Las Vegas Grand Prix could be the coldest on record
Between cool air in the late evening and a chance for rain, the weather for this Saturday's Formula 1 race in Las Vegas will be far from ideal for drivers.
Transcript
00:00 The Las Vegas Grand Prix kicks off today and has potential to be, believe this or not,
00:04 the coldest race in F1 history.
00:08 So we wanted to bring in our AccuWeather regional expert, Alan Ruppert, who has the latest on
00:12 this cold situation.
00:13 And Alan, you're pretty dialed into racing and Grand Prix.
00:16 So just off the bat, we understand this is happening late Saturday evening.
00:21 So what's up with the unusual timing of this event?
00:25 That's right.
00:26 It's happening really for breakfast time in Europe.
00:30 Most of the races, at least for Europe, happen in the afternoon and evening time frame for
00:35 them.
00:36 And because it's just a late race in Las Vegas, it's really difficult to have that any time
00:44 it works out, since they're about 12 hours different for racing in Europe compared to
00:48 the US.
00:49 That makes total sense.
00:50 So somebody in the eastern US would be tuning in at 1 a.m., but this is a 10 p.m. race Pacific
00:55 time on Saturday night.
00:57 And we have some concerns about the weather in many different ways here.
01:00 But one, right off the bat, the temperature.
01:02 Again, that's the big headline tied to this.
01:04 So how will colder than normal weather impact the race?
01:08 Well, we're going to have issues with the tire temperatures.
01:11 Really taking a while to get up to their correct temperature.
01:15 Most racing tires for F1 are about 100 degrees Celsius, about 210 Fahrenheit for actual temperatures
01:23 when they're racing.
01:24 And that really makes it a lot more difficult to get there when it's colder out.
01:28 There's no sun out, so it's going to be more difficult for the actual track to be warming
01:33 up the tires.
01:34 And there's long straightaways, too.
01:36 So they're not going into turns and using the tires as much as they typically do in
01:41 most races.
01:42 And also, without the sun, it's going to keep the track temperatures down as well.
01:47 Temperatures we're looking at temps during the race in the mid to upper 50s.
01:53 It's just going to be difficult to get much temperature, much heat in the tires.
01:58 Cars are just going to be really, really loose, especially for the first several laps until
02:04 their tires are warmed up.
02:06 And separate from the temperature issues, just briefly, Alan, in about 30 seconds or
02:09 so, how could a stray lingering shower impact the event?
02:14 Well, any shower can make it really even that more difficult to race on the track, just
02:21 making it slick and especially being on a road course in the middle of the city.
02:27 It's going to be very difficult to get any much of the rain off.
02:31 So it'll make it even more difficult for that.
02:33 All right.
02:34 Well, we appreciate your expertise.
02:35 Alan Reppert, AccuWeather meteorologist and somebody who's more dialed into the world
02:40 of racing than many of us as well.
02:43 So thanks again for that, Alan.
02:44 And we appreciate your expertise.
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