Formula 1: How Las Vegas combines the best of F1 tracks

Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix features: No. 4 – Long sweeper

Inspiration: Sochi, Vietnam

Long sweeping corners are formerly a signature killer of racing in past-gen machinery.

The long sweeping corners of Sochi — and presumably the unused Vietnam circuit — proved to be a great challenge for drivers during their qualifying sessions. But the racing aspect of these types of corners will now be far more applicable on Sundays in the new cars, which can race closer in downforce-dependent sections of track.

What makes turn six especially impactful on the new Las Vegas track layout relative to Vietnam and its true predecessor in Sochi are the low-downforce setups that will need to be used to have lap pace.

With Las Vegas possessing some of the longest straights on the calendar, rivaling the likes of Jeddah and Spa, teams will need to implement low-downforce setups which may be slower in qualifying but will prove their worth under racing conditions.

With such low-downforce setups applied, this long sweeper will produce swathes of understeer for drivers to manage in the heavier cars, and it will produce opportunities for trailing drivers to create cutbacks and gain runs through the sweeping corners which feed into the main straight.