3 days Ago By Pablo Hidalgo
With the Constructors’ Championship still to be decided with three races to go, the Las Vegas circuit promises to be a challenge for the teams to find the best balance between top speed and cornering traction. However, there is one team that should have an extra advantage over the rest due to the characteristics of the track..
. The Nevada street circuit has been marked as a key venue by Ferrari as the last major opportunity for a victory before the end of the 2024 season. In the tight fight for the Constructors’ Championship where the Italian team trails McLaren by 36 points, Las Vegas is the stage where Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz can cut into McLaren’s 36-point lead.
Not only are the drivers and team boss Frederic Vasseur talking about the expected performance of the SF24 in Las Vegas with great confidence, but the data also augurs well for Ferrari’s weekend. If one looks for a circuit closely similar to the Nevada street circuit, Baku is certainly one of the most similar circuits on the calendar in terms of track characteristics. During qualifying laps in 2023, 78 percent of the total lap time was spent at full throttle, whereas in qualifying at the Azerbaijan GP, 76 percent of the lap was spent at full throttle.
However, Baku uses a slightly more loaded downforce package, due to the twisty Sector 2, and this means that top speeds do not exceed 350 km/h, which is the case on the very long straight of Sector 3 in Las Vegas. In Baku, we saw how the teams varied the set-up between their cars with different downforce and downforce packages. We expect this to be the case at this circuit as well, especially for those teams who have to risk more to get into the points battle.
With regard to the top speeds for 2023, we can see some interesting points that have changed this season and others that remain at similar levels: Sauber is still the team with the least downforce, Aston Martin has solved its very obvious drag problem in 2023 and McLaren has improved its straight-line efficiency – long its Achilles heel – since Miami. Based on this season’s performance, with particular emphasis on Baku and the performance shown at this circuit in 2023, PlanetF1.com has made some early predictions with the performance ranking of each team for this weekend in Las Vegas.
As seen in Baku, the SF24’s performance on street circuits with long straights and big braking where traction is key, is superior. Ferrari is on paper the favourite team to dominate in Las Vegas as the twisty sections are also less twisty than in Azerbaijan, where they lost the most time to McLaren. Last year Charles Leclerc took pole followed by Carlos Sainz with both drivers dominating by almost four-tenths of a second ahead of Max Verstappen.
Despite losing out later in the race, this season Ferrari’s better long-run performance should give them the biggest advantage to be the fastest on both Saturday and Sunday. Despite losing the advantage their low downforce rear wing spec gave them in Baku after a Red Bull protest to the FIA, the Woking-based team should remain the second force in Las Vegas. Have the engineers found a new way to innovate with the wings to try to beat Ferrari? Despite suffering greatly in Baku, the Milton Keynes-based team seems to have found a good way to develop the setup of Max Verstappen’s car.
In addition, Sergio Perez always performs particularly well on street circuits. Red Bull, and especially Verstappen, should be in contention on the weekend where the Dutch driver can clinch his third World Championship. As has been the case since the second half of the season, Mercedes is aiming to find itself in the middle ground between the top teams and the middle of the grid.
Their best hope is to take advantage of any mistakes from the top three, as they are not expected to perform well enough, at least in the race, to cause a surprise. 👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates 👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates As was the case in Baku and on this same stage in 2023, the Grove-based team should make amends after a nightmare weekend in Brazil. With Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto, the British team should be in the fight for points.
The American team is, along with Williams, the favourite to fight for the fifth team status in Las Vegas. With a top speed that is always incredible, Haas must once again exploit its great strength to stand out against its competitors. After Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly’s double podium finish in Brazil, the Enstone-based team knows that the final circuits of this calendar should be more difficult for them.
Leading the fight for P6 in the Constructors’ World Championship by only 3 points, Alpine has to minimise damage in the last three races to maintain this privileged position. After a good weekend in Brazil as well as Alpine, they should be outperformed again by the Enstone team and by Williams and Haas. Despite Fernando Alonso’s miracle in Baku, the AM24 is not in a favourable position at this stage of the season.
Williams, Haas and Alpine have taken steps forward while they remain stuck. It will be a difficult weekend and only the Spanish driver will be able to save the team’s image, which is now badly damaged, with another miracle. Despite being the team with the best top-speed data, all the time gained on the straights will be lost under heavy braking and in the medium and high-speed corners.
The strategy of running a very low downforce setup is in their interest to try to overtake in the race, but they should, again, be the backmarker of the grid in Las Vegas. Read Next: FIA warned it has made ‘fatal mistake’ amid F1 race director exit uncertainty.
