It wasn’t an easy first day of track action to analyze in Las Vegas, especially considering the setbacks that slowed down the teams’ work. The first session was in fact suspended after just ten minutes due to a problem with a manhole which forced the Federation and the organizers to postpone FP2 to check the entire track and look for an emergency solution.
The second session eventually kicked off at 2.30am local time and was extended to an hour and a half to make up for the time lost initially. The difficulties were immediately what many imagined: a dirty track and little grip, which made it difficult to find the right confidence behind the wheel. Furthermore, the layout of the circuit and the low temperatures, which reached 15°C for the asphalt, increased those graining problems which, especially at the beginning of the session, made managing the rear axle particularly complicated.
However, the more the cars started to run, the more the track gradually improved, shifting the focus to the front covers, in particular the front right. The engineers will have a large amount of data to analyze and the key will be to better understand the behavior of the tyres, more specifically the soft, which Max Verstappen was not particularly satisfied with over long distances.
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19
“It’s very slippery. Clearly we didn’t lap much in FP1, so you have to give it time to build up, but in the end it was a little better. However, we managed to complete the whole program, which I think is the important thing.”
“I think the soft on the single lap is good, but on the long run it’s more difficult, with the soft he seemed to struggle, so we quickly switched to the medium. But it seems that even with the average the situation is not so clear on the long run, so there are a couple of things to understand to see how we can improve the degradation on the long run. I think, in general, we are ok compared to others, but I think we can do a better job. It’s not that simple to prepare the tires for the race,” explained the Dutchman, who finished the day in sixth place, almost a second from the top. On the first day, Ferrari showed a consistent advantage in terms of top speed, so much so that in the straight area of the Strip alone, Red Bull lost over four tenths, with a gap that, before the opening of the DRS, had reached 7 km/h. Undoubtedly, it is also worth underlining how the Milton Keynes team chose a more loaded setup than their rivals, given the decision not to cut the flap of the mobile wing as seen in Monza.
On the eve of the Grand Prix, the three-time world champion had not hesitated to express his doubts about the layout of the track, which he deemed uninteresting. When asked if he had fun on the track, Verstappen was rather blunt in his response: “No, I’ve been on better circuits. But it’s something I said yesterday, it’s not something new that I just discovered.”
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB19
On the other side of the garage, Sergio Perez also underlined the difficulties created by the poor grip. Although he believes he still has the right cards to move up the rankings and move into the zone of the best, the Mexican warned everyone about Ferrari’s possible competitiveness: “It’s a complex track, I’m very sorry for the fans for what happened, but I’m sure we will put on a good race and a good weekend. Overall I think it’s a complex track, the grip level is very low, but it’s continuing to improve and this makes everything more complex.”
“I think we have made good progress, which is important from my point of view, I am satisfied. We will definitely see what happens tomorrow, the Ferraris seem very fast, not only in terms of pace, but also when you look at the onboard videos they seem able to find something. But I think we’ll be there in the race,” added the Red Bull driver.
#Verstappen #Boring #track #difficult #understand #tyres