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THE RACE FROM
A TYRE POINT OF VIEW
Max Verstappen topped every single results sheet from the Austrian Grand
Prix weekend, picking up the maximum 34 points in this ninth round of the
World Championship. The Dutchman permitted himself the luxury of an
unplanned pit stop with just two laps remaining to secure the extra point
for the race fastest lap. Today, Sergio Perez made his second appearance of
the weekend on the podium, with a fine charge through the field to finish
third, after his second place finish yesterday. Scuderia Ferrari drivers
also visited the podium twice with Carlos Sainz third in yesterday’s short
race and Charles Leclerc taking the runner-up spot this afternoon, to secure
his second podium finish of the season. It was also the 800th time that a
Ferrari driver has stood on an F1 podium.
The race was run on a dry track and the temperatures were slightly lower
than on Friday afternoon with the air at 24 °C and the track at 32 °C. The
strategies adopted matched the previous day’s predictions. The Soft (C5) was
hardly used at all, with the exception of Verstappen’s final assault on the
fastest race lap. The kilometres completed were thus fairly equally divided
between the Hard (C3,) 54.55% of the total laps completed and the Medium
(C4), 45.3%.
Predictions relating to the number of stops and their windows of operation
were also confirmed, with a two-stop proving to the be the quickest
strategy, especially for those running two sets of Medium and one of Hard.
The longest stint was 36 laps from Kevin Magnussen on the Hard, while Nyck
De Vries did the most (33) on the Medium.
MARIO ISOLA - DIRECTOR, PIRELLI MOTORSPORT
“One driver dominated this Grand Prix from start to finish, but there was
plenty of excitement in the battles between the nineteen others. From our
point of view, everything went well. Our simulations going into this race
were confirmed on track, in all the changing conditions we experienced from
Friday through to today. We knew the Soft would not be a suitable race tyre,
but both Medium and Hard allowed those behind the wheel to push and attack
when necessary, showing a sufficient differential in degradation between
them, without suffering any excessive overheating. In terms of strategy too,
the race went to plan. The VSC on lap 15 did not influence the number of
stops, but it did open up alternative choices terms of choosing the window
for the first pit stop. The top four finishers went for two Medium stints
and one Hard, if we ignore Verstappen’s final stop which is not relevant to
this analysis, while those who from Friday had preferred to keep two sets of
C3, mainly opted to use both along with a set of Mediums.”
Formula 2
Both races at Spielberg were spectacular with wins for Jack Crawford (Hitech)
and Richard Verschoor (Van Amersfort Racing) in the seventh round of the FIA
Formula 2 Championship. Crawford’s win came in the rain-affected Sprint
race, as he got the better of Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix) while third
place went to Isack Hadjar (Hitech) after Clement Novalak (Trident) was
disqualified.
Verschoor won the Feature Race and was joined on the podium by Ayumu Iwasa
(DAMS) and Frederik Vesti (Prema Racing). Vesti thus consolidates his lead
in the championship with 125 points, ahead of Theo Pourchaire (105) and
Iwasa (101).
Formula 3
The fifth round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship produced plenty of
excitement, especially this morning’s race, partly down to tyre behaviour,
which presented an additional challenge to the young drivers in the form of
managing degradation. Prema Racing secured a clean sweep of wins, courtesy
of Paul Aron in the Sprint Race, followed by Zak O’Sullivan in the Feature
event. Brazil’s Caio Collet (Van Amersfoot Racing) made it to the podium in
both races, while his fellow countryman Gabriel Bortoleto, second in today’s
race, increased his lead in the classification. He is on 111, 36 ahead of
Sweden’s Dino Beganovich (Prema Racing) on 75. The 32 points that O’Sullivan
picked up today puts him third in the standings on 73, equal with Spain’s
Josep Maria Marti.
NEXT UP FOR OUR F1 TYRES
Next weekend, Formula 1 moves to Silverstone, one of the most historic
venues on the calendar, having hosted 57 Grands Prix since 1950. The
Silverstone track is one of the most demanding for tyres and for the British
Grand Prix, from 7 to 9 July, teams will use the C1 compound as P Zero White
hard, C2 as P Zero Yellow medium and C3 as P Zero Red soft. Pirelli stays on
at the Northamptonshire circuit on Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 July for two
days of testing slick tyres without the use of heating blankets. Taking part
will be Red Bull, Haas and Williams. |
