Verstappen says tyre warm-up is Red Bull’s key Las Vegas challenge

Max Verstappen says getting Red Bull’s tyres working in the cold will be the team’s key test at next weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. Track temperatures are expected to sit between 10 and 12°C across the three days of sessions.

Verstappen says Las Vegas is normally not one of Red Bull’s best circuits. Its smooth street surface tends to promote sliding, which can lead to graining and uneven tyre-core temperatures rather than the heat build-up drivers get on grippier tracks.

The cold also makes the competitive picture hard to read, Verstappen said: cars can behave very differently, and some suddenly work extremely well on a track like this. He won the 2025 Las Vegas race from second on the grid, but is wary of reading too much into that result ahead of the 2026 event. Asked if Red Bull would be the team to beat, he said he did not know.

A separate test comes on the long straight. Verstappen expects energy management there to be difficult under this year’s deployment rules; he thinks he may need to tuck in midway down the straight to gain top speed. He also suggested slipstreaming could be useful, as at Monza.