Formula 1 News: Drivers praise Las Vegas GP Circuit

Despite a shortened Practice 1 due to track issues, Formula 1 drivers were all mostly in agreement that the Las Vegas GP circuit is good.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Despite all the negative press the race received about cold temperatures and a rather simple track layout, after 90 minutes of running in Practice 2 no issues arose and the drivers rather enjoyed themselves.

“We’re travelling at some serious speeds out there,” Lewis Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 after ending the day ninth fastest. “It’s incredibly fast and it’s a lot of fun – I had so much fun today.

“I’m so glad we did get to run again. They did a great job to fix it and it was an interesting session.”

“I had a blast. Everyone’s struggling with jet lag and all that stuff and I feel really great. I just watched a movie in the break [between FP1 and FP2] and I feel great and ready to go again!”

“It’s a very fast circuit, the highest top speeds of the year probably, and obviously racing at night is pretty spectacular,” said George Russell. “I think it is going to be an interesting race weekend.”

“Every lap you do you are learning. You are all going faster, the track is getting faster, your braking points are changing.

“It’s tricky when you are going 230mph into those braking zones, picking your braking point with very little downforce on the car. It was good fun out there.

“It’s difficult to get a true representation because some people did two sets of new softs, we only did one set, but I think [the weekend is] going to be dominated by race pace.”

“It’s slippery. Of course we didn’t really run a lot in FP1 so it took a bit of time to rubber in a little bit more. I think at the end it was a little bit better,” said Max Verstappen.

“We managed to do the whole program, which I guess was the most important [thing] for today.”

“I think the soft over one lap is good,” he said. “The long run was a bit more difficult. It seemed like the soft tire was struggling quite a lot out there, so we very quickly went onto the medium, but it seems even the medium is not a straightforward tire as well in the long run.

“Still a bit of things that we have to look into to see how we can improve our deg [degradation] on the long. I think we still look very good compared to others as well, but I feel like maybe we can still do a better job. Not straightforward to pick your tires, I think, for the race.”

“Free Practice 2 was straightforward, testing different things and getting to grips with the tires and track conditions. I enjoy this track, and it should make for an exciting Qualifying and Race,” said Esteban Ocon.

“That was quite a crazy night in Las Vegas. I don’t think we will ever experience driving a Formula 1 car at 3am in the morning ever again! Firstly, it was good to drive the circuit for the first time and, I must say, it is quite an impressive spectacle with all the lights and iconic sights,” said Pierre Gasly.

“The track is just as we expected: really fast, with long straights and very slippery at the beginning of the session,” said Valtteri Bottas.

“The grip kept getting better with every lap, and we expect more evolution tomorrow. Now, we need to focus on finding some more performance ahead of qualifying: it will be an even longer night than it has been already, but we’re motivated to continue at this level.”

“It’s a shame for the fans that FP1 wasn’t restarted, but safety comes first,” said Yuki Tsunoda. “It took some time for FP2 to start, but in the end, we got to drive for 90 minutes and were able to collect valuable data. The track surface is quite slippery, but I enjoy the track layout itself, especially the curbs because they’re drivable, and you can be quite aggressive, which is fun.”

“As it’s a new track, especially a street circuit, it took more time to feel comfortable, so you always need to take a bit more margin as mistakes can be more costly,” said Daniel Ricciardo. “After some changes to the long run, it looks stronger, and after we refine some limitations tonight, I don’t think we’ll be far off the pace for qualifying tomorrow, so I’m sure if we put it all together, we can aim to make it to Q3.”