Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, sitting alongside winner Max Verstappen in the post-race press conference for Formula 1’s returning event in Las Vegas, was clearly buzzing from the adrenalin surges of battling the Red Bulls in a genuine multi-car victory fight for the first time in forever. But under the surface, he knew something much better had slipped through his fingers.
The 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix ultimately swung on a series of race neutralisation calls. The last was the single biggest element in yet another swashbuckling, wild, thrilling Leclerc defeat.
Ever since Carlos Sainz had secured pole for the Italian GP and battled Verstappen so brilliantly at Monza, it was obvious that Vegas would present Ferrari another opportunity. The 3.9-mile track with its 1.4-mile blast along Las Vegas Boulevard – the Strip – was perfect for the Italian squad to deploy its ‘Monza special’ flatter rear wing package.
The temperatures here, while far from as cold as feared, still had the paddock’s personnel clad in coats and jackets all weekend. And in such conditions, Ferrari’s in-race tyre overheating and degradation problem vanishes. “This says a lot about our car,” Leclerc would later reflect.
In fact, with the few corners on this new layout slow, technical in places, and requiring the kind of kerb-riding the SF-23 likes and Leclerc seems to love, allied with the RB19 hating such track elements, Ferrari’s position got stronger still. The Red Bull also lacked the types of corner that help it switch on the front tyres well elsewhere, forcing it to avoid super-low-downforce rear wings to find that energy where it could – at Monza and here too in Vegas.
The low-grip track, with its slippery, bitumen-retaining surface, played a part too. That exacerbates rear tyre sliding, and the cool temperatures also made tyre graining a major
