F1 24 Las Vegas Setups

The Las Vegas Grand Prix was new to the calendar for 2023 and saw its inaugural race last year. The track returns for F1 24 and remains just as tricky to drive as last year.

This new race takes place on the streets of Las Vegas with the cars driving down the Las Vegas strip for part of the lap. Like many modern street circuits, Las Vegas comprises long straights combined with a range of slow and medium-speed corners.

When you compare this new track to other street circuits, you’ll find similarities to tacks such as Miami, Baku and Singapore. The fast straights demand that you don’t set up your aerodynamics too high. Otherwise, you’ll be easy to overtake during a race, and you’ll find it tricky to gain positions.

Is Las Vegas a fun circuit to drive?

There are plenty of different challenges around a lap of Las Vegas. Some of the sectors can be incredibly enjoyable, including the very tricky and technical turns 5 to 9. You also get to race down the Las Vegas strip with famous casinos passing you on either side, this alone is quite an experience!

What makes a good F1 24 Las Vegas car setup?

The Las Vegas circuit is unique in that most of the circuit requires an extremely low downforce setup approach. This means setting your front and rear wing aero very low, similar to a track like Monza. The difference with Las Vegas is that some of the corners really do benefit from good aerodynamics.

This makes creating the ideal setup a game of compromise. You will have to sacrifice speed at one part of the circuit to be fast through the other segments. Your best approach would be to sacrifice downforce in favour of straight-line speed.

Opting to prioritise top speed will give you the best chance of overtaking throughout a race and gaining positions. It will, however, compromise your grip through the slower corners. This can make some turns incredibly hard to drive, as it can feel a little bit like driving on ice due to the lack of downforce.

The opening corner sequence of the lap is tricky with a low downforce car setup, as the rear can be twitchy while accelerating out of turns 3 and 4. The same applies to the corners at the start of sector 2. Turn 6 has you accelerating through a long corner before braking for turn 7. This section can really test your rear balance.

Recommended Las Vegas race strategy

The race strategy around Las Vegas doesn’t tend to vary too much. The best approach is normally a one-stop strategy using a set of medium and a set of hard tyres. Tyre wear isn’t too bad around Las Vegas due to the long straights cooling the tyres between turns.

You can sometimes run a two-stop strategy if you want to try and be aggressive, opting for the soft and medium tyres. However, this strategy only really works well with a well-timed safety car.