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POSSIBLE RACE STRATEGIES
The strategy for the 52-lap British Grand Prix is slightly more
straightforward than usual because of the sprint qualifying, which has led
to different tyre rules. One of them is that drivers are no longer obliged
to start on the tyres with which they set their fastest Q2 Friday qualifying
times: instead there is an entirely free choice, which means that all the
drivers can simply follow the theoretically quickest strategy.
That’s going to be a one-stopper: starting on the P Zero Yellow medium C2
tyres and then moving onto the P Zero White hard C1 until the end. An
alternative strategy is to start on the P Zero Red soft and then switch to
the hard earlier – but starting on the medium offers more flexibility in
terms of pit stop timing and requires less tyre management. With more
freedom in the tyre choice, the opposite could come into play too: starting
on a harder tyre before switching to a softer compound.
What's certain is that a two-stop is definitely slower, but the best option
in this scenario would be to use two sets of soft C3s and one set of C2
mediums. |
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FOCUS ON:
* The very first sprint qualifying race in Formula 1 history was won by Red
Bull driver Max Verstappen from second on the grid, using medium C2 tyres
from start to finish. As a result, he claims pole for the British Grand Prix
tomorrow and scores an extra three championship points.
* Nearly all the drivers used the medium tyre throughout the 17-lap race,
run over half an hour with no pit stops. Only four drivers selected the
soft: Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes), Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) and both
Alpine drivers.
* Ambient temperatures were 28 degrees centigrade at the start of the race
with track temperatures of 46 degrees.
* The drivers had a final chance to prepare for sprint qualifying during FP2
at midday. With the cars under parc fermé conditions, the teams concentrated
on longer runs in preparation for tomorrow’s race. Verstappen went fastest
on the medium compound – likely to be the favoured starting tyre for the
British Grand Prix tomorrow.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“Today was a chance to try something different with the first sprint
qualifying, and although it was a short race, we already saw some different
tactics on the grid with four drivers going against the trend and selecting
the soft tyre – including Bottas who started and finished third. Keeping the
soft tyre alive in a race where the drivers pushed at maximum from start to
finish in warm conditions was clearly a challenge, but Fernando Alonso made
up six places from his start position initially on the softs, before
eventually finishing with a four-place gain. The medium C2 coped well with
the rapid corners and heavy loads of Silverstone, which is why we expect it
to be the most popular choice to start the race tomorrow. Temperatures are
forecasted to be even higher for the grand prix, so tyre management will be
a factor, as we also saw today during sprint qualifying where there was some
blistering as the teams pushed to the limit.” |
