F1 News: Drivers Wished For "Jeddah" Levels Of Grip On Las Vegas' Slippery Track
Expressing their disappointment over Las Vegas GP's slippery track surface, several Formula 1 drivers wished to have grip levels like Saudi Arabia's Jeddah Street Circuit which has set a "gold standard" for surface grip levels.
The absence of support series laying rubber down in Las Vegas has made the new surface more challenging. In addition, because the street section is open for public use during the day, it gets dusty by the time Formula 1 begins its action.
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AlphaTauri driver Daniel Ricciardo revealed that additional efforts could have been made to make the street circuit as grippy as the one in Saudi Arabia. He said:
"I think the surface is one thing us drivers haven't loved.
"It's hard when obviously it's a street track, it's public roads.
"Obviously, they've got machines that they could use to kind of like blast the circuit, get the stone out a little more I guess, and make it a little more abrasive.
"On our wish list, maybe we wish it was like a little bit more of a Saudi level of grip, because that's really good for kind of a street circuit. So that's probably the only thing that I haven't loved is that kind of slippery feeling. Otherwise, it's been alright."
Adding to Jeddah's strong points, Mercedes driver George Russell said that the track offered drivers multiple lines to follow which improves racing by a large margin. He added:
"Jeddah is the gold standard of track surfaces.
"We've been saying this for many years now. We've been to a number of tracks where they've resurfaced it, or new tracks, and the grip has been really poor, and there's only been one racing line.
"Whereas in Jeddah the whole width of a circuit is very good grip. They've done an exceptional job there. That's what we want.
"I think it was in Miami in the first year at least you couldn't go off the racing line, there was no grip, and that doesn't offer any racing. I think it's been a challenge here in Vegas, because we've been the only cars on track too."
Highlighting the importance of good surface since it determines the quality of racing, Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso said:
"I don't know why they don't copy the asphalt that we know works, like in Saudi or some other circuits.
"Because that could maybe change the fun that we have behind the wheel and maybe the overtaking tomorrow. We will not be able to go offline and this kind of thing. So it's sad."
However, Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola explained that the Jeddah treatment in Las Vegas would not be a practical option. He said:
"That's a consideration that I share with them.
"In Jeddah they made this very aggressive treatment with high pressure water. It's a sort of artificial ageing.
"The treatment they did in Jeddah is ageing the tarmac by two, three, four years. If you remove the bitumen on top, then it's a completely different situation.
"That cannot happen here because part of the track is open to road circulation and obviously, you have to respect some parameters that are for the normal streets, and some other parts are not open, but obviously you have unique consistency across the circuit.
"So if you do this treatment, then it's difficult after the race. You should put a new tarmac again, but I don't think is in the plan of the promoter."
