The Las Vegas Street Circuit, which Formula 1 will race on when the series returns to the city next year, has been revised according to updated imagery issued by the promoters.
The total number of corners on the track has increased from 14 to 17 due to the addition of a new chicane.The left-right corner combination has been inserted in the middle of turn six, which was originally intended to be a continuous, 180-degree bend. The cars will then briefly head straight on before reaching another new corner, turn nine, a tight left-hander. The rest of the track is unchanged.
From there the cars will rejoin the original route. The change is likely to reduce approach speeds to the re-numbered turns 10, 11 and 12 (previously turns seven to nine). The latter is the final corner before cars reach the famous Las Vegas strip.
This signature section of the track will see the drivers stay flat-out for almost two kilometres as they pass a number of famous Las Vegas landmarks. The promoter continues to quote top speeds of 342kph (212mph) for this section, but F1 drivers have predicted that could increase to 370kph with DRS activated and slipstreams from other cars.
The length of the circuit is largely unchanged by the alteration, according to the promoters. Its length remains approximately 6.1 kilometres (3.8 miles), meaning the grand prix distance will be 50 laps. They indicated it will have two DRS zones.
A leak last month indicated F1’s first race in Las Vegas for more than four decades has been given a mid-November date on the 2023 F1 calendar.
Revised Las Vegas F1 track layout
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50 Laps. 17 Corners. 3 Straights. 2 DRS Zones. Our 3.8 mile track will weave past world-famous landmarks, casinos and hotels cutting through the neon heart of the Las Vegas strip. Drivers will push their luck to breaking point at speeds of up to 212 mph. #LasVegasGP #F1 @F1 pic.twitter.com/HPia7tdPnW
— F1 Las Vegas (@F1LasVegas) September 2, 2022
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Loucaco
3rd September 2022, 0:19
Disappointing change, I hope they reconsider. Could it also have something to do with MSG Sphere construction? Also, anyone know how long the run is from the proposed grid to turn one?
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
3rd September 2022, 6:07
250-350m based on the scale in the photo and 8m length per car particpating.
Loucaco
4th September 2022, 20:23
@ryanoceros Thanks!
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
3rd September 2022, 6:01
This change seems unnecessary. Why?
some racing fan
3rd September 2022, 6:08
The only reason I can think of is that there isn’t enough run-off area on Sands Avenue because the elevated Las Vegas monorail is situated right in the middle of it in that specific spot. Other than that, disappointing.
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd September 2022, 7:54
Yeah that’s probably the reason
KaIIe (@kaiie)
3rd September 2022, 6:50
Ah, classic: change a fast corner into a super-tight chicane. I understand this is probably done on safety grounds, but this new bit looks like Singapore Sling or the slowest part of the Miami circuit.
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd September 2022, 7:48
What’s wrong with the originally-planned 180-degree bend?
Axel
3rd September 2022, 9:13
That 180 degree turn was one of the few interesting corners. I wouldn’t mind them scrapping the race altogether to be honest.
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
3rd September 2022, 17:14
F1 is building permanent infrastructure there. Something like an F1 restaurant with memorabilia and stuff. It’s never going to go away now. Vegas will be the Monaco West of the calendar.
It’s a shame F1 can’t prioritize racing since that’s what it’s all about. Instead they will prioritize money because American Corporation.
ady (@sixwheeler)
3rd September 2022, 9:46
Not that this is the point of F1 track design at all, but this looks like it’ll be another very dull track to drive on in a racing game / sim, perhaps worse than the old Abu Dhabi layout, not a single interesting corner.
S
3rd September 2022, 10:18
Does nobody consider a braking zone in a corner, leading into a tight chicane to be an interesting feature? It sounds like a great idea to me as I much prefer to see drivers using all their skills rather than just putting the foot down and letting the aero do all the work.
If (when) it turns out to be a dull event, it won’t be just because of one corner.
As always, it comes back the cars. They have consistently proven for decades that they can be boring everywhere.
MichaelN
3rd September 2022, 15:45
There have been corners like that in Singapore and Russia and pretty much nothing happened there in all the races that were held there. At least, nothing aside from a few overtakes that couldn’t also happen at regular corners.
It is potentially an interesting feature, but as you hint at, F1 cars have so much grip that it doesn’t really matter for them. And since this track will never be used for anything else, it’s unlikely to attract much attention.
John Beak (@johnbeak)
3rd September 2022, 10:30
If you rotate the track diagram by 180 degrees, it looks like a pig 🐖 Now its front foot even got a hoof.
Axel
3rd September 2022, 11:09
This comment made the track a lot more interesting. Mostly because it wasn’t interesting to begin with, but at least now I can laugh about it looking like a pig.
Phil Thomas
4th September 2022, 14:55
Or the Cali state bear
Dex
3rd September 2022, 11:08
This is what happens when you try to race F1 on the streets, the streets you choose based only on their location (and how close to a casino they are, what kind of sponsored views they offer), and you neglect the sporting factor and racing entirely. I love racing so much, but I really think I’ll probably stop watching F1 in a few years, or even sooner. These negative changes happen so fast, I didn’t predict such decay, especially considering some positive changes (they do exist, but in the end that won’t matter so much). They even got the whole caravan kidnapped in Saudi last year, but the state itself, but even that can’t stop them from going there again. I can’t expect any positive change from such people.
Lewisham Milton
3rd September 2022, 11:15
There’s still time for them to make a pig’s ear of turn 13 on the Strip, by adding another chicane… might as well let them DRS back and forth past each other, like a race in a bad movie.
Mso
3rd September 2022, 12:37
Poor layout before, poor layout now.
I also take issue with the grandiose claims about passing X number of world famous landmarks. I know quite a bit about landmarks, and I can tell you that none of these so-called landmarks are famous anywhere outside of Las Vegas.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
3rd September 2022, 12:59
That 180 degree sweeper was really the only interesting part of the track so the fact that has been altered & replaced with a rather generic looking chicane just makes a dull track even worse.
When I look at the layout, Look at the renders & watch the simulations there’s just nothing about this track that excites, There’s no part of it that gets me excited about watching cars racing around it. It’s just another track that has a similar feel to other recent street/temporary circuits.
Maybe 15+ years ago a night race on a very open & high speed street circuit would have been more of an exciting proposition because it would have been a new & unique thing for F1. But now we have Singapore, Jeddah, Miami & Baku so those elements are no longer new or interesting & since the layout itself is also not especially interesting I just don’t see a reason to be that excited for it, Especially when we have much better circuits under threat as a result of it’s addition (And other circuits like it).