Altitude makes Mexico City an outlier and worth treating separately from a team's general form. Thin air means maximum wings produce modest downforce, so the cars are quick in a straight line and slippery in the corners, and cooling capacity becomes a genuine performance differentiator. Braking is compromised, tyres struggle to reach working temperature, and locking up into Turn 1 is common. That first corner is wide enough to invite three cars in and frequently produces contact and safety cars, so lap-one survival is a real variable. Qualifying position helps but the long run to Turn 1 makes places gettable. Favour packages with cooling headroom and drivers who stay out of trouble early.

Interlagos is one of the calendar's genuine order-shufflers. The lap is short, the field is compressed, and the uphill run to the line combined with the Senna S braking zone makes overtaking realistic, so a poor grid slot is far from fatal. Weather is the dominant variable: Sao Paulo storms arrive fast and have decided a long list of races here. The sustained left-hand loading punishes the right-side tyres and can force strategies apart. Safety cars are reasonably common given the bumps and the close racing. Favour drivers who are strong in the wet and confident in traffic over those who rely on clean-air pace and track position.

Las Vegas turns on temperature. A cold desert night, a green surface and low-drag set-ups make getting tyres into their operating window the central problem, and drivers who can generate heat on an out-lap gain more than the stopwatch suggests. Expect graining, lock-ups and a track that evolves considerably through the weekend. Long straights make overtaking realistic, so qualifying is useful rather than decisive, and cars with low drag and strong power tend to punch above their season form. Walls are close and the safety-car risk is high, which puts a premium on strategic flexibility. With only a few runnings so far, be wary of drawing firm conclusions from a short history.

Lusail is a tyre circuit above all else. The long sequence of fast sweeps loads the sidewalls harder than anywhere on the calendar, which is why stint limits and mandatory extra stops have featured, and that turns strategy into a much more constrained exercise than usual. Overtaking is largely limited to the main straight, so qualifying and clean air carry real weight, and races here can settle into a procession if the front row gets away cleanly. High downforce and strong high-speed aerodynamic stability are the profile that suits. Heat and humidity have proved a genuine driver-welfare factor. Favour well-drilled operations that manage tyres without losing lap time.

Abu Dhabi is a qualifying circuit that has become slightly less of one. The 2021 revisions opened up genuine passing into the heavy braking zones, but track position still matters and the front row converts more often than not. Degradation is usually mild in the cool evening air, which pushes teams towards a straightforward one-stop and limits strategic variation. Grip climbs as the surface cools from daylight into dusk, so read practice times with the session time in mind. Brake demand is high and lock-ups into the slow corners are the common error. Favour strong single-lap performers with good traction out of slow corners, and expect fewer surprises here than at most venues.