F1 Las Vegas GP event chief reacts to temperature fears

Expected cold temperatures are set to present F1 teams with an additional challenge on a brand-new street circuit at this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, with Pirelli admitting the race will be a “step into the unknown”. 

Current forecasts suggest that temperatures could drop into single figures when cars hit the track for the night race. 

However, Las Vegas Grand Prix’s chief executive officer believes the drivers will welcome cooler conditions, especially after suffering in the intense heat of the recent Qatar Grand Prix. 

"I think the drivers will be quite happy to not be racing in the tremendous heat that they have experienced of late," Wilm told Sky. "You can always put layers on, it's hard to take layers off.

"And we have been working closely with the teams, the sporting department at Formula 1 and having conversations with Pirelli to ensure that we will have a high-quality degree of racing and that the tyres that will be brought to town for this event have been carefully chosen, given the variety of temperatures that could be experienced at night here in November.”

Regarding spectators, she added: "The electricity and the excitement that will be coming off the track and just the throngs of people that are going to be enjoying the race weekend together, I think will definitely raise temperatures enough so everyone will be comfortable.”

Teams have already expressed concerns about the challenges posed by expected low temperatures. 

"The temperatures are going to be probably one of the biggest challenges," AlphaTauri chief race engineer Jonathan Eddolls recently said. "I think we're expecting circa 10C of ambient, so very much like the winter test.

"In many years, we've done winter tests in Barcelona at those sorts of temperatures. So it's not going to be completely new to us.

"But definitely it's quite a step away in terms of where we're going to be operating the current tyres to what we're used to in a normal season."