Pirelli braced for more complaints as Las Vegas Grand Prix looms large

Pirelli motorsport director Mario Isola is braced to be the centre of attention in Las Vegas with temperatures forecasted as low as three degrees.

Formula 1 is preparing for the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix in a week’s time but as well as the excitement, there is trepidation about how difficult it will be to race in the desert city.

Early forecasts predict temperatures as low as three degrees during qualifying which will have a huge impact on the Pirelli-made tyres.

Pirelli making a ‘step into the unknown’ with Las Vegas GP

Isola is the public face of Pirelli’s F1 involvement and as such has had to face a few difficult problems during his tenure with the Italian manufacturer.

But while tyres degrading too quickly is often the cause of concern, that problem will be flipped in Vegas as teams look set to struggle to bring the rubber up to temperature.

“I believe that we are going to talk about Pirelli in Vegas because of the temperature,” he suggested. “The asphalt is quite smooth according to the information I have and so the level of grip will be very poor, I can anticipate this.

“Even if we selected the three softest compounds in the range, I can imagine that with these super cool conditions and a circuit that is not generating a lot of energy into the tyre, the warm up will be tricky.”

Pirelli have selected the three softest compounds on offer with the soft tyre marked as the C5 set.

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Speaking before the last race in Brazil, Isola commented that racing on the Vegas circuit was a “step into the unknown.”

“It is a step into the unknown, for everybody I believe,” he said. “Las Vegas will be cold, it’s a street circuit. So we were working with the teams and we asked them for simulations in advance to try to understand how much energy the layout of the circuit is putting on tyres.

“We had information from the companies that are making the tarmac in order to understand how abrasive is the tarmac and which is the level of grip we can expect. But still, a lot of question marks are on Las Vegas. We decided to use the three softest compounds in the range to try to generate grip.

“I can imagine a lot of track evolution and very low grip. So they will complain! It’s fine. We will manage also this situation. But it’s a big unknown. Fast track, long straights, high speed and all conditions that are quite difficult to manage.”

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