the track
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The Las Vegas track was inaugurated last year, when Formula 1 returned to the Nevada city 42 years after the last race held on the very uninspiring circuit created in the parking lot of Caesar’s Palace. The layout of the Las Vegas Strip is completely different, super fast and spectacular. Speed is in fact its main characteristic, with the cars reaching an average of 240 km/h per lap, even if there are some technical sections. The lap begins with a short acceleration to Turn 1 — a tight left-hand hairpin that offers crucial overtaking opportunities — followed by an equally narrow and twisty section of track. The cars then speed along one of the two long straights before braking hard for Turn 5 and tackling the slow chicane of Turn 7, which then leads into the final tight left-hand hairpin. From then on it’s all about courage and speed. At almost full throttle, the cars accelerate through the slightly angled Turn 10 and into the sharp left Turn 12, which takes them onto the 1.9km straight known as “The Strip”. With the pedal to the floor, the drivers reach speeds in excess of 350 km/h at that point before braking sharply to enter the S formed by turns 14-15-16 and then launching into the slightly curved final straight. The tour, 6,201 meters, is completed in just over a minute and a half.
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