The attention heading into the Las Vegas Grand Prix is not on a championship fight. There isn’t one. Andrea Kimi Antonelli sealed the drivers’ crown with a podium in Mexico City, and Mercedes locked up the constructors’ trophy at the São Paulo Grand Prix on November 8. What drivers are actually arguing about going into Vegas is rubber.
A wet São Paulo weekend turned into a running critique of Pirelli’s rain compounds. Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar led the complaints, with the Red Bull driver telling GPblog that the working range is too narrow and the tires go stone cold when air temperatures drop. Pirelli has pushed back, saying both the intermediates and extreme wets performed to specification.
The argument matters more because of where Formula 1 goes next. The Las Vegas Grand Prix runs on the city’s nighttime streets from November 19 to 21. Desert nights are cold, and cold streets make it hard to get heat into a tire that is already being accused of needing to be hot to work.
Lando Norris, fresh off his third win of 2026 in São Paulo, did not soften it.
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“I think the scary times are if you go to Vegas and you can’t get any tyre temperature. You need a much better tyre than what we have here because that’s going to be horrible,” Norris said to GPblog.
What is still being raced for
Antonelli’s title at the Mexico City Grand Prix, at 20 years and 68 days old, made him the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history. The team title is over too, with Mercedes 142 points ahead of Ferrari and only 129 points still available over the final three rounds.
Second in the drivers’ standings is where the leaderboard still bites. After São Paulo:
- Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes): 390 points
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull): 279
- George Russell (Mercedes): 262
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari): 261
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari): 249
Verstappen’s buffer over the Mercedes and Ferrari trio behind him is 17 points to Russell, 18 to Hamilton and 30 to Leclerc. With three races to go, the runner-up spot is still in play.
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When it all happens
Practice runs on Thursday, November 19, qualifying is on Friday night, and the race starts at around 8pm local time on Saturday, November 21. The Qatar Grand Prix follows the next weekend on November 29, and Abu Dhabi closes the season on December 6.
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