Alpine F1 drivers take turns telling fans about the championship circuits, and this time Esteban Ocon got behind the wheel of the simulator to drive around a virtual version of the Las Vegas City Ring.
Esteban: Ocon: “Hello everyone! Today we drive along the city circuit in Las Vegas – in my opinion it is still very underestimated, but I really enjoy driving there, especially in racing mode.
We start back on the Las Vegas Strip and go through the last two turns of the circle. Last year, Turn 17 wasn’t that difficult to pass even in the first practice, but overall the track surface was quite slippery because the asphalt was completely new.
In Turn 1 it is important not to miss the braking point, it is a long left turn and it is not easy to accelerate at the exit. Then we approach fast right bends, where we have to try to maintain the maximum possible speed, after which we switch on DRS on the straight – last year I was able to overtake there several times.
We pass the right 5th corner in 3rd gear, and on the left you will see the Sphere, and then, passing the apex, we must try to place the car as straight as possible on the track while braking to avoid a forest correctly overcome slow turns, left and right, and left again. This 9th bend is generally a hairpin bend and we try to reach the top as late as possible.
Then we give it full throttle, and now there are two very difficult corners, because the car hits the bottom of the track quite forcefully during the race, causing it to lose stability.
Before the 90 degree bend to the left we brake as late as possible and rush quite close to the barriers. After this we head back to the Las Vegas Strip, and even there we are impressed by the bright spectacle with all these lights and everything else happening on both sides of the highway.
Moreover, we accelerate to crazy speeds there, and if we manage to use the slipstream behind another car in qualifying or a race, we can gain back a lot of time.
Then we brake as late as possible, attack the curb and at the exit of Turn 16 we give full throttle, and if you manage to get behind another car at the end of the lap, that also helps enormously. And the white line is already visible there, and we are no longer going to try to reduce the distance as much as possible, because we have already driven around Las Vegas!”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
