Toto Talks Abu Dhabi

Las Vegas was an extraordinary event. We saw a fantastic race, it was visually spectacular, and overall, a great Grand Prix that I am sure has helped increase the visibility of the sport in the United States. Everyone worked very hard to make it such a success and credit must go to all those involved.

On track for us, it was a case of “what could have been”. The pace of the car was strong. Without the numerous incidents of contact, both Lewis and George would have been challenging for the podium. But that’s a case of could have, would have, should have.

Ferrari have closed the gap in the Constructors’ to just four points and we’re ready to give it our all in Abu Dhabi to come out on top. They have shown good form recently, but we know we haven’t maximised our performance in the past few races. It will be a close fight and hopefully we can finish the season with a strong performance and on the front foot.
Fact File: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

    Abu Dhabi made its F1 debut in 2009 as the sport’s first ever twilight race, with the start taking place at sunset. Around 4,700 light fixtures are used to illuminate the track.
    Several modifications were made to the track layout ahead of the 2021 race, changing the lap length from 5.554 km to 5.281 km.
    These changes including removing the chicane at the start of the second sector and widening the following hairpin. The twisty chicanes at the start of the final sector were also replaced by one long, banked corner.
    Similar to other twilight and night races on the calendar, FP1 and FP3 take place in the daytime. FP2, Qualifying and the Grand Prix itself take place at night or as the sun sets.
    That poses a challenge to the engineers and drivers who must accommodate for the changes in tyre and car behaviour owing to the differing ambient and track temperatures.
    The pitlane at the Yas Marina Circuit is unique in F1, in that it features a tunnel.
    Drivers pass under the track at the pit lane exit, re-joining on the left-hand side of Turn 2.
    Last year’s race saw more overtakes than in any other Grand Prix that season with 80.
    16 of those were ‘normal’ overtakes and 64 of those with the use of DRS.
    The Yas Marina Circuit will this weekend overtake Adelaide as the track at which the most season-ending F1 races have been held (12th finale).

Mercedes‑Benz has further expanded its leading position as the most valuable luxury automobile brand in the world in the current “Best Global Brands 2023” ranking. After five years in a row at number eight, the star now shines as the seventh most important brand in the world. The renewed increase in brand value by nine percent underlines the company's consistent transformation into an iconic brand that impresses with its exceptional aesthetics, innovative technologies and integrated sustainability.

“The latest increase in our brand value is a first‑class achievement by the entire Mercedes‑Benz team, which makes us all very proud. The result is both a confirmation and an incentive for us: we are continuously building on our brand heritage to shape the future – with the goal of creating the most desirable cars in the world.”
Bettina Fetzer, Vice President Communications & Marketing Mercedes‑Benz AG

With the strategic realignment of the company in 2021, the brand’s core was also refined. From now on, the brand with the star stands for “Desire for Iconic Luxury”. The company thus combines two essential characteristics: Firstly, its strong roots as a luxury automobile manufacturer that has created numerous style-defining icons. And on the other hand, the pioneering spirit with which Mercedes‑Benz, as an innovation leader, drives forward the development of the automobile. Mercedes‑Benz is focusing more than ever on the radiance of the brand, which has a culture-shaping effect, and is carefully developed further while still honouring the brand's heritage. The goal is to shape the digital age by creating the most desirable vehicles and services in the world.
“Best Global Brands”: An indicator of the most valuable brands worldwide since 1999

The US brand consulting company Interbrand has been researching and analysing the most valuable brands in the world since 1999. The top 100 are included in the annual “Best Global Brands” study, which examines all candidates according to three criteria: “Financial performance of the brand's products or services”, “Role of the brand in the purchase decision process” and “Strength of the brand with regards to “Securing the company’s future earnings”. Interbrand was the first company to develop a brand evaluation method that was certified according to ISO 10668. The international standard set benchmarks for evaluation and meets the requirements for precise monetary brand classification.

Lewis Hamilton

It was a really challenging race. I started on the Hard tyre, which was tricky in the beginning. I had a big hit from Sainz into turn one and was then trying not to hit other cars ahead of me. I fell back several places. After that, I was focused on making my way back through the pack and I was feeling great. The tyres were feeling good, and the pace was strong. I went up the inside of Piastri and I am not sure exactly what happened. I felt a big hit from behind, but I think it was a racing incident. I didn’t have a puncture immediately and as I passed the pit entry, I felt the rear moving. I had to do a whole slow lap on it.

I was grateful that I was able to still come back from re-joining in last to score some points. There are strengths in our car but sometimes it’s hard to extract all the performance from it. That is what happened in Qualifying yesterday but I am pleased we were able to show our pace in the race. I am also grateful that the race was exciting. I wasn’t expecting the track to be so great but there was lots of racing and overtaking opportunities. For all those who were so negative about the weekend, I think Las Vegas proved them wrong.
George Russell

Today was on me; I simply didn’t see Verstappen. He was totally in the blind spot, and we made contact; it was completely my fault. We knew they were much quicker than us and I was happy to concede the position. I knew our fight wasn’t with Verstappen and tyre management was more important. It was a real shame as we were on course for a podium. It changed the dynamic of the race too with the Safety Car. It feels like we’ve thrown another one away today and I am really disappointed right now. It is the story of our season.

There are positives we can take into Abu Dhabi. We were in the fight for second on the road today, but we will have to put in a strong showing in the final race to claim P2 in the Constructors’ Championship.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

It’s frustrating to say but today was another example of a Grand Prix where we’ve had good pace and not got the result that pace has deserved. Once George was given the five-second time penalty, it was pretty much game over for him in terms of the podium. He definitely had the speed to challenge those at the front, maybe not Verstappen, but possibly Leclerc and Perez. It is what it is though. Lewis also had contact, twice in fact, with neither his fault. He was starting further back on the grid but as others around him showed, there was still a good result up for grabs. His pace was strong throughout, but those two incidents cost him today. We now need to refocus ahead of Abu Dhabi. It’s a tight battle in the Constructors’ Championship and we hope to be able to deliver a strong result there.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

There wasn't anything that went our way tonight. Sainz made contact with Lewis at the start which cost him a number of positions. We then had a puncture with Lewis after contact with Piastri and didn’t have enough time to react and box him before he went past the pits. Finally, George got a penalty after contact with Max. Overall, those three incidents contributed to a frustrating race for us this evening.

Our list of positives isn't a long one, but it was at least encouraging that the car had good pace. We weren't as good at controlling the graining on the Medium tyre as Ferrari, so we need to look into that.  However, the pace on the Hard tyre was strong so as bad as this race was, it wasn't anything like as painful as Brazil where we were just plain slow. It’s going to be an exciting battle with Ferrari for P2 in the Constructor's Championship in Abu Dhabi. We'll use the next few days to prepare for that. The points gap is small enough that it will, in all likelihood, come down to who scores the most next Sunday. Everything to play for!

Lewis Hamilton

It’s an incredibly fast circuit and I had a lot of fun out there. I’m so glad we got to run again today. The circuit did a great job to fix the issue we saw in FP1, and we had an interesting FP2. The balance of the car wasn’t too bad and on similar tyres, I don’t feel that we’re too far off compared to our competitors. It looks like everyone is suffering from graining and we were running out of tyres; I think everyone was in a similar boat. That’s likely due to a combination of a new track surface and the temperature. We are also running a low downforce set-up, so you are sliding through a lot of the slow-speed corners, and some of the high-speed corners too. The rest of the weekend is going to be interesting, and I think Qualifying is going to be hugely important. Managing degradation is going to be key on Saturday night in the race too. Overall though, I had a blast out there, I feel great and I’m ready to go again later today.
George Russell

It was good to finally get going after quite a long day! It was great to take to the track properly in FP2 and it’s a very fast circuit. It’s some of the highest speeds of the year and racing at night is spectacular. It’s going to be an interesting weekend. The session was dominated by trying to get the tyres working, and then managing graining too. I think that could hinder everyone come Saturday night.

The track was evolving very quickly; the early laps were like driving on ice. However, as the dirt and the dust cleared you were learning, and your braking points were changing. That’s tricky, especially with a low downforce set-up, but I had good fun out there. Overall though, it’s all about pace. It was hard to get a true idea of where we are relative to others given we only took one new set of Soft tyres, where others took two. Ultimately, race pace will be key. I’m looking forward to getting some sleep now and coming back for FP3 later today!
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

It was good to get running again in FP2 and we were able to complete most of our programme. Ahead of the event, we'd identified warm-up and graining as being the most significant challenges that we would face. We ran through a few tests to today aimed at further understanding those issues. The track grip was evolving rapidly, which was helping the car balance come together through the session. We know we’ve got a few areas that we can look to improve in terms of that balance and long run pace too.

It's clearly a very tight field as is becoming the norm this year. Every little bit of performance we can find ahead of Qualifying is going to be useful. It's also good to have a bit of time now to pick through the data ahead of FP3 this evening. Overall, we've got off to a decent start and we'll hopefully be able to build on that as we go into Qualifying and the Grand Prix.

Toto Talks Las Vegas

Brazil was probably our most difficult weekend of the season. After promising performances in the US and Mexico, we didn’t perform at our best in Brazil. We have been hard at work to identify the wrong turn we took with the set-up; we have done that. We understand our mistakes and can explain our performance loss to the field. That’s important as we look to secure P2 in the Constructors’ Championship.

In parallel, we have been preparing for the challenge of racing at a venue that is a complete unknown. We have prepared the best we can, using the limited information we have, and there are some unique characteristics we can anticipate. The schedule is offset compared to other races. We’ll be running at night, where ambient and track temperatures will likely be in the single digits. Plus, the track layout itself is unusual with many slow corners but long straights. It’s going to be a big challenge for us all and we’re looking forward to taking it on.

It will also be an immense effort off-track. We have an impressive guest hosting programme including our own three-storey Vegas Club next to Turn 4. Media interest will be through the roof and seeing the cars race down the Las Vegas Strip will be one of the most exciting moments of the season. The eyes of the sporting world will be on F1, and we look forward to putting on a spectacular show. It is going to be something truly special to witness.
Fact File: Las Vegas Grand Prix

    Formula One returns to Las Vegas for the first time in over 40 years this weekend.
    The sport’s previous visits to ‘Sin City’ took place in 1981 and 1982 under the moniker of the Caesars Palace Grand Prix.
    Each edition was that year’s season finale with the Williams of Alan Jones taking victory in 1981 and the Tyrrell of Michele Alboreto victorious in 1982.
    We return to a very different circuit; a 17-corner (11 to the left, six to the right), anti-clockwise 6.201 km high-speed blast through the most famous streets of Las Vegas including the Strip.
    The track is the second-longest on the 2023 calendar, only shorter than Spa-Francorchamps.
    That includes an over 1.9 km flat-out section from the exit of Turn 12 to the braking zone at Turn 14.
    Our initial simulations show that top speeds will be second only to the ‘Temple of Speed’ at Monza.
    These simulations also show that just over 78% of the total lap distance will be taken at full throttle.
    That will be the fourth highest of the season, only behind the Jeddah Street Circuit, the Bahrain International Circuit, and Monza.
    Owing to the slower corners though where the cars take longer to navigate, drivers will spend just over 66% of the lap at full throttle.
    That is the ninth highest amount of the 2023 season and compares closely to Silverstone.
    The set-up trade-off will be ensuring that top speeds are not compromised whilst the car retains good mechanical grip and downforce for the low-speed corners, such as Turns 1-4, Turns 7-9, Turn 12, and Turns 14-16.
    Our simulations also show that there will be five braking events, with three of these designated as heavy. These will occur at Turn 1, Turn 5, and Turn 14.
    Another challenge for the engineers and drivers will be the likely cold temperatures. At night in November, it is not unknown for temperatures to reach single-digit Celsius.
    The lowest record race temperature in F1 history was the 1978 Canadian Grand Prix where the mercury only reached 5ºC.
    For the first time since the 1985 South African Grand Prix, the sport will race on a Saturday.
    Saturday’s race will also be the latest starting Grand Prix in F1’s history. The first night race, the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, took place at 20:00 local time.
    This year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix will get underway at 22:00 local time, with qualifying taking place at midnight on the same day.
    That schedule means that those supporting in our Race Support Room at Brackley will be working at similar times as they do for the Japanese Grand Prix, reporting to work around 02:00 GMT.

Insight: Getting Ready for Las Vegas

“The Las Vegas race is a huge operation,” explains Victoria Johnson, Marketing Operations Director. That is true both on and off track for the team. It is one of the most anticipated events in the sport’s history and will present unique challenges.

“In terms of planning, it takes about a year to deliver a race such as Las Vegas,” Victoria continues. Grands Prix such as this, and Miami, “have given us new marketing opportunities and new audiences to tap into. The team have put a huge investment into both of these races.”

That includes a three-storey Mercedes hospitality offering overlooking the track called ‘Vegas Club’. It’s a massive logistical undertaking but one that will re-invent what is possible in terms of on-event guest hosting.

For the team focused on running the cars, Vegas will be just as challenging an operation. “The temperature is due to go down to four or five degrees Celsius overnight. That is very unusual for an F1 race,” explains Sporting Director Ron Meadows. Riccardo Musconi, Head of Trackside Performance, adds: “Another challenge is going to be the time zone. We are going to be working on a Suzuka schedule, so Japanese Grand Prix times but in the US. The people back at the factory will be turning up to work at 2am.”

There are other factors to consider too. “It is going to be a brand-new surface. We don’t know exactly what the aggregate type will be. Nobody will know until we turn up in Vegas and start driving around. I think this will be the key element of the weekend,” Riccardo continues.