F1’s return to Vegas will happen on an all-new course that includes town’s well-known Strip boulevard – with the general public roads getting used having been resurfaced forward of the occasion.
Recent asphalt laid at new races lately has tended to be very slippery for the vehicles, even with Pirelli bringing its softest tyres, as is the case for the Vegas weekend.
When requested by Autosport to stipulate any specific areas of the three.86-mile observe the place drivers might achieve or lose time on what’s a straight-heavy structure, Alonso as an alternative highlighted the observe evolution facet as the world that might catch some rivals out.
He feels this might particularly be the case because of the weekend missing help races that will usually lay down further rubber and due to this fact improve grip ranges for the F1 machines.
“A road circuit, very low downforce – simply getting that confidence into the automobile [will be important],” mentioned Alonso. “The braking areas, I feel that will likely be essential.
“With the circumstances of the observe and never having any help races, I feel the quantity of observe evolution through the weekend goes to be greater than regular.
“So, that may problem everybody. I suppose we won’t have two laps the identical over the weekend.
“Each lap of the observe will likely be slightly bit higher than the lap earlier than – from FP1 to the final lap of the race.
“We must adapt to that changeable grip. It’s going to be a problem for everybody.”
Photograph by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Group
Talking alongside Alonso within the pre-event press convention, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz instructed one part of the brand new observe that might catch out drivers can be the “very lengthy mixed braking [of] Turns 6-7”.
He added: “That within the simulator was truly fairly difficult to get proper with the braking.
“Other than that, clearly it’s gonna be in regards to the lengthy straights, the massive braking zones, being assured, getting near the partitions additionally on the exit of the corners.
“Seems like simply getting confidence with a low-downforce automobile on such lengthy straights with fairly massive braking goes to be the important thing.”
Forward of the occasion, there had been a lot hypothesis on whether or not doubtlessly near freezing temperatures might trigger havoc with automobile and tyre efficiency.
This has since been scotched by the forecast for the weekend having circumstances at 9-10°C through the evening intervals the place the qualifying and race periods will happen.
However these are nonetheless temperatures paying homage to the 2020 Eifel GP on the Nurburgring, the place the influence of the chilly circumstances was negated by that observe’s many turns.
Though he was at pains to level out the F1 groups at the moment lack the info to make sure, Alonso due to this fact reckons squads which have struggled with an excessive amount of tyre degradation in races attributable to their tyres overheating due to their aerodynamic designs might do nicely.
This might be due to their drivers having the ability to preserve the important tyre temperature working home windows and with the Vegas observe’s structure permitting the rubber to chill – doubtlessly making issues more durable for vehicles that face tyre warm-up points.
“It may very well be that with these lengthy straights, the tyres lose slightly little bit of temperature,” mentioned Alonso.
“We’ve been dealing with slightly little bit of tyre overheating on the final three occasions [in Texas, Mexico and Brazil] and possibly right here it’s slightly bit the other.
“So possibly some vehicles which are struggling on long-run tempo, right here they’re good as a result of they will hold the tyres within the window and issues like that.
“Tomorrow, we could have some solutions.”