F1technical.net

ME4ME wrote:

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

Didn't spend much attention to Sauber tbh
But Ericsson will need more Super Softs than Hamilton because of Q1.

Anyhow it sounds like tire choices are more team decisions than driver choices.

ME4ME wrote: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.

This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. The disadvantage of not knowing how the Mediums work is bigger than the advantage gained by having 1 extra practice session on the Softs. If there is a scenario where the Mediums are the best strategy he will have to fly blind.

taris wrote:We have some variables there.

Some pilots can do Q2 with the Soft and try go for 1 or 2 stops
Soft (29)-Soft (29) or
Soft (29)-SuperSoft (29)? or
Soft (29)-SuperSoft(15)- SuperSoft (14)

Some may try to make Q2 with the SuperSoft and do 1 or 2 stops.
Supersoft (20)-Medium (38)? or
Supersoft (15)-Soft (27)-SuperSoft (16)

The Manor looks like it will prioritize mileage and should have a conservative strategy in the race.

soft - soft? lol
soft - supersoft? lol

Henk wrote:

ME4ME wrote: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.

This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. The disadvantage of not knowing how the Mediums work is bigger than the advantage gained by having 1 extra practice session on the Softs. If there is a scenario where the Mediums are the best strategy he will have to fly blind.

Feel free to explain what makes sense then, in your opinion.

My reasoning is this: They will use the SS's in qualifying this year, and will start the race on them. In previous years this race has been a two-stop. Last year it was a one-stop because of cool conditions (according to Pirelli). It is likely it will be a two-stop this year, because it's unlikely that a one-stop SS-M strategy will last till the end. In my mind a SS-S-S strategy would be quickest. Doing 8-25-25 laps respectively on each set. There is no need to use a slow but durable tyre such as the medium, which will last for 35 laps (last year at least). Thus it makes no sense to bring more medium sets than required by Pirelli. If the medium was a favorable racing tyre, teams would have to invest practice time and thus sets, for them to test the compound. None other than Manor have done that. To me it makes a lot of sense to focus on SS and S tyre compounds, using some sets in practise for setup tuning, and be prepared for Q and R.

Interesting.
Pirelli forced tire allocations in the past to save costs and avoid having to manufacture and ship around the world tires that would not be used in the end.
Now Pirelli has created rules that force it onto themselves to carry these medium tires to Australia so that Mercedes can meet a legality requirement by having the tire available during the race when in reality they have no intention of using them whatsoever.
Clever!
(And of course those tires will be turned to scrap after the race... most likely after shipping them back to Turkey)

A couple of things...

Teams still have to return 6 tires after FP.
Depending on how SS wear this race either goes SS-SS-S(let's call it plan A) or SS-S-S(B).

To carry plan A in the best possible fashion you need to save one brand new set of SS through FP and qualifying + the obligatory soft.
Plan B needs you to save one soft plus the obligatory.

At this point seems every team is going more or less for the same thing, it's unlikely any of these allocations will lock anyone in undesireable strategies/situations.

I wouldn't be surprised if the medium is actually a better race tire than the soft, at least from what I saw in testing. Comparing the degradation of the soft tire to the super soft, if you nurse the super soft, it's probably a faster tire overall than the soft. The medium will start slower than the soft or super soft but once in it's element it's very consistent, not to mention by 10 laps the other two tires will not be faster than the medium tire. In fact by 12-13 laps both tyres will be slower than the medium compound, while the medium still has another 10 laps left in it. You'd have to be sure you can gain more in those laps than you'll lose in the pit stop.

godlameroso wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if the medium is actually a better race tire than the soft, at least from what I saw in testing. Comparing the degradation of the soft tire to the super soft, if you nurse the super soft, it's probably a faster tire overall than the soft. The medium will start slower than the soft or super soft but once in it's element it's very consistent, not to mention by 10 laps the other two tires will not be faster than the medium tire. In fact by 12-13 laps both tyres will be slower than the medium compound, while the medium still has another 10 laps left in it. You'd have to be sure you can gain more in those laps than you'll lose in the pit stop.

Yes, there is a chance, that the Medium will be useful for the race. I am pretty sure, that this is the reason why Merc chose two sets of Mediums for one of their drivers. They will try the Medium on Friday to check the setup and see if it is good or not and then decide if they want to use it during the race.

Merc said they split the tyres so they could do the optimum testing in free practice

godlameroso wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if the medium is actually a better race tire than the soft, at least from what I saw in testing. Comparing the degradation of the soft tire to the super soft, if you nurse the super soft, it's probably a faster tire overall than the soft. The medium will start slower than the soft or super soft but once in it's element it's very consistent, not to mention by 10 laps the other two tires will not be faster than the medium tire. In fact by 12-13 laps both tyres will be slower than the medium compound, while the medium still has another 10 laps left in it. You'd have to be sure you can gain more in those laps than you'll lose in the pit stop.

You saw testing in Barcelona which could not be further away from Australia as far as tire loads and degradation is concerned..Australia should not be as cool as barcelona if the rain stays away.
The graining that was seen on the softer compounds in Barcelona shouldn't be an issue and Australia does not have the equavalent of turn 3 at Barcelona that destroys tires.

RicME85 wrote:Merc said they split the tyres so they could do the optimum testing in free practice

no its because Hamilton is the smartest driver out there

ERM no.

Mercedes said that split tyre strategy was simply a team decision to help it evaluate all options on Friday.

"For tyre compounds, we’re just covering all our bases in terms of our Friday programme, to properly evaluate the available compounds," a team spokesman said.

ME4ME wrote:

Henk wrote:

ME4ME wrote: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.

This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. The disadvantage of not knowing how the Mediums work is bigger than the advantage gained by having 1 extra practice session on the Softs. If there is a scenario where the Mediums are the best strategy he will have to fly blind.

Feel free to explain what makes sense then, in your opinion.

My reasoning is this: They will use the SS's in qualifying this year, and will start the race on them. In previous years this race has been a two-stop. Last year it was a one-stop because of cool conditions (according to Pirelli). It is likely it will be a two-stop this year, because it's unlikely that a one-stop SS-M strategy will last till the end. In my mind a SS-S-S strategy would be quickest. Doing 8-25-25 laps respectively on each set. There is no need to use a slow but durable tyre such as the medium, which will last for 35 laps (last year at least). Thus it makes no sense to bring more medium sets than required by Pirelli. If the medium was a favorable racing tyre, teams would have to invest practice time and thus sets, for them to test the compound. None other than Manor have done that. To me it makes a lot of sense to focus on SS and S tyre compounds, using some sets in practise for setup tuning, and be prepared for Q and R.

My reasoning is that there could be a situation where there is a safetycar, a puncture or frontwing damage that forces you to use the Mediums. To me it makes sense to cover all bases since the only disadvantage is in practice. But as said above Merc made the call to at least cover that base and Rosberg is the person to do that.

Hamilton could use the mediums in practice, but he would still need them to be one of his 6 sets going into qualifying, so I can't see why he would use them at all during the weekend.

Those that have chosen 2 sets of medium are likely to use one set in FP1 and then discard them.

Manor had their's selected by Pirelli, as they did not respond in time.

It is unlikely that even the top teams would use the medium in qualifying this year, with the knockout system. They will be straight onto the super-softs and turn the engine up closer to the max than they normally would for Q1 and Q2. That is to ensure they go through in one lap.

I would expect that the top teams will take 3 sets of super-softs (+1 extra set if they make Q3), 2 sets of softs (which will be save for the race) and one set of mediums (mandatory - unlikely to be used in the race).

The strategy would be SS (8)-S (25)-S (25). Or slightly shorter on the first soft and longer on the second - maybe 23/27 laps.

Some teams may want to try for a 3 stopper. To do this they would take 4 SS into qualifying (+1 if they get to Q3), 1 set of softs (mandatory) and one set of mediums (manadtory).

Their stints would likely be SS (8)-SS (10)-SS (10)-S (30). Or possibly the last stint will be on Mediums, but I doubt it.

Some of the back-marker teams may try a one stopper - possibly softs (26) then mediums (32).

One thing I am not clear on - do the teams that don't make Q3 still get the extra set of super-softs, which they didn't last year.

Teams outside the top 10 may have an advantage here. They can start on the preferred race tyre (probably soft) and judge whether wear is higher or lower than expected, and can jump to using the medium or super-soft as needed.