LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Las Vegas Grand Prix is next month and if you don't know much about the international race event, you're not alone. We stopped by the F1 pit building for a little F1 101.
The cars featured in the race will be among the fastest and most technologically advanced in the world.
I met with Silvia Bellot who is the senior director of race operations in charge of getting the track ready,
I asked Silvia how fast the cars will be going down our streets. She said the maximum speed here in Las Vegas will be 212 miles per hour.
Bellot, who has worked all over the world with F1, gave us a look at what makes these cars so interesting.
We looked at one of the first Formula 1 cars to be inside the new pit building, it is just an exhibition car without an engine, but soon 10 teams will each bring two cars inside their garages for the race.
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"Some of the most important areas here to see of the car are the front wing as you can see it has different set ups and different flaps, each team is designing their own wing," said Bellot.
F1 cars are single seat vehicles, and each is unique with specialized designs from each team.
"It is an open cockpit ... so it is an open car, a difference for example what might be normal seeing in Nascar," Bellot explains.
"This is also why Americans like to say Indy car, except these cars are much more powerful, what used to be called engines in F1 is now called power unit because components are much more detailed and much more advanced.
Every part of the vehicle is designed to be as aerodynamic as possible.
The cockpit is pretty simple, with a not so typical steering wheel, it has a monitor in the middle that shows speeds, tire pressure and controls much more than a regular passenger vehicle.
Even the car seats are custom made for the drivers. There is an exhibition car which will be set up around town for visitors and locals to see. I asked Bellot how much the race cars cost.
"That is a very difficult question, it is difficult to say— some people try to guess it around $15 to $20 million but these cars are unique like i said, just two per team I think this is an estimate that people give."
Come mid-November 20 of these cars will be here racing down the Las Vegas streets, which had to be especially paved for the race causing headaches for local drivers.
Bellot says now that most of the public roads are complete with the new asphalt layers, but that some still remains on the private property owned by F1.
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