Lewis Hamilton described the Las Vegas Strip Circuit as “incredibly fast” and enjoyable, in complete contrast with Max Verstappen’s opinion of the third Formula 1 track on the 2023 calendar.
Verstappen has publicly slammed the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix for a plethora of reasons such as the emphasis on spectacle over sport and the layout of the track which he considers boring due to the low amount of corners.
But Hamilton, who holds the record for most F1 wins on different circuits, was positive about the latest addition to the F1 calendar and praised the organisers for their ability to solve the safety issues from Free Practice 1.
“It’s incredibly fast, and it’s a lot of fun,” Hamilton told F1TV. “I had so much fun today, I’m so glad we did get to run again.
“It’s obviously not great in FP1 with what happened but they did a great job to fix it and yeah, it’s an interesting session.”
Hamilton gives his forecast for the race
After a disastrous 2023 Brazilian GP, Mercedes look to bounce back from their Interlagos woes in Nevada and Hamilton believes they are on the way to do so and that they’re showing competitive pace with their rivals.
“I think when we’re all out on similar tyres, I don’t think we’re too far off,” Hamilton added. “Obviously everyone’s got graining and people are running out of tyres but everyone was, I think, in a similar boat and that’s a consequence of the temperature or track surface.
“So you’re sliding through a lot of the low-speed corners and also the high-speed corners quite a lot because you don’t have a huge amount of rear-load because you need the straight line speed.”
In his career, Hamilton has taken 104 pole positions and is widely regarded as one of the best ever qualifiers in the sport, and he emphasised the importance of qualifying in Las Vegas due to the key role of track position.
“It’s massively challenging,” Hamilton concluded. “Even though they’ve got the long straights there’s not really a lot of places to overtake because the grip is so low and the tow is not huge.
“It’s a bit like Monza when you’re behind people because you’ve got the small wings so there’s not a lot of drag, so it’s going to be interesting. Qualifying, I think, will be really important and then obviously degradation is going to be key.”
