31 Oct 2016

Race 19 – 71 Laps – 4.304km per lap – 305.354km race distance – medium tyre wear

Mexican GP F1 Strategy Report Podcast – our host Michael Lamonato is joined by Peter Anderson from Carsales.com.au.

The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez hosted an unusual and intriguing Mexican Grand Prix, which started and ended with high drama. Lewis Hamilton claimed victory to cut the gap to team-mate Nico Rosberg to 19 points in the title fight.

Behind, there were some feisty battles, with three drivers being classified third at some point over Sunday afternoon and evening due to numerous penalties. Once all the dust had settled, it was Daniel Ricciardo completing the top three.

It wasn’t a particularly outstanding race in terms of strategy, but there were some fascinating points to take away from the race. Here are the major strategy headlines to emerge from the Mexican GP weekend

Ricciardo goes long

After the first corner mayhem and incidents, the safety car was quickly dispatched. Several drivers opted to dive into the pit lane straight away, most notably Ricciardo’s Red Bull. He went from super-softs to mediums, going for an aggressive two-stop strategy.

He did a long 49-lap stint on the medium tyre, going through traffic pretty quickly before going onto the soft tyre with 21 laps remaining. This gave him a nice, comfortably achievable final stint on the soft Pirelli compound, which enabled him to close in on the battling Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel.

Red Bull looked strong throughout the race, although – like Ferrari – not quite on Mercedes’ pace. This meant Ricciardo was able to move into podium contention and despite finishing fifth on the road, he ended up getting the trophy for P3 anyway.

Vettel does his own thing

Vettel once again did his own strategy, staying out longer on the softs even when his Ferrari pit crew were ready for him. He did a remarkably long opening soft-tyre stint, which was all thanks to being able to make it through to Q2 on the mid-range compound.

He missed getting the longest soft-tyre stint of the race by two laps, pitting after 32 to go onto the medium. The soft as a whole held up well and Vettel was matching those behind him even with his older Pirelli rubber, which is probably why he opted to stay out a couple of laps after being originally called in.

It put him in better shape for the final, intense battles with the Red Bull duo but ultimately his aggression caught up to him, as he was penalised for moving in the braking zone on Ricciardo (ironically, something he’d complained about with Verstappen in previous races).

Perez can’t make it work

Sergio Perez had hoped to get a better result in front of his home crowd, having qualified a disappointing 12^th. But getting stuck behind both Williams drivers meant he couldn’t make the most of being light on his tyres. First, a good start got him caught up behind Valtteri Bottas.

He struggled to get passed the Finnish driver but having moved onto the mediums, he then got stuck behind Felipe Massa. He got ahead of him once, but overcooked it into Turn 1 and fell back behind. The equal top speed and not-as-effective DRS meant he failed to find a way through and settled for 10^th.

Red Bull tries the undercut

The two Mercedes drivers started on the softs, while the Red Bulls went for the super-softs, having used them in Q2. It appears Red Bull tried to undercut Rosberg, the second Silver Arrows on the road, with Ricciardo’s alternative strategy and Verstappen’s earlier stop.

Ricciardo ended up two-stopping with a late soft tyre stint to close in on Verstappen and Vettel. Verstappen pitted for mediums on lap 12 and made it all the way to the end, but Rosberg’s later stop meant he was able to make it to the end without as much degradation and tyre wear, while Verstappen was struggling towards the end.

Penalty drama

Obviously, the result at the chequered flag changed drastically after the race. Verstappen was third but then was given a five-second time penalty for gaining time by cutting the first chicane while battling Vettel. This dropped him to fifth.

There was a horribly awkward moment in the pre-podium room where Verstappen finds that out and has to leave, with Vettel running to make the podium on time. But later in the evening Vettel was given a 10-second penalty for moving under braking while scrapping Ricciardo, dropping him to fifth. Ricciardo was promoted to third (securing P3 in the drivers’ standings) and Verstappen moved back up to third.

Going long

It’s also worth mentioning the mega jobs Marcus Ericsson and Jolyon Palmer did, stopping on lap one and going all the way to the end on medium tyres. The Sauber’s drive was particularly impressive, as he finished 11^th after being crashed into by Pascal Wehrlein on lap one.

He ditched his softs on lap one, while pitting for repairs, and made his mediums last a staggering 69 laps. Palmer also stopped on lap one after the safety car was deployed and matched that stint number, finishing 14^th after starting last. Both showed good pace even in the final laps.

Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1

Longest Stints

Supersoft: Kvyat (23 laps)
Soft: Kvyat (34 laps)
Medium: Ericsson, Palmer (69 laps)

Episode 18 of the 2016 Strategy Podcast: by Formula Legend provides insight & analysis of strategic decisions made during the 2016 USA Grand Prix.

Our host Michael Lamonato is joined by Trent Price – F1 journalist.

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.

V8 Race Manager: The V8 Supercar race management simulation – it’s out now on iOS & Android.

Contact us on twitter @strategyreport.

25 Oct 2016

Race 18 – 56 Laps – 5.513km per lap – 308.405km race distance – medium tyre wear

USA GP F1 Strategy Report Podcast – our host Michael Lamonato is joined by Trent Price – F1 journalist.

The Circuit of the Americas once again hosted a fun-filled United States Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton going on to claim his fourth victory at the track and fifth in the country.

The British driver has now cut his team-mate Nico Rosberg’s lead in the championship down to 26 points with three rounds remaining. Rosberg finished in second place, with Daniel Ricciardo third for Red Bull.

In a stark contrast to last year, conditions remained dry throughout the weekend. Strategy proved to be crucial in deciding the race result, so let’s take a look at the main headlines from the US GP:

Ferrari takes a different route

We’ve seen it many times before during the 2016 season, but Ferrari seems to like making strange and unusual strategy decisions during races. The team’s drivers looked to be on alternative strategies, but only one car made it to the chequered flag.

Kimi Raikkonen started the race strongly on the super-soft tyre, getting the jump on Max Verstappen and running up in fourth place. He pitted on lap eight to ditch the softest tyre compound, opting for the yellow-marked softs for his second stint.

He fell behind Verstappen and then gradually started to drop off the back of the Red Bulls, into the clutches of his team-mate Sebastian Vettel. Unusually on lap 24 Ferrari pitted him for another set of super-softs, which released Vettel. Were they trying to get Raikkonen out of the way?

After a decent 14-lap stint they pitted him again but there were concerns a wheel nut wasn’t on properly and he stopped just after the pit exit, before bizarrely rolling down the hill, into the pitlane and retiring.

Meanwhile Vettel did a super-soft stint to begin with, before a soft-tyre stint and a fairly short (in comparison to other drivers) section of the race on the mediums. Weirdly, Ferrari pitted him for super-softs with three laps to go.

Maybe it was a precaution or he was really struggling with tyres but he didn’t have anyone around him to challenge his fourth place, with Raikkonen and Verstappen failing to finish. So he ended up a distant fourth.

Ricciardo loses time

Red Bull looked like a decent match for Mercedes, or at least Rosberg. Ricciardo held onto second place early on before his stop to go from super-softs to softs on lap eight, quite early and an aggressive move. He pitted for a second time on lap 25.

But the Virtual Safety Car emerged a few laps later, ironically to clear his team-mate’s stranded car. Mercedes pitted both drivers to go to the end but as Red Bull had just stopped Ricciardo, they decided not to. It proved costly, as Mercedes basically got two free pitstops – one for each driver.

That cemented Rosberg in second place and Hamilton in the lead. It’s possible Ricciardo could’ve challenged if Red Bull had pitted him under VSC as no time would’ve been lost and he would’ve been on equal tyres with the same amount of laps on them.

As it is, he went all the way to the end on the mediums he changed to on lap 25 – an impressive stint, but one that saw him lose some ground late on to finish a slightly lonely third.

Mix of stops

The VSC and various other reasons, including the first lap contact and a few incidents and punctures, meant we saw a range of two and three-stop strategies during the race. The three compounds (super-soft, soft and mediums) worked well and proved to open up just the right amount of strategy, without making it chaotic.

The top three all pitted just twice, with Red Bull going on a long final stint with Ricciardo and the two Mercedes drivers starting on the softs and going to laps 10 and 11 respectively for Rosberg and Hamilton.

The team put Rosberg on the medium and Hamilton on the soft tyre, but the VSC opened up a chance to stop both and neutralise any shot of seeing how the two different strategies would’ve played out.

All three compounds got a heavy amount of use, the super-soft was probably the most unpopular tyre because the soft and mediums worked so well in the relatively warm conditions – they were able to hold up for a long period of time, while generating good performance.

A few drivers did go for a one-stop though, with Daniil Kvyat, Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr all doing so. It didn’t quite pay off but it was worth the risk, especially for the so far point-less Sauber.

Qualifying plays its part

The rule of the drivers starting on the tyre they set their fastest time on in Q2 shook up the grid once again, with a few drivers at the front of the field (Hamilton, Rosberg and Verstappen) making it through to Q3 on the softs.

The rest started on the super-softs, which gave them a small performance advantage at the start, while a range of other strategies were used – some lower down the field chose the softs to start and a few even went for mediums.

Tyre performance gaps seemed fairly small in Austin though and that meant going for a different compound at the start didn’t cost drivers a huge amount of time, although those on the mediums did struggle initially. Super-softs helped Ricciardo and Raikkonen make up a place each but the early stops cost them a little time.

Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1

Longest Stints

Medium: Ericsson (38 laps)
Soft: Nasr, Sainz (26 laps)
Supersoft: Vettel, Raikkonen (14 laps)

Episode 17 of the 2016 Strategy Podcast: by Formula Legend provides insight & analysis of strategic decisions made during the 2016 Japanese Grand Prix.

Our host Michael Lamonato is joined by Abhishek Takle – F1 journalist.

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.

V8 Race Manager: The V8 Supercar race management simulation – it’s out now on iOS & Android.

Contact us on twitter @strategyreport.