Verstappen Flags Tire Warm-Up as Red Bull's Biggest Las Vegas Problem

Max Verstappen knows exactly what beats Red Bull in Las Vegas, and it isn't another car. Asked whether Red Bull would be the team to beat at next weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix, the four-time champion went straight to the tires: getting them working in the cold, on a smooth street surface, is the problem that decides the weekend.

“I have no idea because Vegas is so different and so difficult for everyone to understand,” Verstappen said. “I have to say that it's normally not our best track because of that. But we'll see if we can get the tires to work. That's the key, to be honest, around there.” Track temperatures are expected to sit between 10 and 12 degrees Celsius across the three days — cold enough to make Las Vegas one of the most unpredictable rounds of the season for tire behavior.

The mechanics are unforgiving. The Strip Circuit's smooth surface makes the cars slide rather than bite, and sliding scrubs the tire's surface while the core stays cold — producing graining and uneven temperatures instead of the heat build-up drivers get on grippier tracks. A tire that's cold in the middle and torn on the surface gives a driver neither grip nor confidence, and it can change from one run to the next.

Red Bull's history at this type of venue is the worry. The team has traditionally been less comfortable on low-grip, cold-track layouts, where downforce loads build less aggressively than through high-speed corners, than it is at preserving tires in hot conditions. Verstappen won in Las Vegas last year from second on the grid, and he was quick to warn against reading that result forward — cars behave so differently from one Vegas weekend to the next that last year's answer doesn't transfer.

He isn't alone in the concern. After São Paulo, Lando Norris warned that racing in Las Vegas without tire temperature could be “horrible,” and Verstappen himself described the current compounds' working range as too small — fine when hot, “like a rock” when cold. Red Bull felt the window problem in Brazil, where its tires intermittently fell outside the optimal range even as Verstappen climbed from 21st on the grid to second at the flag.

There's a second Vegas problem, and it's electrical. The Strip's long straight forces a deployment choice under the 2026 energy rules: spend the hybrid power early and arrive at the braking zone exposed, or tuck in behind another car mid-straight and take the tow. Verstappen told the FIA press conference he'd need to slipstream there, likened it to Monza, and called the energy management on that straight very, very difficult. “That's the game this year,” he said.

The stakes riding on Red Bull solving both problems are concrete. Kimi Antonelli has the drivers' title settled and Mercedes has the constructors', but Verstappen sits second in the standings with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton behind him, and Las Vegas opens the closing triple-header — Lusail on November 27–29, Yas Marina on December 4–6. Practice starts Thursday, November 19, qualifying runs Friday at 8 p.m. Pacific and the 50-lap race goes Saturday, November 21 at 8 p.m. on the 6.2-kilometer Strip Circuit.

Verstappen's framing is the honest one: nobody arrives in Las Vegas knowing whose car the cold will suit. Some cars, he noted, suddenly work extremely well on a track like this, and the field has seen it before. Red Bull's job between now and Thursday is the least glamorous in the sport — coaxing heat into rubber at 10 degrees — and by his own account, it's the whole race.

Brazil gave Red Bull a preview of the failure mode and the fix in the same weekend. On the soft tire at Interlagos, Verstappen said, the car was very competitive and stayed that way to the flag — proof the pace exists when the rubber is in its window. The problem is that a soft-tire run in São Paulo weather is not a rehearsal for a cold street circuit at night, and nobody in the team is pretending otherwise.

There is also history working against certainty in both directions. Las Vegas has already produced swings where a car that looked ordinary elsewhere suddenly worked, and a favorite suddenly didn't, because the cold rearranged the order faster than setup changes could chase it. Verstappen acknowledged as much: some cars suddenly work extremely well on a track like this, and the field has seen it before. That cuts for Red Bull as easily as against it — which is precisely his point about having no idea.