Max Verstappen has flagged tyre warm-up in the Las Vegas cold as the decisive factor for Red Bull heading into next weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, with track temperatures expected to sit between 10 and 12 degrees Celsius across the three days on the Strip. The 50-lap race runs Saturday, November 21, at 8:00 p.m. PT.
The smooth street surface tends to induce sliding, leading to graining and uneven core temperatures rather than the heat build-up drivers get on grippier circuits, making Las Vegas one of the most unpredictable rounds of the season for tyre behaviour.
“I have no idea because Vegas is so different and so difficult for everyone to understand,” Verstappen said when asked whether Red Bull would be the team to beat. “I have to say that it’s normally not our best track because of that. But we’ll see if we can get the tyres to work. That’s the key, to be honest, around there.”
The four-time world champion also pointed to the circuit’s long straight as a separate challenge, tied to this year’s energy deployment rules. “First of all, deployment,” he said. “It’s a very long straight, so I think I would need to tuck in in the middle of the straight to try and gain some top speed. That is just the game this year. With energy management on that straight, it’s going to be very, very difficult.” He added the track could play a bit like Monza, where slipstreaming is beneficial, but the cold means “you get very different behaviour from every car. Some suddenly work extremely well on a track like that. We’ve seen it in the past.”
Verstappen has good memories of the Strip: he won last year’s race from second on the grid and is a two-time winner in Las Vegas. With the drivers’ championship already decided in Mexico, where Kimi Antonelli became the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history, the Las Vegas weekend is about the win, and about who masters the cold first. (Read our Mexico recap: Antonelli’s historic day.)
Practice runs Thursday, November 19, qualifying is Friday night, November 20, at 8:00 p.m. PT, and the Grand Prix starts Saturday, November 21, at 8:00 p.m. PT on the 6.2-kilometre Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
Photo: @Angelealmada
Source: RacingNews365, November 13, 2026
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