Hiroki Tsunoda F1 Las Vegas GP “Everything is unknown and it’s still speculation”[F1-Gate.com]

Hiroki Tsunoda talked about his enthusiasm for the 2023 F1 Round 22 Las Vegas GP. Scuderia AlphaTauri has been in good form since introducing a major update in Austin, with Yuki Tsunoda setting the fastest lap in the US GP and finishing 10th, and an unfortunate collision in Mexico City cost him no points. However, in Brazil, he earned 5 points in the sprint and final.

Combined with Daniel Ricciardo’s place in Mexico, AlphaTauri are now seven points behind seventh-placed Williams. “The last three races have been really good, we’ve been able to score points in every race, and the team has momentum right now,” Yuki Tsunoda said. “It’s very positive that we’re closing the gap on Williams. A lot of that is down to the upgrades they put in in Austin, which gave us confidence and pace. To be honest, like we saw in Brazil, We did not expect such a level of performance.Now we must carry this positivity into the next two races, compete aggressively and score enough points to finish in the top seven in the Constructors’ Championship at the end of the season. “I drove around Las Vegas in the simulator. It has very long straights and is very fast, but most of the corners are slow so you need big brakes. In the past, I have raced around Las Vegas on circuits with long straights. On a positive note, I feel this track has very similar characteristics to Baku, which I usually do well in. I’m optimistic, but looking at the championship, I think Williams are expected to be strong on this type of track, so I want to fight hard to outdo them.” “A big topic leading up to this race is the possibility that the cars may be on the track at night. I mean it can be very cold when you drive.Of course our engineers are studying this and the temperature is the same for everyone.Especially when it comes to qualifying, how do you warm up the tires? It will definitely affect how the tires behave. Even though we’ve done many laps in the simulator and the team has done a lot of simulations based on track data, How much grip we’ll get is still speculation, everything is unknown, but with a lot of data and correlation work we feel well prepared and have a good idea heading into FP1. “If the road surface is polished enough, a relatively low downforce setup should be effective for long straights. You can gain a lot of time by running with low downforce. A large, abrasive surface also helps the tires warm up. But if the surface is very smooth, you may need more downforce. We’ll have to wait until FP1.” I just hope you don’t feel freezing cold inside! Another interesting element might be all the moving lights on the strip. Other night races don’t have as much lighting outside the track, so you should check that out. But the floodlights on a real racetrack are supposed to be bright enough to cancel out other lights, so I don’t think they’ll be a distraction.”