(Motorsports news) Friday qualifying will begin at midnight, while the F1 race on Saturday will begin at 10 p.m. Nevada time, with the latter potentially running until after midnight if there is a red flag delay and restart. According to historical F1 data, the ambient temperature in mid-November is anticipated to fall below 10 degrees Celsius, and it may fall as low as five degrees.

Those kinds of data obviously emphasize the importance of getting the tyres into the correct window, notably during F1 qualifying laps, at the start, and after safety car restarts. Friday qualifying will begin at midnight, while the race on Saturday will begin at 10 p.m. Nevada time, with the latter potentially running until after midnight if there is a red flag delay and restart.

According to historical data, the ambient temperature in mid-November is anticipated to fall below 10 degrees Celsius, and it may fall as low as five degrees. Those kinds of data obviously emphasize the importance of getting the tyres into the correct window, notably during qualifying laps, at the start, and after safety car restarts.

“You just try to identify the risks with the new circuit, figure out what your contingencies will be, and whether you need any special car spec to deal with it.” And we’re going through it right now. “However, as I previously stated, if it’s at the very cold end of predictions, it’s difficult to predict how the tyres will perform.”

Jonathan Eddolls, AlphaTauri’s F1 principal race engineer, agreed with the resemblance to testing. “Temperatures will probably be one of the most difficult challenges,” he predicted. “I believe we’re looking at around 10 degrees Celsius of ambient temperature, which is very similar to the winter test.”

“We’ve done winter tests in Barcelona at those temperatures for many years.” So it won’t be wholly unfamiliar to us. “But it’s definitely a step away from where we’re going to be operating the current tyres compared to what we’re used to in a normal F1 season.” Ayao Komatsu, Haas’ director of engineering, argued that the weather could potentially benefit his team, which has struggled with high tyre temperatures this year.

“It’s a very different temperature window, so we’ve got to get the tyres to work,” he explained. “However, if I had to choose between hot and cold conditions right now, I’d go with cold!” So, hopefully, we’ll be able to make it work. “I think it’ll be a big challenge for us, especially our team, with the tools we have in terms of pre-event simulation, which are more limited than, say, Mercedes.”

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