F1technical.net

Phil wrote:

nevill3 wrote:I have just watched Ted Kravitz in a Sky video explaining the new rules very well
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/24100/ ... -explained

What I don't get however - and I apologize in case it was explained somewhere among the sea of posts on the 7 pages prior to this one - *BUT*; if the ultimate aim was to bring a P10 car closer to the cars on the front grid by giving them the freedom to choose their starting tire (hypothetically a soft vs fragile super-soft for everyone who did Q3), why in gods-name did we need these complicated rules of Pirelli limited which tires must be used during the race?

Diesel wrote:I watched Teds video and I still don't understand. I thought the idea was Pirelli would just bring all compounds and the teams would have freedom of choice to choose which two compounds they use for qualifying and the race. So some teams could be running Soft/Hard while others chose SuperSoft/Medium etc.

Formula 1 teams' tyre choices for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix will be revealed by Pirelli at the start of this week, amid intrigue about just how different an approach top contenders have had.

Under new rules aimed at making F1 more unpredictable, teams have been given scope to choose their own compounds for race weekends this year.

While Pirelli picks three sets of tyres, teams have complete freedom for their remaining 10 sets, with clear strategic options depending on how aggressive they wish to be.

Because of the long lead-time Pirelli needs to prepare the tyres, the choices for the F1 season opener had to be made in December, with only the FIA notified about what each team required.

Although Pirelli has long ago manufactured and shipped the right quantity of tyres to Australia, it will only become aware this week about the specific team choices.

Once it has found out that information, it is expected to release the team choices by Tuesday at the latest.

Pirelli F1 racing manager Mario Isola is predicting some variety in what teams have chosen at this stage of the season, although is well aware that teams with very different choices could ultimately converge on the same compounds for the races.

"At the start of the championship I think we will have some variation because they had to choose the compounds quite in advance before the winter tests, at least for the first four races," he explained. "So I expect some differences.

"Then it is difficult to say whether these differences will only be for free practices and then teams will converge to a similar strategy for the race.

"The teams have very powerful tools of simulation and they are able to find the best strategy also with the new regulations."

Isola is confident, however, that the tyre choice freedom will likely result in teams trying to run as soft a compound as possible, which could open the door to more pitstops.

"Hopefully we will have different strategies, and probably more pit stops compared to last year, because we always added one soft compound," he said.

"If we compare the allocation from last year to this year, if we have teams that are planning to have more aggressive strategies then we should have a higher number of pitstops."

BanMeToo wrote:Interesting that Pirelli is left in the dark about team choices, but I suppose it protects them from controversy. I guess it means they have to re-organize the tires once they arrive at GP, so the teams get what they ordered... sounds fun

Pirelli racing manager Mario Isola said: "It will be interesting to see if different teams have different choices, and inside the same team, if they have different choices for the two cars."

Asked whether Pirelli was already aware of the choices made, Isola added: "We have received the total number of tyres [for each compound] we need to produce from the FIA.

"Two weeks ago we then received the barcode allocation [for each team]. It was at this point we knew the choice for each team, which we will declare on Tuesday."

taris wrote:Anyone is still forced to race with Q2 Compound?

ME4ME wrote:Last years race the most popular strategy was to go Soft(25)-Medium(33). Obviously back then they qualified on the softs, and raced in cold conditions which made the tyres last longer. This year they will qualify on the Super-Softs. My guess is that a SS-S-S strategy will be used this year.

To me it looks like Hamilton has been the most clever. There is no need for Mediums, and thus he only took the mandatory medium prescribed by Pirelli, but will probably never use it. For any tyre to be used in qualifying or the race, they would have taken more sets to test in free practice. By using the a set of softs, he would fulfill the new tyre requirements of using one of the mandated racing-compounds.

Most teams have taken a lot of Super-Softs, which indeed can come handy in qualifying with everybody except the top teams potentially using the SS's already in Q1. I wonder if some teams might try to do 2 stints on SS's. Williams and Red Bull had very low wear at testing, so it's not impossible. Toro Rosso on the other hand were eating through their tyres at a much quicker rate, so they might wish they'd gone with more Soft tyres.

Chene_Mostert wrote:Any specific reason you don't include / consider Ericsson as being "the most clever" driver?