Las Vegas Grand Prix: Race Preview

      For the second year Formula 1 is packing the season finale into three race weekends in a row. The schedule is controversial. Over the year teams get tired, the likelihood of mistakes grows with each race, and there will be no time to fix such a mistake. But that’s what makes it interesting.

      These three circuits span 12 time zones. From Las Vegas to Qatar it’s 13,000 km and a 16-hour flight. From Qatar to Abu Dhabi it’s 600 km and a one-hour flight. Three consecutive rounds (in Qatar — with a Saturday sprint) will conclude the stunning 2025 season and will bring the current regulations to a close.

      We don’t yet know the name of the champion. There are still three contenders, but compared with after Singapore, where McLaren a month and a half ago clinched the Constructors’ Cup early, the situation in the leading group has changed quite radically.

      However, Piastri stopped winning after Zandvoort. His best result in the following six races was third place in Monza, and after that there were no podiums. How and why this could have happened can only be guessed. Some talk about psychological pressure in the title fight, others that the car stopped suiting Oscar after the latest upgrade, but the reason is unlikely to be just one.

      Last year the race in Vegas ended with a Mercedes one-two and Max Verstappen’s title. This time the outcome will be different, but nobody will clinch the title prematurely in Vegas. In the best-case scenario Lando Norris could secure the championship early only in Qatar.

      Right now Norris leads teammate Oscar Piastri by 24 points, and Max Verstappen by 49 points, with three weekends to go. And of course everyone would like to see a fight for victory until the last lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. That would be a fitting finale to a worthy season.

      The Las Vegas track does not suit McLaren. When it’s cold and the asphalt is smooth, Mercedes and Ferrari usually gain, and in such tight competition every little detail matters. Last year Mercedes took a one-two in Vegas — Russell and Hamilton led every session of the weekend, and Carlos Sainz, driving for Ferrari, finished third.

      Some expect that in Vegas McLaren drivers won’t be able to fight for the win and will try to minimize the damage, while in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, where it’s warm, they will be the favorites.

      At Red Bull Racing they openly say that to fight for the title they need at least one retirement by Lando Norris in the three remaining races; then the chances would be evened up.

      The stakes are very high!

      In 1981 and 1982 the rounds in the parking lot of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas closed the season. Back then the bumpy temporary track bounded by concrete blocks pleased no one; now everything is almost perfect, although the first event in 2023 began with a scandal. The first practice lasted less than ten minutes — several cars were seriously damaged after hitting an open drainage cover, and Ocon and Sainz even had to change chassis.

      The start of the second practice was delayed by two hours to check all thirty drainage pits. Spectators who had paid a lot of money were made to leave the stands, because security staff were reaching the end of their shifts and, under union rules, could not work overtime.

      Empty stands, which had been almost completely full in the first practice, were simply not shown in the broadcast of the second session. The first attempt was a flop.