyres
The dry tyres for the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix will be the C3 as P Zero White hard, C4 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C5 as P Zero Red soft.
Pirelli's Motorsport Director, Mario Isola, explained Pirelli's view for the upcoming event: “Formula 1 returns to the United States for the third time this year, following Miami and Austin. And it’s with one of the most-eagerly grands prix of the year, in Las Vegas, where the pinnacle of motorsport hasn’t been seen since 1982. This will be an incredible race, as every day is showtime in Las Vegas, and all of us working in Formula 1 want to put on the sort of spectacle that is worthy of this amazing city.
It will also be a major technical challenge for both the teams and us, as we head into this race with no real references apart from simulation. Nobody has ever actually driven the Las Vegas Strip circuit before, which is second only to Spa in terms of overall length this year, characterised by three straights and 17 corners. The surface will be a mix of the usual street asphalt, especially on the actual Strip, as well as other parts that have been completely re-asphalted for the occasion; adding another unknown element.
There won’t be any support races and the track will be opened again to normal traffic for long chunks of the day, which means that the surface won’t rubber in as usual and deliver improved grip.
We’re expecting the cars to run quite low levels of downforce, similar to Baku or indeed Monza: hitting a high top speed will be key to being competitive. All the sessions will take place at night, with unusual ambient and track temperatures for a race weekend; more similar to those found back when pre-season testing used to take place in Europe.
Those long straights also make it harder to warm up tyres in qualifying, as well as keep them in the right window: the same challenge as seen in Baku, which will probably be more pronounced in Las Vegas.
Bearing all this in mind, we’ve selected the trio of softest compounds for this weekend: C3, C4, and C5, which should guarantee good grip. Minimum tyre pressures should be 27 psi at the front and 24.5 psi at the back, due to the expected low temperatures as well as the track layout.
In cold conditions, the gap between cold tyre pressures and normal running pressures is greatly reduced – so when the car is moving, tyre pressure will increase a lot less than on other circuits due to the low asphalt temperatures. As a result, we think that running pressures will still be lower than on other circuits that are tough on tyres, such as Baku for example.
So all the elements are in place for an extraordinary race, packed with surprises and unpredictability. As the title of Elvis Presley’s famous racing film goes…Viva Las Vegas!”
The minimum starting pressures for the tyres will be 27.0 PSI (front) and 24.5 PSI (rear).
2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix - Weather Forecast
Thursday, Nov 16th - FP1 at 20:30 local time
Conditions: Mainly clear
Max. temperature: 12°C
Chance of rain: 0%
Friday, Nov 17th - FP2 at 00:00 local time
Conditions: Mainly clear
Max. temperature: 13°C
Chance of rain: 0%
Friday, Nov 17th - FP3 at 20:30 local time
Conditions: Mostly cloudy
Max. temperature: 13°C
Chance of rain: 4%
Saturday, Nov 18th - Qualifying at 00:00 local time
Conditions: Mainly clear
Max. temperature: 10°C
Chance of rain: 6%
Sunday, Nov 19th - Race at 22:00 local time
Conditions: Mainly clear; dress warmly for the race
Max. temperature: 10°C
Chance of rain: 7%
Who will be on the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix Podium?
Opening Ceremony.
F1 World Championship, Rd 22, Las Vegas Grand Prix, Wednesday 15th November 2023. Las Vegas Strip Circuit, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Red Bull is definitely the favorite to win the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix and continue its record-breaking form throughout the campaign. The 20th victory for the team will definitely be an incredible achievement that also rightly represents the current state of Formula 1, with the Austrian's squad dominance being far from anything we've seen so far.
The RB19 should give Max Verstappen every chance to win Saturday's race, his 18th of the 2023 F1 campaign and the 53rd of his career, matching Sebastian Vettel's tally for third place in history among drivers (behind Lewis Hamilton's 103 wins and Michael Schumacher's 91).
Behind Red Bull, if Sergio Pérez shows up, we should see McLaren and possibly Aston Martin. However, the cold temperatures could be decisive to the form of every team apart from Red Bull and it could shake things up. Lando Norris could be McLaren's main card for a big result in the upcoming event, and a sixth podium in the last seven races should be highly achievable for the British racer.
The prediction for the top three of the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Lando Norris, 3. Fernando Alonso.
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Max will probably win again & I also predict Lando to finish second again with third place going to Oscar for a change.
Btw, I don't know how FIA has managed to count four corners at the opening section even though only two exist by definition, especially concerning the right-hander preceding Koval lane straight.
4-20 am, I must be mad, but all the hype of LV I thought sod it i have to watch it even if its FP1
Your taking the piss, session will not be resumed after 10mins running, well that was worth getting up for Not......
Its obvious ESPN considers racing the redheaded step child of their coverage. Almost an instant early end to their 1 hour of coverage when it was announced that the session would not resume. Instead of talking about some other aspect of the coming qualifying, race or maybe interviewing some of the team principals for the last 25 mins of scheduled coverage....no! Hurry up and cut back to the talent in the studio so they can talk about basketball like they had been for the last 58 hours. ESPNS coverage sucks, and while Im at it so did the opening ceremony with a bunch of entertainers Ive never heard of. Journey and Keith Urban yes but who the hell was the guy in the orange clown Michelin man getup!