Monthly Archives: June 2016

22 Jun 2016

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Michael Lamonato

Michael Lamonato

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Episode 8 (2016) – European Grand Prix

Episode 8 of the 2016 Strategy Podcast: by Formula Legend provides insight & analysis of strategic decisions made during the 2016 European Grand Prix.

Our host Michael Lamonato is joined by Cheeka Eyers from the podcast For Formula One’s Sake.

Our guest Cheeka Eyers (on the left, obviously)
Our guest Cheeka Eyers (on the left, obviously)

For full written report about the strategy plays in this race, and detailed data (including all the stints and tyre choices) click here. All of the previous written reports are here.

All of our previous F1 Strategy Report Podcasts are here.

If you’re into F1 strategy make sure you check out Formula Legend – it’s free for iOS & Android. Contact us on twitter @beermogul.

European Grand Prix 2016

22 Jun 2016

Race 8 – 51 Laps – 6.003km per lap – 306.049km race distance – low tyre wear

European GP F1 Strategy Report Podcast – featuring Cheeka Eyers from the podcast For Formula One’s Sake.

With a new track hosting the returning European Grand Prix, there were plenty of exciting unknowns heading into round eight of the 2016 Formula 1 season.

The unique Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan certainly produced a stunning backdrop and got plenty of people talking, but the race itself was pretty low-key.

Nico Rosberg stormed to a clear victory from Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez. But while the race wasn’t the most thrilling of the 2016 events so far, it did spark more strategy stories than we were expecting.

Baku plays to Mercedes’ strengths

The long straights of the Baku street track were always going to suit the Mercedes-powered cars, so coupled with the strong chassis of the championship leading W07, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton were always going to be tough to beat.

The mix of incredible straightline speed and brilliant poise through the corners really highlighted the Mercedes’ strength, while also showcasing the flaws of Red Bull’s Renault power unit and the downforce levels of the likes of Williams and Manor.

Ferrari changes its mind?

Early in the European GP, it looked as if Ferrari were going for a two-stop strategy. With higher temperatures and a rapidly evolving track, tyre wear and degradation rates looked a bit higher than expected. So the radio call came in around lap seven to pit Vettel but he was sceptical.

Instead Ferrari opted to stop Kimi Raikkonen early, but the Finn managed to eke out his soft tyres to the end, while Vettel was happy on the super-softs until lap 20 and easily made it to the finish with just one stop. So, it looked like the switch back to a one-stop was the right call after all.

Red Bull struggles

But while Ferrari’s car worked well on its tyres, the Red Bull cars struggled with wear and degradation, possibly due to the team using less downforce to try and compensate for the RB12’s lack of grunt on the straights.

Both Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen stopped early to get rid of the super-softs, going to the softs. But while others were able to get them into the working range and extend their stints, the RBR cars chewed them up and needed to pit for a second time.

Clearly worried about getting to the end, Red Bull went for the rarely-used medium compound for the final stints, which worked quite well and meant Ricciardo and Verstappen were able to make up for the lost ground to rise up to seventh and eighth.

Strategy calls fail to work

Lewis Hamilton started down in 10th after his qualifying contact with the wall but his early progress and strong strategy with a one-stop, pitting on lap 15 to switch from super-softs to softs, looked to be good enough for a positive result.

He could well have finished ahead of Perez but starting so low down and the deployment issue he had, after a set-up problem which he radioed about frantically, meant he couldn’t make up much more ground.

Nico Hulkenberg tried something different from outside the top 10 and started on the softs but the super-soft edge in the early laps meant he lost too many places initially to really make an impact higher up the order, finishing ninth – in Perez’s shadow once again. It was the same for the other soft-tyre starters, Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein (before the latter retired).

Meanwhile at the back, Rio Haryanto impressed to qualify 17th but a first lap pitstop for a new nose put him on a different strategy. Manor opted to see if he could get to the end on the softs and he did, which is quite an achievement. But he was well off the pace of the rest of the pack, despite the car’s more encouraging pace in practice and qualifying.

Not a two-stop race

Pirelli expected it to be a one-stop race for pretty much everyone but that didn’t prove to be the case. The higher temperatures and track evolution meant everyone was heading into the race with lots of unknowns to contend with and it proved to be too much for some.

The Red Bulls, Felipe Massa, Jenson Button, Felipe Nasr, Romain Grosjean, Jolyon Palmer, Esteban Gutierrez and Ericsson actually all stopped twice, probably due to these different conditions and the fact they spent a lot of the race in the close midfield traffic.

The one-stop proved to ultimately be the best strategy if the cars were good on their tyres and the drivers were in a fair amount of clean air. The fact that the top six cars only pitted once shows which pit option had the advantage.

Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1

Longest Stints

Medium: Verstappen (31 laps)
Soft: Haryanto (48 laps)
Supersoft: Hulkenberg (31 laps)

Most Stops

VERSTAPPEN, RICCIARDO, ALONSO, NASR, BUTTON, ERICSSON, GROSJEAN, SAINZ, MASSA, GUTIERREZ, PALMER (2 – including drive-throughs)

All the Data

Thanks to Pirelli Motorsport for the detailed infographics

7743_Azerbaijan-Race1-EN

7744_Azerbaijan-Race2-EN

Stints by Driver

SCSafety Car

 

Redbull3. Ricciardo
Start P2
Used Supersoft  6 laps Pit 19.840
Soft 16 laps Pit 20.155
Used Medium 29 laps
Finished P7 (-5)

 

Ferrari5. Vettel
Start P3
Used Supersoft 20 laps Pit 20.058
Soft 21 laps
Finished P2 (+1)

 

Merc6. Rosberg
Start P1
Used Supersoft 21 laps Pit 20.058
Soft 30 laps
Finished P1 (+0)

 

Ferrari7. Raikkonen
Start P4
Used Supersoft 8 laps Pit 20.593
Soft 43 laps
Finished P4 (+0)

 

Redbull8. Grosjean
Start P11
Supersoft 10 laps Pit 21.132
Soft 16 laps Pit 23.588
Used Medium 24 laps
Finished P13 (-2)

 

Sauber9. Ericsson
Start P20
Soft 16 laps Pit 20.614
Supersoft 9 laps Pit 20.559
Used Soft 25 laps
Finished P17 (+3)

 

FI11. Perez
Start P7
Used Supersoft 16 laps Pit 20.614
Soft 35 laps
Finished P3 (-4)

 

Sauber12. Nasr
Start P15
Supersoft 7 laps Pit 20.670
Soft 17 laps Pit 20.713
Soft 26 laps
Finished P12 (+3)

 

Merc14. Alonso
Start P13
Supersoft 5 laps Pit 20.670
Soft 19 laps Pit 20.654
Soft 18 laps
Retired L42 (DNF)

 

Williams19. Massa
Start P5
Used Supersoft 7 laps Pit 19.445
Soft 21 laps Pit 19.858
Soft 23 laps
FInished P10 (-5)

 

Toro20. Magnussen
Start Pit Lane
Supersoft 6 laps Pit 20.772
Soft 44 laps
Finished P14 (+8)
Toro21. Guttierrez
Start P14
Supersoft 8 laps Pit 29.227
Soft 21 laps Pit 21.533
Used Supersoft 21 laps
Finished P16 (-2)

 

McLaren22. Button
Start P19
Supersoft 6 laps Pit 20.185
Soft 19 laps Pit 20.640
Soft 25 laps
Finished P11 (+8)

 

Redbull26. Kvyat
Start P6
Used Supersoft 5 laps Pit 24.802
Soft 1 laps
Retired Lap 6 (DNF)

 

FI27. Hulkenberg
Start P12
Soft 20 laps Pit 20.247
Supersoft 31 laps
Finished P9 (+3)

 

Toro30. Palmer
Start P21
Supersoft 11 laps Pit 20.965
Soft 20 laps Pit 20.561
Supersoft 19 laps
Finished P15 (+6)

 

Toro33. Verstappen
Start P9
Used Supersoft 5 laps Pit 20.069
Soft 15 laps Pit 22.497
Used Medium 31 laps
Finished P8 (+1)

 

Merc44. Hamilton
Start P10
Used Supersoft 15 laps Pit 20.108
Soft 36 laps
Finished P5 (+5)

 

Toro55. Sainz
Start P18
Used Supersoft 4 laps Pit 22.028
Soft 23 laps Pit 21.030
Supersoft 4 laps
Retired Lap 31 (DNF)

 

Redbull77. Bottas
Start P8
Used Supersoft 19 laps Pit 19.732
Soft 32 laps
Finished P6 (+2)

 

Toro88. Haryanto
Start P16
Supersoft 1 laps Pit 33.405
Soft 48 laps
Finished P18 (-2)

 

Toro94. Wehrlein
Start P17
Soft 29 laps Pit 26.187
Medium 10 laps
Retired Lap 39 (DNF)

08-europe-lap-chart

Image: BAKU, AZERBAIJAN – JUNE 19: Daniel Ricciardo of Australia driving the (3) Red Bull Racing Red Bull-TAG Heuer RB12 TAG Heuer on track during the European Formula One Grand Prix at Baku City Circuit on June 19, 2016 in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

14 Jun 2016

With

Michael Lamonato

Michael Lamonato

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Episode 7 (2016) – Canadian Grand Prix

Episode 7 of the 2016 Strategy Podcast: by Formula Legend provides insight & analysis of strategic decisions made during the 2016 Canadian Grand Prix.

Our host Michael Lamonato is joined by Ernie Black the F1 Poet.

For full written report about the strategy plays in this race, and detailed data (including all the stints and tyre choices) click here. All of the previous written reports are here.

All of our previous F1 Strategy Report Podcasts are here.

If you’re into F1 strategy make sure you check out Formula Legend – it’s free for iOS & Android. Contact us on twitter @beermogul.

Canadian Grand Prix 2016

14 Jun 2016

Race 7 – 70 Laps – 4.361km per lap – 305.270km race distance – low tyre wear

Canadian GP F1 Strategy Report Podcast – featuring Ernie Black the F1 Poet.

Image: MONTREAL, QC – JUNE 12: Daniel Ricciardo of Australia driving the (3) Red Bull Racing Red Bull-TAG Heuer RB12 TAG Heuer and Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (33) Red Bull Racing Red Bull-TAG Heuer RB12 TAG Heuer on track at the start during the Canadian Formula One Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on June 12, 2016 in Montreal, Canada. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Formula 1 travelled across the Atlantic Ocean to Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the Canadian Grand Prix. The tricky, unforgiving and unusual circuit hosted the seventh round of the 2016 season and saw Lewis Hamilton claim his second win in a row.

Nico Rosberg’s advantage was severely cut by Hamilton’s victory, with the German coming home a distant fifth, with Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen between the Mercedes duo. Here are the major strategy stories and headlines from the Canadian GP weekend:

One vs two stop

Heading into the race, a one-stop strategy was said to be the quickest, due to low degradation rates and the durability of the two softest Pirelli tyre compounds – the super-soft and ultra-soft. A two-stopper was the more aggressive strategy and depended on drivers moving through traffic quickly, as well as getting tyres up to temperature quickly.

Hamilton and Vettel went for two very different strategies, with the Mercedes driver emerging in front. The W07 was clearly the quicker of the two cars, although the margin looked much smaller in Canada, but could Vettel have taken the fight to Hamilton in the same strategy?

He struggled to cut the gap after his second stop on the softs and his pace on the super-soft wasn’t anything to right home about, the middle tyre didn’t seem to work for most of the field. So it seems likely he could have been in a better position if he had stopped once, he was leading when he pitted anyway so would have had track position.

Interestingly Hamilton claimed after the race Mercedes were planning to two-stop the race but opted to pit just once after seeing Vettel stop surprisingly early, switching strategy. It worked out for the Englishman. With low tyre degradation, cooler conditions and the Mercedes’ strong pace, it proved to be the best option for him. There wasn’t much between a one and two stop but it appears Ferrari once again made the wrong call.

Not quite ultra-soft enough?

The ultra-soft tyre is meant to be the softest in Pirelli’s range but it seems to be lasting quite some distance. During its appearances so far in F1, the compound has been used extensively and has proved to last far longer than some were expecting. For example, Kevin Magnussen was able to do 29 laps on his set of ultra-softs during the Canadian GP, many others went well past the 20-lap mark.

The super-soft is also holding up quite well in terms of durability and degradation, although performance is less favourable and it wasn’t used much in Montreal. This partly due to the fact teams had to put two sets of soft tyres aside for the race and use at least one (rather than having two compounds nominated and having to use both, weirdly) so the ultra-soft was the better option for a second tyre.

It begs the question, are these tyres too durable? They seem to not be soft enough. Drivers have said they want a more aggressive ultra-soft tyre, they want more performance and higher wear. That’s what they expect from the softest compound in the Pirelli range. Perhaps durability was helped by the cooler conditions in Canada and it will be different in warmer climates, but Pirelli needs to take a look into this and see what can be done for next year to create more of a difference between the compounds.

Perez doesn’t make it work

Sergio Perez was one of the drivers with free tyre choice, having not made it through to Q3, to start the race on the soft tyre. It looked like the decision could pay off, the Force India and Perez in particular has completed some great stints during the season so far on the softs and doing something different in Canada can have a big impact on the end position.

However, Perez struggled to make the alternative strategy work, particularly with getting heat into the soft tyres during the opening stint. He admitted after the race the decision to go soft, super-soft and soft on strategy (a two-stop) was probably the wrong one. Starting 11th and the first of the free tyre choice drivers, he had a real chance to challenge for good points but in the end he had to settle for 10th – not helped by getting stuck in traffic and a slow pitstop.

Ricciardo stuck in traffic

Daniel Ricciardo looked to be on a good strategy but traffic during his stints negatively impacted his race and this meant he finished down in seventh, having started in fourth. He lost ground at the start, falling behind his team-mate, and looked the quicker Red Bull in the early stages, but he struggled to pass other cars and get in clean air.

Tyre wear was low, but being stuck behind traffic sped the process up for Ricciardo and a lock-up on the softs didn’t help matters either. A two-stop race with one ultra-soft stint and two soft tyre stints on paper looked to be almost ideal but a number of factors meant that simply wasn’t the case for Ricciardo.

Williams rule the pitlane

The Williams team has found the sweet spot with its pitstops, to the point where it took the DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award for the seventh consecutive race in Canada. Valtteri Bottas had four tyres changed in just 2.11 seconds in Montreal and the consistent nature of the Williams pitstops is giving them a small but handy advantage in the race.

Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1

Longest Stints

Soft: Alonso (52 laps)
Supersoft: Vettel (26 laps)
Ultrasoft: Magnussen (29 laps)

Most Stops

Grojean (3 – including drive-throughs)

All the Data

Thanks to Pirelli Motorsport for the detailed infographics

PirelliCanada2

PirelliCanada1

Stints by Driver

SCSafety Car
Lap 10-11 (VSC)

 

Redbull3. Ricciardo
Start P4
Used Ultrasoft 21 laps Pit 22.872
Soft 17 laps Pit 24.018
Soft  32 laps
Finished P7 (-3)

 

Ferrari5. Vettel
Start P3
Used Ultrasoft 11 laps Pit 22.597
Supersoft 26 laps Pit 22.361
Soft 22 laps
Finished P2 (+1)

 

Merc6. Rosberg
Start P2
Used Ultrasoft 21 laps Pit 22.466
Soft 30 laps Pit 22.728
Used Soft 19 laps
Finished P5 (-3)

 

Ferrari7. Raikkonen
Start P6
Used Ultrasoft 17 laps Pit 22.820
Supersoft 22 laps Pit 23.263
Soft 37 laps
Finished P6 (+0)

 

Redbull8. Grosjean
Start P14
Ultrasoft 17 laps Pit 23.680
Soft 22 laps Pit 23.055
Used Ultrasoft 7 laps Pit 32.114
Used Ultrasoft 22 laps
Finished P14 (+0)

 

Sauber9. Ericsson
Start P21
Ultrasoft 14 laps Pit 22.957
Soft 25 laps Pit 23.299
Used Soft 29 laps
Finished P15 (+6)

 

FI11. Perez
Start P11
Soft 30 laps Pit 22.556
Used Supersoft 16 laps Pit 24.757
Used Soft 23 laps
Finished P10 (+1)

 

Sauber12. Nasr
Start P18
Ultrasoft 9 laps Pit 23.987
Soft 26 laps Pit 23.608
Used Soft 33 laps
Finished P18 (+0)

 

Merc14. Alonso
Start P10
Used Ultrasoft 17 laps Pit 27.952
Soft 25 laps
Finished P11 (-1)

 

Williams19. Massa
Start P8
Used Ultrasoft 22 laps Pit 22.925
Soft 13 laps
Retired Lap 35 (DNF)

 

Toro20. Magnussen
Start P22
Soft 39 laps Pit 23.162
Ultrasoft 29 laps
Finished P16 (+6)
Toro21. Guttierrez
Start P13
Ultrasoft 13 laps Pit 23.412
Soft 28 laps Pit 23.928
Used Ultrasoft 27 laps
Finished P13 (+0)

 

McLaren22. Button
Start P12
Supersoft 9 laps
Retired Lap 9 (DNF)

 

Redbull26. Kvyat
Start P15
Ultrasoft 17 laps Pit 23.000
Soft 27 laps Pit 22.627
Used Ultrasoft 25 laps
Finished P12 (-3)

 

FI27. Hulkenberg
Start P9
Used Ultrasoft 21 laps Pit 22.876
Soft 30 laps Pit 23.111
Soft 18 laps
Finished P8 (-1)

 

Toro30. Palmer
Start P16
Ultrasoft 7 laps
Retired Lap 16 (DNF)

 

Toro33. Verstappen
Start P4
Used Ultrasoft 20 laps Pit 23.586
Soft 26 laps Pit 22.909
Used Ultrasoft 24 laps
Finished P4 (+0)

 

Merc44. Hamilton
Start P1
Used Ultrasoft 24 laps Pit 22.243/td>
Soft 46 laps
Finished P1 (+0)

 

Toro55. Sainz
Start P20
Ultrasoft 13 laps Pit 23.517
Soft 35 laps Pit 24.445
Ultrasoft 21 laps
Finished P9 (+11)

 

Redbull77. Bottas
Start P7
Used Ultrasoft 23 laps Pit 22.184
Soft 47 laps
Finished P3 (-4)

 

Toro88. Haryanto
Start P19
Supersoft 15 laps Pit 29.732
Soft 29 laps Pit 25.069
Soft 24 laps
Finished P19 (+0)

 

Toro94. Wehrlein
Start P17
Ultrasoft 11 laps Pit 24.784
Soft 27 laps Pit 24.516
Soft 30 laps
Finished P17 (+0)

07-canada-lap-chart_0