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The British
Grand Prix came down to a tense strategic battle between Ferrari and
Mercedes, after two safety cars in the closing stages of the race turned it
into a pair of final sprints.
Ferrari and Mercedes made different strategic choices under the first safety
car, with Ferrari opting for a second stop to put their drivers onto soft
tyres: the softest compound available.
Meanwhile, the Mercedes drivers stayed out on their medium tyres to maintain
track position, making only one stop.
With extremely warm track temperatures close to 50 degrees centigrade, on
one of the fastest and most demanding circuits of the year in terms of
energy loadings, all the compounds demonstrated both performance and
reliability at Pirelli’s 350th grand prix.
Pirelli now remains at Silverstone for the latest two-day test in the 2019
tyre development programme, with Haas, Red Bull and Williams.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“We saw a thrilling and unpredictable grand prix featuring a variety of
different strategies and all three compounds being used. As well as the very
different strategies based on soft and medium tyres that made up the first
five places, Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg made up six places by stopping once,
from medium to hard. The race was obviously affected by safety cars that put
many of the pre-planned strategies into question, but all the drivers were
able to fight hard from start to finish on every compound at one of the
season’s most demanding circuits. This culminated in a thrilling finale that
perfectly showcased the spectacular nature of Formula 1, at Pirelli’s 350th
grand prix.”
PIT STOP STRATEGY
The safety cars made the strategy hard to predict, but in the end Sebastian
Vettel won with a two-stop strategy, starting on soft and then changing to
medium on lap 20 (under green flag conditions) and then to soft on lap 33
under the safety car: a move that helped him to win the race. |
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