The Las Vegas Strip Circuit consists of 17 corners spread out over 6.2 kilometres of city roads and a purpose-built section which houses the pit lane, paddock and opening corners.
Advert |
It is the second-longest Formula 1 track, behind Spa-Francorchamps, and one of eight anticlockwise venues on the calendar. Five of them are street circuits, and the season ends with three anticlockwise tracks in a row.
Officially there are 11 left-hand and six right-hand corners. The 1.9 kilometre flat-out section down the city’s famous Strip (which is between turns 12 and 14 in the lap) is the second longest full-throttle section of a circuit in F1. That trumps the 1.875km stretch between the exit of La Source and braking for Les Combes at Spa, but comes short of the 20-corner Baku circuit where drivers can go at least 2km at full throttle from the exit of turn 16 before approaching turn one.
The highest speed achieved in F1 so far this year was by Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas at the Mexican Grand Prix, going through the Mexico City speed trap at 361.9kph. Teams’ predictions of what speeds will be possible in Las Vegas have varied, with 350kph definitely possible but matching the 359kph of Monza or 361kph of the high altitude Mexico track might not be in reach.
It is expected that 4.84km of the lap in Las Vegas will be covered while at full throttle, equating to 66% of the lap time. In distance covered at full throttle as a percentage of the whole lap that puts the track only behind Jeddah, Bahrain and Monza, but there are eight circuits where F1 drivers spend a greater proportion of the lap time flat-out.
At the end of the Strip is one of the lap’s five braking zones, only three of which are expected to be significant braking events.
Start/finish area
This is the first bespoke section of track, on an area of land that was mostly grit and sand before F1 bought it for a nine-figure sum. The pit lane runs alongside on the left, and does the same into turns one and two where it rejoins the track.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
Turns one and two
Turn one (also pictured top at night) is the first of three heavy braking zones in the lap and is a hairpin that leads directly into the minimal direction change of turn two which drivers will accelerate out of for the very short blast to turn three.
Pit exit
Drivers will want to hug the barrier on the right as they increase their speed into turns three and four, and this is not only because it is the fastest way though the continual right-hander but also because the pit exit is on the left between turns two and three and therefore a wide turn-in could result in contact with an unsighted car exiting the pits.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
Turn three
Turn three looks like one of few fairly quick corners, which opens up at its exit.
Koval lane straight
After turn four is the first long straight of the lap, and at the end of it is the next heavy braking zone of turn five.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
Turn five
This 90-degree right-hander takes drivers into the section of track that goes around Madison Square Garden’s recently opened Sphere. F1 originally planned for turn five to be a 180-degree corner in the style of turn four at the Sochi Autodrom. However a slower design was chosen instead.
Turn six
Drivers will experience the first half of the planned left-hander, so taking them around one-quarter of the Sphere, before a slow-speed section.
Turns seven, eight and nine
To navigate the next quarter of the Sphere, there is a sharp left-hander followed swiftly by a right-hander. From there the drivers soon arrive at turn nine which starts off tight but gets wider as it straightens out and heads onto Sands Avenue.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
Turn 10 and 11
Sands Avenue snakes right then left – two corners which would have been tackled at much higher speeds under the original design – and the track follows it for turns 10 and 11 and with increasing speed.
Turn 12
This left-hander has some run-off due to the speed drivers approach it at. It is likely to be one of the most important corners on the track due to the long, high-speed section which follows it.
Drivers go around the Venetian Resort and onto the Strip, the road that this whole circuit was designed to include and also one of the longest full-throttle stretches on the F1 calendar.
The Strip
On the Strip the drivers rush past several casinos, including the Caesars Palace hotel that F1 raced in the car park of in 1981 and 1982, the Bellagio fountain and Paris Las Vegas with its replica Eiffel Tower copy.
Turn 13
This is a high-speed kink in The Strip that will be taken at full throttle and is arguably less of a challenge than what follows, which is the barriers on either side shifting to the right mid-straight to channel the drivers into the lanes on the right of what would usually be a very wide road if F1 was not racing there.
Turns, 14, 15 and 16
The third heavy braking zone after 1.9km of increasing speeds leads into a left-right-left chicane and E Harmon Avenue. Drivers go past Planet Hollywood as they exit the Strip.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
Turn 17
After blasting along E Harmon Avenue, there’s a high-speed left-hander to tackle which will feature a change in asphalt since this is the newly built section. The pit entrance is at the apex of turn 17, which means drivers have to make sure they have the inside line if they have other cars nearby and that they brake hard as they enter the pit lane. It is the last corner of the lap, with the timing line just beyond the exit.
2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix
- Tost blames track inspection oversight for Sainz’s damage in Las Vegas
- Hard to repeat “rare” combination of factors behind Vegas shunt – Norris
- Las Vegas Grand Prix “got a lot more hate than it deserved” – Sargeant
- Williams’ “incredible” Vegas qualifying made us “poor” in race–Vowles
- Piastri is first rookie to take two fastest laps in a season since Hamilton
Browse all 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix articles
