George Russell suspects the inaugural Formula 1 race on the Las Vegas Strip Circuit will be a “disaster in the first five laps” due to the low-grip track conditions.
F1’s eagerly anticipated return to Las Vegas for the first time in 41 years has arrived on a 6.2km street venue that features a recently repaved surface devoid of significant grip.
After completing practice on Friday morning, Russell warned that multiple pit stops could be in order for anybody who struggles with extreme graining in the cooler temperatures.
The Briton, who was the sole remaining Mercedes in Q3, wound up a stellar fourth and will be promoted one place up to third due to Carlos Sainz’s 10-place grid penalty.
However, Russell concedes that he was unperturbed by his qualifying performance beyond Q2 because the variability with the tyres could render grid positions irrelevant.
“I’m happy with the result, I felt confident around this circuit, we weren’t expecting to be this competitive, coming into this weekend,” he said.
“But I want to be honest, strange as it sounds, I wasn’t too concerned where we’d qualify today, as long as we were in the top 10, because it is the biggest unknown of the season going into the race tomorrow.
“We saw huge amounts of graining on all teams. If you can stay within the threshold of not graining, a one-stop will be comfortable. But as soon as you start graining the tyres, you have to pit. And I don’t think we’ve done more than 12 laps without graining the tyres. So that’s going to be the big challenge.”
Asked if he knew how to extend the life of the tyres to stay on the optimal one-stop strategy, Russell replied: “Well, I mean, you can drive slower, and that will manage the tyres, but you’ll get attacked from behind and, you know, we’ve got some indication of which corners we need to manage.
“But I had it in one run, it was the front tyres that got grained, for next run it was the rear tyres grained. And it’s really on a knife’s edge.”
Ferrari has emerged as the fastest team this weekend and its two drivers delivered on expectation to lock out the front row in qualifying, albeit Sainz will lose second.
While the Italian marque has only converted one of its five previous pole positions, Russell contends that Ferrari’s car has also proven to be strong on race runs in Vegas.
“Ferrari look in a league of their own,” Russell continued. “They haven’t had any graining, and they’ve been super-fast in the high fuel.
“But, equally, as the track grips up tomorrow, maybe we’ll see graining in stint one, but you won’t see it in stint two and three, because the track is probably going to be probably three seconds quicker in the last laps, compared to the early laps. Probably even more. Because we’ve got no support series, no nothing.
He added: “The track’s going to be a disaster in the first five laps of the race.”
Russell has repeatedly been vocal about Pirelli’s unpredictable tyres, but he admits the concerns with graining have derived from Vegas’ track layout and the conditions.
“I think the only time I’ve experienced graining this year was in the Sprint race of Qatar, when everyone on the Soft started to grain,” he explained. “And again, that just came down to low surface temperatures and sliding the tyre a lot.
“So the big problem here in Las Vegas, obviously, the cold temperatures, but when you [have] got these big long straights, the surface temperature gets really cold. And when you brake hard and you put a lot of strain on the tyre, they grain instantly.
“Right now, I’m really unsure how we need to approach it. And I don’t think anyone knows.”
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