2010 Strategies

[djones]

Sorry of this is in another thread (I did look).

What do people think the strategies will be in 2010?

There is no refuling but they still need to use the two compounds.

I have a feeling they are all going to be virtually identical, but maybe it will be even more mixed up.

Thoughts?

I'd guess they will use the 'hard' compound to start while the car is heavy then at exactly half way through switch to soft and finish on them.

I know the tyres will wear and at certain stages new ones could be noticably faster, but I doubt enough to justify a pit stop.

Well, unless they are going to design the tyres to wear out really fast to cause more stops and try spice it up a bit.

[marcush.]

Sorry of this is in another thread (I did look).

What do people think the strategies will be in 2010?

There is no refuling but they still need to use the two compounds.

I have a feeling they are all going to be virtually identical, but maybe it will be even more mixed up.

Thoughts?

I'd guess they will use the 'hard' compound to start while the car is heavy then at exactly half way through switch to soft and finish on them.

I know the tyres will wear and at certain stages new ones could be noticably faster, but I doubt enough to justify a pit stop.

Well, unless they are going to design the tyres to wear out really fast to cause more stops and try spice it up a bit.

on paper this looks obvious ,but the question will be if all cars and drivers will be able to nurse the tyres with full tank enough to make them live to half distance.
So this will surely be a equation with a lot of variables .the Button type driver ,having difficulty to warm up the hard rubber will surely be helped by the added vertical load at the beginning of the race.
The tailhappy Vettels and Hamiltons may struggle more than they would like if they do not learn to be patient in this first stint.
Really I think the reality will be more like H-H-S and not much you can do about it in terms of strategy.I would question the possibility for the smooth drivers to
be quick enough plus get away with one pitstop less but this may depend on circumstances and track conditions.

[outer_bongolia]

I think the 2 stop race that you quoted might be used as well as a 3 stop race for more aggressive drivers like Hamilton.

It will be fun to watch how Button's strategy with his gentler driving style will compare to Hamilton's.

[tarzoon]

Will it be possible to do a full race without pit stops? As far as last year's rules went, they mention that teams must use the two tyre compounds, but I couldn't find much about it on F1 website.

[ISLAMATRON]

The strategies wont be much different then the last time refueling was banned

[NormanBates]

Will it be possible to do a full race without pit stops? As far as last year's rules went, they mention that teams must use the two tyre compounds, but I couldn't find much about it on F1 website.

in general, you have to change tyres at least once, to use both types

but if it rains this restriction is lifted, so yes: if you have a wet race in which conditions are kind of constant and your tyres don't degrade too much, you may see a driver doing the whole race without a pitstop (not really likely, though)

[DaveKillens]

The tire usage regulations are relatively unchanged, and they can be found at the FIA website for sporting regulations.
http://argent.fia.com/web/fia-public.ns ... 2-2009.pdf

Article 25.5
c) Prior to the start of the qualifying practice session intermediate and wet-weather tyres may only be used after the track has been declared wet by the race director, following which intermediate, wet or dry-weather tyres may be used for the remainder of the session.
d) Unless he has used intermediate or wet-weather tyres during the race, each driver must use at least one set of each specification of dry-weather tyres during the race.

But obviously, the fuel regulations have changed the game. What that means to me is not only no more refuelling rigs and mishaps, but interestingly, the need for quick wheel changes becomes critical. Up until now, in almost every pit stop, the time to refuel was the critical factor, and it was relatively easy to change tires. If you could change tires consistently and within a set time, it didn't matter.

But now, when a car pits, the tire changers will be on the line, and every fraction of a second will be important. Because of that, tire changing will probably receive a boost in evolution, and hopefully some innovations. For instance, Ferrari experimented with a weird traffic light system in place of the lollipop man, and in theory it should deliver quicker times. But things sort of went wrong a few times, and we haven't seen it again. Expect it to return.

Having the frisbees banned helps remove one potential obstacle and problem.

Also, the actual method of securing and removing the tires is pretty constant, one nut per wheeel, with a locking mechanism. I expect some teams to try something different. Although there are no requirements in the technical regulations for locking the wheels, as in the case of Alonso last year, having a wheel come off the car brings the entire team under the glaring and unmerciful gaze of the FIA's safety policy.

I examined the fuel regulations, and unless I'm off the mark, any cars that make the final qualifying session cannot add fuel after Q3. So the tanks have to accomodate this extra fuel requirement. This may be some opportunity for someone, if they can find a loophole or way to work around this problem.

I have no idea how this new set of regulations will affect strategy, but for sure, it opens up an environment for innovation and change.

[Fil]

Here's a good little article talking specifically about 2010 strategies and what the teams are expecting to factor in.

This is a shortish summary of it for those too lazy to click:


Basic summary:

-5kg's too much fuel by race-end will cost about 10sec over a race distance, so calculated fuel loads will be extremely specific & risky - expect situations of some drivers running out of fuel!
Conserving fuel when possible (without losing track position) will be paramount.

-Rules may still be changed to force minimum 2 stops per race & make Q3 runners start on the tyres they qualified on.
F1 Commission is meeting Feb 1st to discuss.

-Teams are expecting stops to be 3sec stationary. Some teams claim to be expecting sub-3sec!
Biggest limiting factor will be front jack mechanics lifting, dropping & getting the hell out of the way in time!

-Pitstops overall will cost less (about 16sec avg.).

-Stopping before a rival will generally be an advantage initially for track position. Trade-off is the risk of tyres wearing out sooner vs fresher cars behind.

-Optimum pitstop windows will be larger than in previous years.

-Narrower front tyres with a smaller contact patch may lead to more fronts locked under braking.

-Unsuitable tyres may factor heavily again, more-so than last year with softs that wore out extremely quickly.

[noname]

Biggest limiting factor will be front jack mechanics lifting, dropping & getting the hell out of the way in time!

thanks Fil.

I think we could see some interesting developments regarding front jacking equipment and procedures. due the refueling ban it would be even possible to lift the car from the side instead of using fwd-aft configuration we are used to. the only serious obstacle I see at the time being are rules preventing such an approach.

[marcush.]

those 10 seconds over a racedistance seem to be an awful lot of time ,but only if you need and will be running to the cars potential at these times!
But realistically very rarely an F1 car operates at maximum performance during the first 10 laps due to traffic etc .so when it hurts most -at the start- only the first one or two guys really have a ways to make use of the cars potential.
So it really makes no sense to try and gamble on 5 litres of fuel in the rear or middle of the field.
But of course this running in coast and not full throttle ,and lots of slipstream will enable the midfield to run a bit lighter as they can expect to make use of this situation a bit ...but who would gamble on being stuck behind someone for two thirds of the race being in a situation to save enough fuel to make it to the end without sacrificing trackposition?

[ringo]

Here is a typical pit stop.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_A89Tv5Rl4[/youtube]

3 men per wheel (12), 2 jack men, 4 fuel men (1 holding a long fork from the back of the car to the fuel filler) , 1 lolipop man, 1 gunk remover, and an overseer at the front left wheel.

That's 21 men, which will be 17 with no refueling. It's pretty tough to improve on the wheel change speed outside of having the car jacked down quicker and the wheels slid on more fluidly.
Even though the wheel is being removed before the car is even up in the air. It follows that jacking down will be more critical than lifting the car.

Just look how slow the jack man at the front worms away. The teams definitely have to work on that, i wont be surprised if there are newly designed jacks.

[Pandamasque]

Just look how slow the jack man at the front worms away.

He should be hanging from the crane or something. Wooosh and he's up above the car.

[ISLAMATRON]

I examined the fuel regulations, and unless I'm off the mark, any cars that make the final qualifying session cannot add fuel after Q3. So the tanks have to accomodate this extra fuel requirement. This may be some opportunity for someone, if they can find a loophole or way to work around this problem.

I have no idea how this new set of regulations will affect strategy, but for sure, it opens up an environment for innovation and change.

All cars will be refueled after Q3, the rules have yet to be fully updated, as they are still being decided upon by FOTA.

Q3 will be low fuel, so the tanks only have to be large enough to hold enough fuel for the race(the highest consumption race that is(Monza or Spa maybe?) unless the teams can change fuel tanks between races)

[ISLAMATRON]

-Rules may still be changed to force minimum 2 stops per race & make Q3 runners start on the tyres they qualified on.
F1 Commission is meeting Feb 1st to discuss.

Minimum # of pit dtops is stupid, it takes away from different strategies that can be run, they already have to pit at least 1nce with the 2 tire type rule... I hope they dont mandate at least 2 pit stops, I'd like to see some drivers try a 1 stop race.

Making the drivers start the race on the same type(not the same exact worn out ones) of tire they qualed on is a good idea, but why only the Q3 drivers, there should not be a penalty for success, make everyone do it.

[Fil]

From the official Williams Twitter feed..

MORE pitstop practice on the agenda today, the guys have made it into the sub-3 second range to change a set of tyres!