Why F1 cars struggle to race in the cold: Las Vegas' Grand Prix challenge

November 14th 2023

A November night race in Las Vegas could bring the coldest temperatures of the F1 season, and a new challenge for teams. How will grand prix cars keep tyres and brakes at their optimum temperature as the cool desert air draws away heat?

One way to F1 tyres: Red Bull at a demonstration event this summer

Red Bull

Author

Cambridge Kisby

“The one thing we hadn’t considered initially…is it gets very, very cold at night.”

Ross Brawn was F1‘s managing director of motor sport when the Las Vegas Grand Prix deal was signed, but even he had overlooked the chilling effect of the sun going down in the Nevada desert; an effect that could transform this weekend’s race.

The night-time schedule may well show off the city’s neon lights and give Europeans a fighting chance of waking up in time to watch the race, but the temperature is forecast to plummet from its daytime high of around 23C to as low as 10C for Saturday’s night race at 10pm local time.

Teams that frequently struggle to keep their cars from overheating will find a cooling problem like few others, as they attempt to keep tyres and brakes warm enough to operate effectively.

Start finish straight of Las Vegas Grand Prix circuit — Temperatures are forecast to be around 10C for the start of the Las Vegas Grand Prix

Dan Istitene/F1 via Getty Images

In an F1 season that typically follows the sun, cars rarely encounter such lows and look distinctly uncomfortable when they do: witness the early laps of the cold and damp 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix at a newly-resurfaced Portimao, where cars were skating off the track and locking up one after another, even though drivers were visibly tiptoeing as they struggled to heat their tyres. When temperatures drop in pre-season testing, teams have been known simply not to run.

Las Vegas layout

But that’s not going to be an option this weekend. It’s not just that it’ll be cold: the Las Vegas layout itself is only going to exacerbate the problem with long straights that cool tyres and brakes; few high-speed corners where heat is typically generated; and a newly-laid track that will be open to traffic between sessions, preventing the surface from ‘rubbering-in’ — where tyre debris creates a high-grip layer on the asphalt.

Spectators should rejoice. Watching drivers wrestle with low grip and cold brakes should prove scintillating, and the heat of battle will be less of a concern, where running close to the hot exhaust of a rival may for once be a welcome benefit. Teams can also be thankful that it’s not expected to be as chilly as F1’s coldest race in 1978, where an October date for the Canadian Grand Prix saw temperatures of 5C, nor as hot as the last Las Vegas race, held in sweltering 37C conditions in 1982.

Keeping F1 brakes warm in Las Vegas

Alex Albon and Lance Stroll lock tyres under braking at the 2020 Portuguese GP — Alex Albon and Lance Stroll in the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix where cold weather led to lock-ups aplenty

Armando Franca/AFP via Getty Images

To generate maximum friction and braking power, the F1 cars’ carbon brake discs need to be in the region of 500C to 600C, and can exceed 1000C in heavy braking areas. Too hot or cold and their stopping power is reduced.

Air is channelled through ducts to cool the brakes, and these openings can be adjusted, for less cooling in colder races and more when the temperature rises. But achieving the right balance in Las Vegas will be the issue.

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Cars will slow from around 212mph to 50mph as they race down the Strip and into Turn 14, which will send brake temperatures soaring. Some cooling is required, but not too much because that previous Strip section is a 1.1-mile flat-out blast where the brakes will lose temperature rapidly, potentially becoming least effective just at the point where they are most needed in the braking zone.

That’s just the most extreme example: drivers are expected to spend around 80% of the lap at full throttle (compared to 70% at Silverstone), so there are only limited opportunities to generate brake heat.

It will be no surprise to see wheels locking up, cars running wide and crashes or collisions, as drivers suddenly find themselves with a shortage of stopping power.

Getting F1 tyres to their optimum temperature in Las Vegas

Pirelli 2023 tyres Formula 1 — Cold cracking, excessive cooling and a lack of data could also present serious problems for drivers and their tyres

Grand Prix Photo

Overheating tyres are unlikely to be an issue in Las Vegas, where drivers will be doing all they can to keep the temperatures up for maximum grip.

Pirelli is bringing its very softest tyres to Nevada but even so, grip is expected to be at a premium. The high-speed laps will send surges of cold air over the tyres, and there are few fast corners where heat can be generated. The surface is not expected to offer much help either.

“It will be a major technical challenge for both the teams and us,” said Pirelli head of motor sport Mario Isola. “We head into this race with no real references apart from simulation. Nobody has ever actually driven the Las Vegas Strip circuit before, and 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.

“In cold conditions, the gap between cold tyre pressures and normal running pressures is also 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 [with its long straight] for example.”

Qualifying is likely to see drivers having to aggressively to heat their tyres with heavy braking and potentially multiple preparation laps. The soft tyre may bring a significant advantage at the start, where its additional grip and faster ability to heat up may give an early advantage over medium- and hard-shod cars.

Temperature difficulties could be most prominent if a safety car is deployed, causing tyres to lose heat at slower speeds and a lack of grip when racing resumes — at which point a misjudged braking point could lead to a further safety car.

In a further headache for technicians, colder temperatures may lead to greater tyre wear, as the rubber fails to grip and slides over the asphalt, causing tears and scratches — graining. “If you can’t get them hot enough, that’s actually as difficult to deal with as a tyre that’s too hot, said Mike Elliott, Mercedes’ chief technical officer in a team video. “If a tyre’s really cold, we can get something called cold graining. It rubs away in little lumps and that graining loses you grip and wears the tyres away very quickly.”

Teams will also have to be on the lookout for cold cracking, where heat expands the rubber, then colder temperatures cause it to contract and crack.

Although runs during winter testing will provide some comparable data, Las Vegas will be the first time all three compounds are used in cold conditions in a competitive setting, making the three practice sessions even more critical than usual.