As we now know for sure, the Red Bull RB19 is an unreal machine with aerodynamic intelligence, generating unimaginable lift forces and performing at its best when cornering very quickly and sustainably. There are few of these on the modern Las Vegas racetrack – it consists mainly of very slow corners and chicanes and huge straights.

On the contrary, such engraving is the best for the Ferrari SF-23. The Cavallino has superior mechanical grip in slow corners and also a superior top speed – due to the slightly higher power of its hybrid engine and, above all, the aerodynamic decisions made at its birth.

Here we have to go back about a year, in the words of the company’s managing director, Benedetto Vigna, who said that there were images like last year in Miami and Baku – where the Red Bulls lined up like jets on the straights the Ferraris passed by.

The Scuderia designers obeyed and built a car that was fast on the straights. This is something we saw in both Monza and Singapore – Las Vegas style tracks. There was another parameter as the SF-23 can heat up its tires faster than the Red Bull RB19.

On the coldest three days of the year in this year’s Formula 1, with temperatures of 10-15° Celsius in the air, this very crucial virtue – and sometimes “curse” – allowed the Scuderia to eliminate some of the scrawniness of the rear wing. To get rid of the extra boost that Red Bull needed to warm up its tires quickly enough. Leclerc had an even smaller boost rear wing available for the three days in Vegas.

At the same time, all of these track specifications put Red Bull at a disadvantage compared to normal tracks full of fast, long corners where it is invisible this year. Of course, the smoothness of Las Vegas’ asphalt was not as bad as that of Singapore, forcing the Milton Keynes team to drastically increase the RB19’s ground clearance, thus losing the most important and critical factor – its low height from the asphalt – which makes him dominant this year.

However, Red Bull Racing had to make some compromises in aerodynamic efficiency (the combination of lift generation and drag reduction) in order to achieve faster and better tire warm-up. In addition, Verstappen (but not Perez) opted for slightly lower boost settings for qualifying, which also had an impact in the race.

The Dutchman’s setup didn’t seem to work well with the middle tire. Because by removing a rear wing, he had to do the same at the front to restore aerodynamic balance. What’s more, the Dutchman had to push the same tire at the start of the race – and wear it out more than he would have liked – to get out of Leclerc’s DRS zone, then warm it up again as he cooled down under the safety car for the accident Lando Norris in lap 4.

The middle tire was much more suitable for Ferrari. As Max felt his grip slipping more and more, Leclerc even managed to overtake him on the track on lap 16 before the Dutchman eagerly drove into the pits. There he also had to serve the 5” penalty he received for pushing Leclerc off the track in the first corner, so he returned to the track in tenth place and was doomed to lose time behind slower cars.

But the hard rubber he installed deformed much more smoothly and fit the RB19 much better. And “It also had a low wear rate, so you could keep doing it Full throttle always speed up”explained the champion.

When Leclerc also made his pit stop on the 22nd of the 50 laps of the race, the Monegasse with Ferrari was well ahead of Verstappen and had 5 laps fresher tires, with which both planned – without a second pit stop. stop – to reach the finish line.

Max was much happier with the new set of hard tires, but by mid-race a large gap separated him from Leclerc, as did Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, George Russell’s Mercedes and Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari. He had to pass through them all, wasting several seconds on each one – since no one was willing to simply open the door for him. Red Bull threatened to lose at eye level for the first time this year.

But then the roulette wheel of this race suddenly shook, causing the ball to jump from red to blue at the last moment: when Verstappen tried to overtake Russell, the Englishman – as he later said, probably to apologize – did not do so. I could not get the red Bull couldn’t see because he was in his mirror’s blind spot – he got into Verstappen’s path mid-corner and the two collided.

Then Verstappen, on the verge of panic, asked his mechanic Gianpiero Lambiasse whether he had a knocker and whether the front wing was OK. Labiasse replied that his right front tire was fine and did not have a puncture. He didn’t answer the station.

The wing broke when it came into contact with the Mercedes. Its right vertical side broke, and there was undoubtedly a serious aerodynamic compromise made there. After the 5-second penalty, that looked like a second blow for Verstappen.

But that wasn’t it. In fact, it was the exact opposite of a blow: the decisive development that would soon give him victory. Because he brought the safety car onto the track for the second time in this race, which, like Perez, gave him a free pit stop. When Verstappen immediately made his second pit stop, he made an advantageous swap: some front wing lifting for a new set of hard rubber (which now took 5 laps). newer from Leclerc) and a better position in the ranking.

That’s it. Charles Leclerc’s first win of the year became Verstappen’s 18th of the year at that moment. Ferrari, in the few seconds they had, opted instead to move Leclerc to third on fresh tires to prevent him from taking the lead in the race. Additionally, his tires only had 5 laps of wear. And he got it.

When the safety car came out on lap 28, Verstappen attacked as soon as he had warmed up his well-suited hard tires and was soon overtaking Gasli, Piastri and Perez and finally Leclerc, thanks to the difference in grip and of course the DRS.

If the safety car had not closed the gap on lap 26, allowing Max to have five laps of fresher tires in the second half of the race – rather than five more laps of more worn ones – it is doubtful that he would have managed to overtake Leclerc a Ferrari that was driving on an extremely favorable route and had done everything flawlessly up to that point.

And let’s not forget that if she hadn’t had the other bad luck with Carlos Sainz on Friday, she could well have broken her strategy between her two drivers on the 26th lap to have the chance of winning with either option secure to be the better.

Leclerc said after the race that victory in the first Las Vegas GP since 1981 would have been his own had it not been for the safety car on lap 26. Scuderia director Fred Wasser didn’t want to make such an absolute statement, but implicitly agreed.

“The worst case scenario for us was with the security vehicle.” said the Frenchman. “We weren’t far from Red Bull, but even today they had more than us. “They still dominate, but we weren’t far from beating them. Charles had an excellent race and overtook one Red Bull three times – which doesn’t happen that often. I think our performance was great, even if we weren’t so lucky with the timing of the safety car.

O The Singapore race was great for us, but there was that Red Bull he was too far away and had made a mistake. But today they were there and we fought them until the last corner.”concluded Fred Wasser.