INSIGHT: What a lap of the Las Vegas Strip Circuit feels like alongside a 59-time Grand Prix starter

You may know former Sauber and Haas racer Esteban Gutierrez for his scary upside down flip at the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix – or his even scarier tangle with Fernando Alonso at the 2016 Australian Grand Prix. I, however, will forever remember him for delivering the most phenomenal experience I’ve ever had while sat in a car.

There’d been one false start to my first ever Pirelli Hot Lap experience when, after assembling in the Pirelli garage one hour before Free Practice 2 for the Las Vegas Grand Prix was due to start, we were told that our session had been delayed until after FP2.

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I’m ashamed to admit I felt a pang of relief in that moment. But three hours later, here I am back at the Pirelli garage, open-face helmet in hand, and finding out I’d been paired with Gutierrez – a man who started 59 career Grands Prix between 2013 and 2016, with a best finish of seventh for Sauber at the 2013 Japanese Grand Prix.

It’s a star-studded roster of drivers tonight, actually – fitting for Las Vegas – with former Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz piloting a Ford Mustang (the actor-turned-race car driver’s usual ride is a brutish NASCAR truck), while other hot lap drivers include former F1 racer Mick Schumacher, F1 hopeful Isack Hadjar and Aston Martin ambassador Jess Hawkins, at the wheel of one of the company’s DBX 4x4s.

For me, though, it’s a Tommy Hilfiger-emblazoned Mercedes-AMG GT63. Vital stats include a healthy 600 horsepower, and a 0-60mph time of around three seconds, courtesy of its 6.3-litre V8. Plenty for us to be getting on with then.

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2025 F1 ACADEMY hopeful Alba Hurup Larsen gets the first go around with Gutierrez, as I nervously bide my time on the sidelines, heroic music blasting out of the stands and making me come over all ‘Maverick from Top Gun’…

Then it’s helmet-on time, as Esteban pulls up and I’m led around to the passenger side, the acrid smell of hot brakes perfuming the air. That smell is replaced by the scent of plush leather as I slip into the Mercedes’ cockpit alongside Esteban. We shake hands, Esteban gets the all-clear, and then we’re launched onto the Las Vegas Strip Circuit.

I’m the Mexican driver’s sixth ride that night, so he’s got his eye in – but the ferocity with which he nails the throttle and then hits the brakes into Turn 1 is still… striking.

I’ve headed to my hot lap just after interviewing the F1 drivers post-Free Practice 2, where every single one of them had complained of low grip conditions on the cold and dusty track. Esteban, however, doesn’t appear to have got the message, going hard on power well before the apex of the long Turn 1-2. My civilian brain feels sure that the front end of the car is simply going to understeer and wash us into the barriers, but Esteban keeps his foot planted and the nose pulls around.

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The onboard footage – every Pirelli Hot Lap participant is sent a beautifully put together edit of their lap – shows my helmeted head being wedged between the door frame and the window at this point, before the Stuart bonce is then thrown the other way as Esteban hoons it around the long radius Turns 3-4 and onto the first bit of respite as we make our way down to Turn 5.

We’re approaching traffic, though, Jess Hawkins’s black Aston Martin DBX and IndyCar racer Christian Lundgaard’s turquoise McLaren Artura up ahead. ‘Ah - that’s torn it,’ I think. Esteban, though, is in a devilish mode, and as we steam into Turn 7, he’s practically in the bumper of Hawkins’ car, before divebombing down the inside of her into the slow Turn 8 left-hander.

I’m breathless at this point, but Esteban is giggling to himself. Seemingly the Pirelli Hot Laps drivers – all ex or current racers – like to have a good time out there…

Out of Turn 8 and we run alongside Las Vegas’s monorail track, Esteban building the speed up to 120 mph, before threading the car through Turn 12 – a key overtaking point for the F1 drivers in Saturday night’s Grand Prix.

Through that, and we emerge onto the massive 1.9-kilometre back straight, really the first time I’ve had the time to confront the cognitive dissonance of driving at these speeds on the streets of downtown Las Vegas.

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The Venetian, Caesars Palace – home of the short-lived 1981 and 1982 Caesars Palace Grands Prix – the Mirage and the Paris fly past as we top out at 180mph, the Mercedes barking happily before Esteban picks a braking point and mashes the brake pedal. A touch too late, it turns out, as he just gets it slowed down enough to flick the car through the tight Turn 14/15 complex. “Oops,” chuckles Esteban, as I laugh nervously and slowly unclench…

We whisk through T15/16 – where 24 hours later, Franco Colapinto would smear his Williams down the wall in a 50G crash that Esteban and I thankfully avoid – before Esteban is sadly forced to lift before heading into the magnificent sweeping left of Turn 17.

He brings the Mercedes to a stand-still and shakes my hand courteously before I give my seat away to Esteban’s next victim. “I hope you enjoyed it,” he laughs, as I teeter away from the car.

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Legs unsteady, primordial levels of adrenaline coursing through my veins, I find myself falling into step with a colleague from Formula 1 who helps to arrange the Pirelli Hot Laps.

He laughs at my dazed expression, then tells me: “I think the drivers get a real kick out of driving well within their limits – while still managing to scare the s*** out of their passengers.” I think he might be right.

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