Introducing the Las Vegas Grand Prix: a race with a difference
Formula 1 enters the final stretch of the 2024 season with a hat-trick of races, starting this weekend in Las Vegas before moving on to Qatar and then Abu Dhabi. This season is the longest in history, with a total of 24 races.
Everything is still possible for this end of the season, the dice are rolled again and the teams still have things to gain this weekend.
The world championship could be decided as early as this weekend in the capital of Nevada, where Red Bull driver Max Verstappen could be crowned world champion for the fourth time after his superb victory in Brazil. He could equal the record of Sebastian Vettel and Alain Prost in terms of titles.
The constructors’ championship is still undecided even though McLaren is still in the lead with 593 points, ahead of Ferrari (557 points) Red Bull (544 points).
As every year, the teams pull out all the stops, like the special liveries of Alpine in pink for the rest of the 2024 season, Sauber, and Williams. No detail is to be overlooked, such as the new suits for Ferrari for the weekend. The American-style show is expected to be on point again.
A high-speed urban layout
Between the two previous editions (1981 and 1982) and the one in 2023, it’s like day and night. The track drawn on the Caesars Palace parking lot, which had given its name to the GP, has been replaced by a real layout following the Strip, the avenue of the biggest hotels and all the glitz and glamour surrounding the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Among the peculiarities, a race on Saturday evening, local time, and unusually cool temperatures for F1. As a reminder, the 2023 edition had been disrupted by a flying manhole cover.
The race lap record is held by Oscar Piastri in 1.35.490. The last winning driver was Max Verstappen in 2023, accompanied on the podium by Charles Leclerc in second place and Sergio Perez in third.
It’s a city course, separate, with fast sections where last year there was a straight line record at 366 km/h. In total, it’s 50 laps, for a distance of 309.958 km, in the streets of the city of sin.
For more information:The TV schedule and times of the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix
Williams will indeed participate in the Las Vegas Grand Prix
