by Is Red Bull experiencing a second Singapore in Las Vegas?
Red Bull has won 19 of the 20 races so far in 2023. Only in Singapore were police officers beaten once. Now, some suspect the bulls could weaken again in Las Vegas this weekend.
The reason for this is the extremely low temperatures in which we drive. “It may be that some teams feel more comfortable with low temperatures”, explains expert Norbert Haug Sky.
The former head of motorsport at Mercedes also makes it clear: “This […] The known balance of power shouldn’t change much.” Because Max Verstappen is “clearly the benchmark this season”, he reminds us.
Therefore, you may not be able to count on “dominance” as in some other breeds. “But the team can certainly adapt very well and quickly to the new conditions,” said Haug.
Furthermore, the RB19 also has a relatively large work window, which is why Haug gives Red Bull “a bit of a favorite role” again this weekend – despite the possibly challenging conditions.
Hamilton: a great season even without P2
The second part of the PK is underway and, among other things, deals with the fight for P2 in the Drivers’ World Championship – which, according to Lewis Hamilton, is no longer a battle. Because he is already 32 points behind Sergio Perez.
Hamilton emphasizes that he will not normally be able to catch up in two races. Even so, it was a good season because he didn’t even expect to fight for runner-up.
If you consider how bad Mercedes were at the start of the year, then it was great to have fought for P2, said Hamilton.
Jetlag in Abu Dhabi?
Remembering: the end of the season is next week in Abu Dhabi. Drivers are not particularly happy about this, because then you will be traveling to a completely different time zone again.
Nico Hülkenberg explains that it will be inevitable that pilots there will have to fight jet lag. Naturally, the question arises as to whether this is the point.
Because fans want drivers to be in top shape on the track. Nobody wants to see tired drivers in the car on a Friday…
Alonso: Every lap will be different
The temperatures don’t worry the Spaniard much. However, he believes drivers need to be prepared for the fact that every lap this weekend will be different.
The background is that the track improves with each lap, says Alonso. Because at the beginning the track will be in very bad condition, but then it will continue to improve.
Additionally, there are no frame series in Las Vegas that provide additional grip.
Why is Hülkenberg driving with the old package
Nico Hülkenberg will drive this weekend without the updates that Haas brought in Austin. In PK he explains again that this was his personal desire.
The new parts would have brought small improvements, but not the big leap in performance expected. And since he didn’t feel very comfortable with the package, they now dismantled it again.
Teammate Kevin Magnussen will continue to drive with the new package.
Lost walk
The PK is running and at the start there are the usual questions about Vegas, the track and so on. Interesting: Carlos Sainz reveals that he did not walk the track – although not entirely voluntarily.
This weekend’s schedule was so “weird” that he simply missed the window for the track walk. We’ve talked about the acceptance issues, etc., before.
By the way, Lando Norris reminds us that the bottom line is that it’s still a completely normal race weekend. You can forget that with everything that’s going on…
Focus on PK
So let’s focus on PK, which starts in less than ten minutes! We are expecting the following guests today:
Part 1:
Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo)
Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
Lando Norris (McLaren)
Part 2:
Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri)
Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
Sergio Pérez (Red Bull)
Alexander Albon (Williams)
As always, the most important statements can be found here in the ticker!
Special helmets
There will be some special helmets on the field again this weekend. To be honest, I don’t know if a driver will ever drive with its normal design… In any case, here is a small selection:
