What we learned from Thursday practice at the Las Vegas GP

Grip was at an absolute premium when the clock started in Las Vegas. A peppering of dust obfuscated the racing line in the very early stages of FP1 for the Las Vegas Grand Prix but, even when removed by continued running, the circuit continued to give the drivers little to work with.

Street circuits are never entirely festooned with grip but, when allied to the cold temperatures, it seemed inevitable that there would be a difficult task in getting the tyres to truly bite into Las Vegas Strip. And so it proved; there were no horrendous rear-end snaps throughout practice, and no real car/wall (or drain) interface across the two hours of running – instead, it was the front end that refused to dig in under braking.

Mercedes seemed to have the best run of anyone in Thursday’s sessions. Lewis Hamilton headlined both sessions, as both he and George Russell appeared to be well placed to attack the times on soft tyres throughout. But as the team itself knows too well, it must preserve that pace into the next sessions; there are prior examples of Mercedes springing out of the blocks in FP1 and FP2, only to turn up in FP3 with a complete desertion of its previous day’s performance.

The usual contenders all appear to be in the reckoning too, but each to varying extents – some have their roots in better qualifying pace, while others expect to be stronger in the race.

The story of the day

After Hamilton admitted that he thought about walking away after a fraught Brazilian Grand Prix, Mercedes’ pace at the start of the Las Vegas ‘weekend’ must have vindicated his decision to shut those feelings of discontent out. A 0.396s advantage over team-mate Russell, secured on his final lap of FP1, ensured Hamilton would lead a Mercedes 1-2 after the opening hour of running.

Of course, FP1 is largely unrepresentative; track conditions notwithstanding, there was also further set-up work to carry out as each team wondered how to balance a low-downforce arrangement with a quick tyre warm-up phase – since the two rarely go hand in hand. But Mercedes nonetheless looked quick, especially after a couple of preparatory laps to build heat into the C5 Pirellis.

In that session, Mercedes’ nearest rival was McLaren. Lando Norris’ best lap of FP1 was 0.953s off the pace, although this was largely down to the effect of track evolution and McLaren’s decision not to time-chase as conditions continued to improve. Perhaps the FP2 margin was more realistic, as Norris was just 0.011s off Hamilton’s line-leading pace at the top of the order.

Norris thus separated the two Mercedes cars, as Russell was a further two-tenths away, to suggest that McLaren was going to be in contention for pole too – even if Oscar Piastri did not demonstrate quite the same level of pace across the two Thursday sessions.

Ferrari was close in FP2. Carlos Sainz was just over a quarter of a second shy of Hamilton’s effort and, while Charles Leclerc was another two-tenths behind, GPS data shows that most of that lost time came in the second sector, which the Monegasque could not recover from over the rest of the lap. Regardless, one-lap pace isn’t the Prancing Horse’s forte in 2024 – race pace, however, is. And we’ll delve into that shortly…

“The low fuel stuff has been okay – the high fuel, that was shocking” Lando Norris

Red Bull, for its part, was out of position in FP2 and Max Verstappen only set the 17th-best time of the second practice session. That time was set on mediums, however; neither Red Bull driver did a representative lap on the red-walled rubber owing to a red flag that snuffed out any attempts at a final flyer. The stoppage was produced by Alex Albon’s Williams, which had spent much of FP2 lying prostrate in the garage with a fuel system issue. Although this was seemingly fixed and allowed the Anglo-Thai to set course, he managed just three-and-a-half laps before the car packed up again. Team principal James Vowles clarified that the second issue was electronic in nature, albeit still fuel system related, and the car’s sensors shut itself down to ensure the Mercedes power unit was unaffected.

This was the sole stoppage across the two hours. There were no repeats of escaping drain covers this year, nor were there any real brushes with the wall despite the low-grip conditions. One might commend the drivers but, to paraphrase Roy Keane, it is their job…

Norris laments “shocking” long-run pace – but McLaren still in the pound seats

“I think the low fuel stuff has been OK – the high fuel, that was shocking,” Norris assessed after practice. “Plenty of things to look into. This kind of combination of things, and when we struggle with the front graining and stuff like that, I’m just not very good at it. So it’s always a bit of a struggle for me. But we have a good amount of time to work on it.”

That’s his personal feeling on how his MCL38 felt around the Las Vegas Strip but, in truth, McLaren is sitting reasonably pretty as it stands. Piastri’s seven-lap medium tyre stint might have been dwarfed by some of the other runs around the order, but his average overall time was about a quarter of a second clear of the next nearest contender – Sainz’s Ferrari.

The Ferrari’s top-end speed is a bit stronger than that of the McLaren, and that’s evident from the GPS data; as the straight or acceleration zone grows longer, the more the needle moves towards the SF-24. But the McLaren gets its time back in traction, suggesting that the orange cars are a little heavier on downforce to try to keep the tyres in the right temperature and to look after them through the rear-limited sections on the track.

FP2 medium tyre averages

In that regard, it’s not dissimilar to Baku – but McLaren no longer has a “mini-DRS” wing to take advantage of on the straights – so there’s a very good chance that Ferrari can provide an even sterner challenge in Vegas.

Red Bull and Mercedes are, on race pace, about half a second behind according to the average FP2 medium runs. Russell’s high-fuel run was a lap longer compared to that of Perez, who produced the more complete stint versus Verstappen with no ‘anomalous’ times across his medium-tyre run. Perez’s time is taken but, extrapolating from Verstappen’s clean laps and removing the anomalies, this brings Red Bull’s average long-run pace to the 1m39.0s border and falling either side of that. Thus, one can assume Verstappen will be in the mix with the McLarens and Ferraris, assuming all make equal gains overnight.

“It just feels massively tyre-related,” Verstappen stated after the session. “The balance of the car is not even that wrong. I think it’s just we have no grip – like driving on ice at the moment.”

Red Bull’s one-lap pace is the bigger concern to it, and an attempt to strip downforce out of the car – per Sergio Perez – has made it “tricky” in the low-speed corners. He noted that “the rear is stepping out a lot” with its shallow rear wing, and so it would not be unexpected to see the Milton Keynes outfit opt for a wing with a bit more heft.

In the colder conditions, Mercedes may well be able to challenge. It is well known that the W15 starts to become increasingly surly when the mercury starts to rise, so the cool desert air should be able to temper its emotions to some degree. Russell also hoped that the team could keep finding performance overnight, noting that Mercedes tends to slip back in the order as the other teams are more interested in masking their true pace.

“I think the perception of us losing performance is maybe not quite fair,” Russell remarked.

“I think it’s more of a function that our competitors don’t use their high power, they might be running a bit more fuel than us on a Friday, so historically they’ve been sandbagging a little bit more. When they take [the fuel] off they go into their normal position.

“It’s the first time I’ve had a day like that, I think this year. The car was feeling really good in P1, in P2 less so. So we have got some work to do overnight” Lewis Hamilton

“There’s a possibility that will happen again tomorrow, but the gap we showed this morning and this evening has been pretty substantial. But I’m sure the other rivals are going to work hard overnight and close that gap, but I just hope we can continue the form.”

Of the midfielders, Haas appeared to show good form; after the surprise 2-3 punch from Alpine in Brazil, one that set the French team into the thick of the constructors’ battle over sixth, Haas will be seeking retribution at its third home race of the year. It appears that Alpine and RB are very closely matched in the race pace stakes, although Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon suggested that the A524s might have the edge on qualifying pace. RB endured a tricky FP1, but Tsunoda was at least in the top 10 by the end of FP2.

Williams’ position in this is unclear, as running was lost through Albon’s fuel system issues – and Franco Colapinto struggled with grip in FP2 and couldn’t find his feet. The team should be a little ahead of Sauber on raw pace, although the Swiss team seemed to bring itself into touching distance with a new floor. Aston Martin did not put together an entirely representative stint on the mediums; Stroll’s six-lap stint was inconsistent, and Alonso’s seven-lap string of laps was very slow.

What they said

Lewis Hamilton: “It’s the first time I’ve had a day like that, I think this year. The car was feeling really good in P1, in P2 less so. So we have got some work to do overnight. It is difficult to know exactly where we are, or why we are where we are, but I really enjoyed driving the track and we will see whether the car is still the same tomorrow. Hot conditions are a little bit worse for us but the race pace is not that great, so there is work to do overnight to try and figure out how we can have better race pace without losing pace, actual pace around the lap. But as I say, it was nice to get consecutive sectors and the car not throw me off.”

Max Verstappen: “I think we struggled a lot with making the tyres work over one lap, especially. Long run, I think started off a bit more competitive, but even there, I think we need to fine-tune a few things. But yeah, the one-lap pace is quite far off. Of course, it’s quite unique conditions around here that are very cold, but at the end of the day, it’s the same for everyone. So [we] need to try and understand what we are doing wrong at the moment.”

Lando Norris: “I can focus more on the high fuel than low fuel for now. Qualifying at the front will always help everything else, so there are plenty of things to look into tonight. I hope [the track grip improves]. It probably won’t. It’s just very difficult, super low grip. I feel like I could drive a road car quicker than we drive at the minute!”