2 Aug 2016

Race 12 – 67 Laps – 4.574km per lap – 306.458km race distance – medium tyre wear

German GP F1 Strategy Report Podcast – our host Michael Lamonato is joined by Abhishek Takle – F1 journalist.

The Hockenheimring returned to the Formula 1 calendar as host to round 12 of the 2016 season, with the German Grand Prix being the final race before the summer break. Lewis Hamilton dominated after a strong start to take his sixth win of the year.

Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen put in strong performances to score Red Bull’s first double podium of the season, finishing in second and third. Nico Rosberg lost further ground in the championship race with a fourth place on home soil.

The race threw up plenty of interesting strategy headlines, with a variety of different options being used up and down the grid. Here are the main strategy stories to emerge from the German GP.

Two laps for Dany Ric

Tyre degradation was higher in Germany than at previous races, meaning any extra laps completed on a tyre in qualifying could have had an impact on the first stints of the race. Ricciardo had to go for two laps on his fastest Q2 run, with those super-soft tyres then being used at the start of the race.

This meant they weren’t quite as fresh as the tyres his rivals were running but it proved to not have much of an impact, as he was able to stop one lap later than Verstappen and Rosberg. It didn’t particularly help his fight to beat Verstappen but he ended up moving ahead of him later on.

Gutierrez starts on softs

Esteban Gutierrez qualified in the coveted 11^th grid position, meaning he was the first to have free reign of strategy when it came to choosing a tyre compound to start on. Haas opted to do something different and put him on the softs – the Mexican was the only driver to start on this tyre.

But a disastrous start caused him to fall to as low as 18^th place, which had a big impact on the rest of his race. The strategy brought him back into play for a more positive result but he ended up finishing just six seconds off his first point of the season, coming home 11^th.

Three stop rules the day

When F1 last visited Hockenheim, a two-stop strategy was the way to go. The tyres were more durable back then and the cars have evolved a lot since, but Pirelli predicted it would be very close between a two and a three stop race this year.

The three-stop was a safer bet, due to the tyre wear rates, but a two-stop could still work well if drivers were in clean air and could manage the tyres. Three trips to the pitlane proved to be the most popular choice in 2016, due to the tyre degradation and warm temperatures at the Hockenheimring.

But with a three stop comes a more diverse mix of compound strategies, we saw the leading four cars on different tyres during the final two stints. The soft and super-soft were the only compounds used throughout the race, as expected after limited running on the hardest compound (the mediums – seriously, what’s the point in them anyway?).

Vettel makes his own calls

Sebastian Vettel proved to be very vocal on the radio during the race when it came to race strategy. Before his final stop the German was told to pit but he replied “negative”, saying the super-soft tyres he was on could last a few more laps and were in good shape. He ended up pitting on lap 46 but he couldn’t take advantage of the fresher tyres compared to his rivals and ended up finishing well clear of the top four in fifth place.

Perez does the undercut

Sometimes the undercut doesn’t work all that well but it proved to be pretty handy in Germany, Perez leapfrogged several cars with early stops. He had a poor first lap, describing it as the “worst start” of his career, but a strategy change from Force India helped him move up the order. All of his three stops were earlier than his rivals and he used his strong tyre management skills to move up to 10^th place in the closing stages.

Ambitious Bottas

Williams tried a two-stop strategy for Valtteri Bottas but the brave move didn’t work, the Finnish driver pitted to change from super-softs to softs on lap 12 and then went for another fresh set of softs on the 33^rd tour of the race.

The long final stint didn’t quite work and Bottas ended up losing ground and a position to Jenson Button in the final laps, just holding off the hard-charging Perez. It was a similar story for Fernando Alonso, he was on a three-stop race but McLaren struggled more with degradation and the Spaniard ended up falling out of the top 10 with a few laps to go.

Rosberg doesn’t have the pace

Rosberg picked up a five-second penalty for forcing Verstappen off the road at Turn 6 and it was served at his final stop, but a stopwatch problem – according to Toto Wolff – meant the wait before the pit crew got to work was eight seconds instead. This cost Rosberg time but he lacked pace throughout the entire race.

The German dropped from first to fourth on lap one and struggled to fight back early on. He at one stage found himself up in second place after a super-soft second stint and a third stint on the softs, but the penalty cost him dearly and he ended up closing in on Verstappen late on, coming within two seconds of third place.

Hamilton out front

But while he looked less comfortable compared to Rosberg in practice, it all came together for Hamilton on race day. He took the lead at the start, opened up an advantage and put in a straightforward three-stop race, pitting on laps 14, 34 and 47 – going for a super-soft/soft/super-soft/soft strategy. It worked well and he crossed the line well clear of Ricciardo.

Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1

Longest Stints

Medium: Not used
Soft: Magnussen (34 laps)
Supersoft: Grojean (23 laps)

Most Stops

3

26 Jul 2016

Image: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY – JULY 24: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands drives the 6 Red Bull Racing Red Bull-TAG Heuer RB12 TAG Heuer during the Formula One Grand Prix of Hungary at Hungaroring on July 24, 2016 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

Race 11 – 70 Laps – 4.381km per lap – 306.630km race distance – medium tyre wear

Hungarian GP F1 Strategy Report Podcast – our host Michael Lamonato is joined by Jack Leslie from JLF1.

The 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix kicked off the second half of the Formula 1 season in a rather underwhelming fashion. There were some good battles and overtakes, as well as a bit of added tension with the two Mercedes cars racing at the front of the field, but it all fell a little flat.

Lewis Hamilton enjoyed a strong launch from the grid and took the lead into Turn 1, controlling the race from there. Nico Rosberg had to settle for a close second, while Daniel Ricciardo picked up another Hungaroring podium in third. While the race wasn’t the most exciting of the season so far, plenty of strategy stories and headlines emerged from round 11 of the 2016:

Two stop the way to go

As predicted by Pirelli prior to the race, a two-stop strategy with the first stint on the super-soft and two further stints on the soft tyre compound proved to be the most popular strategy. We saw a few drivers and teams shake things up and try something different with the order of tyre usage but overall, the two-stop race dominated.

But what F1’s tyre supplier didn’t predict correctly was when those stops would take place. There was talk beforehand of drivers ditching the super-soft before lap 10 and guidelines were once again given for the number of laps completed – 14 laps for the super-soft and 29 for the soft. These were ignored.

Despite the highest track temperature of the season so far, the soft and supersoft compounds worked well at the Hungaroring and its new, grippy and less bumpy track surface. It was less abrasive than the previous surface and this not only meant we saw quicker lap times but it also elongated the stints too.

Hamilton on control

The race winner went for a pretty standard two-stop strategy, pitting on lap 16 to change from super-softs to softs and then moving onto another pair of the middle compound on lap 41. Both times he undercut Rosberg, obviously as the leader he got priority but there was a moment where this didn’t look to be the case as the Red Bulls closed on Rosberg.

It looked like Hamilton was in complete control at the front of the field, maybe even slowing the pace slightly to drop Rosberg back. The German driver kept within close proximity of his team-mate all race but didn’t look to have the edge or enough speed to properly try an overtake.

He got close a few times, partly due to traffic (we’re looking at you, Esteban Gutierrez) and a late Turn 12 mistake but Rosberg just didn’t have enough left in the tank to make a move. Hamilton always seemed to respond and get the gap back out to around the two second mark.

Kimi tries something different

One of the few drivers to go off course when it came to race strategy was Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari had to take a risk with him. Qualifying did not go to plan and the Finn started down in 14^th place on the soft tyre, unlike the majority of his rivals. With Ferrari’s superior pace he was able to weave his way up the order and well into the top 10 by the time he stopped for super-softs on lap 29.

This is a good point to make – the top three teams have such an advantage now that making progress on an alternative strategy after a poor qualifying is fairly easy work. An aggressive middle stint on the super-softs further brought him into contention but he struggled to get past Max Verstappen in the closing stages, which damaged his red-marked tyres (and his front wing).

Sixth was still a good recovery and his pace throughout was impressive, it makes you wonder what could have been had he started further up. Of course, Verstappen was held up behind Raikkonen after his first stop but that would come back to bite the Ferrari, who then got stuck viewing the Red Bull RB12’s rear end for the final part of the Hungarian GP.

Mediums fail to work

A couple of drivers appeared to be attempting a one-stop race but the hot temperatures and lack of grip on the medium compound meant everyone had to switch strategies and move onto a two-stop. Drivers reported sliding on the mediums and they just didn’t work with the track surface, proving to be too hard and not grippy enough.

We have largely seen that the hardest compound is rarely used during race weekends, making you question whether we really need three options. While it is occasionally used, as was the case un Hungary, using it in the race doesn’t typically work and we saw this once again.

Felipe Massa, Sergio Perez (who lost time when his pit crew forgot to turn up), Rio Haryanto and Jenson Button all tried the medium tyre but without much success. Perez and Massa even looked to be trying a one-stop but ended up having to switch to softer compounds.

Palmer almost scores a point

Renault switched things up with the two-stop by putting Jolyon Palmer on a soft/super-soft/soft strategy. It actually worked quite well, in a similar way to Raikkonen’s, with the Brit moving steadily up the order and into contention for his first F1 points. But with the track being so tough to pass on, a spin at Turn 4 threw that hard work away and he eventually finished 13^th.

Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1

Longest Stints

Medium: Massa (40 laps)
Soft: Ricciardo (37 laps)
Supersoft: Magnussen (24 laps)

Most Stops

26 Jul 2016

11ª Etapa – 70 Voltas – 4.381km por volta – 306.630km distância total – desgaste médio de pneus

Hungarian GP F1 Strategy Report Podcast – our host Michael Lamonato is joined by Jack Leslie from JLF1.

O GP da Hungria iniciou a segunda metade da temporada de 2016 com grandes batalhas e ultrapassagens, além de tensão com a aproximação das duas Mercedes na ponta.

Hamilton se aproveitou de uma grande largada e já assumiu a liderança na curva 1, controlando a prova desde o início. Rosberg teve que se contentar com a 2ª posição enquanto Ricciardo segurou Vettel nas voltas finais para subir ao pódio mais uma vez. Com uma corrida recheada de estratégias, temos muito o que comentar no boletim de hoje.

Duas paradas funcionando

Como havia sido previsto pela Pirelli antes da corrida, uma estratégia de duas paradas com o primeiro stint de super macios e mais dois com macios foi a mais popular da prova. Ainda vimos alguns pilotos tentando se aventurar com algumas estratégias alternativas, mas em geral, o grid optou pelas duas paradas.

No entanto, o que a fornecedora italiana não conseguiu prever foi o momento de cada parada. As suposições eram que alguns estariam se livrando dos pneus vermelhos antes da volta 10 e as recomendações dadas em Silverstone se repetiram em Budapeste, 14 voltas no super macios e 29 nos macios, ambas foram prontamente ignoradas.

Mesmo com as temperaturas de pista mais altas da temporada, os macios e super macios funcionaram muito bem em Hungaroring e sua nova superfície, mais aderente e menos ondulada. O novo pavimento é menos abrasivo, proporcionando não só voltas mais rápidas, como também stints mais prolongados.

Hamilton no controle

O vencedor da prova foi para uma estratégia tradicional de dois pit-stops, parando na volta 16 para trocar de super macios para macios e subsequentemente calçando outro set dos amarelos na volta 41. Em ambas paradas, o inglês completou o undercut em Rosberg. Obviamente, por ser o líder, Hamilton teve a preferência, contudo, por um instante essa escrita quase foi alterada, já que as Red Bulls encostavam perigosamente em Rosberg.

O tricampeão pareceu estar no controle total durante toda a corrida, talvez até diminuindo um pouco o ritmo para afastar seu companheiro de equipe. O alemão se fez presente da largada à bandeirada, entretanto, não foi rápido o bastante para arriscar uma ultrapassagem.

Rosberg até se aproximou bastante em algumas oportunidades, parcialmente auxiliado pelo tráfego e por um pequeno erro de Hamilton na curva 12, mas mesmo assim, Nico não parecia ter gasolina no tanque para brigar pela liderança e o inglês sempre tinha uma resposta imediata para os atrevimentos de seu companheiro de equipe.

Kimi aposta em algo diferente

Um dos poucos pilotos que decidiu se aventurar nas estratégias alternativas foi Kimi Raikkonen, talvez por força das circunstâncias.

O sábado não foi dos melhores para o finlandês, que alinhou no grid em 14º com pneus macios, ao contrário de boa parte do pelotão. Contando com o ótimo ritmo de corrida da Ferrari, Kimi conseguiu escalar o pelotão com autoridade e já estava no top 10 na volta 29, quando fez sua primeira parada e calçou super macios.

A performance das três primeiras equipes é tão superior que não é tão difícil se recuperar de um sábado desastroso com uma estratégia alternativa no domingo. Um stint agressivo nos super macios colocou o finlandês de volta na briga, mas preso atrás de Max Verstappen, uma briga que destruiu seus pneus (e asa dianteira) nas últimas voltas da prova.

Sexto foi um ótimo resultado e seu ritmo durante a corrida foi impressionante, o que nos faz pensar como o roteiro mudaria se Kimi tivesse largado no topo do grid. Claro, Verstappen ficou preso atrás do finlandês no primeiro stint, sem a Ferrari número 7 para atrapalhar o holandês, Kimi poderia acabar atrás da mesma Red Bull mesmo se seu sábado tivesse sido normal.

Médios deixam a desejar

Alguns pilotos tentaram terminar a prova com apenas uma parada, mas as altas temperaturas e a falta de aderência no composto mais duro forçaram todos a voltar para o plano de dois pit-stops. Muitas escorregadas com os pneus médios foram reportadas, além de uma falta de aderência geral com a superfície nova, muito dura e pouco abrasiva para esses compostos.

Os pneus brancos raramente têm sido utilizados durante os fins de semana, o que nos faz pensar se realmente precisamos das três opções. Mesmo usados ocasionalmente, como foi o caso na Hungria, calçá-los durante a corrida nem sempre se traduz em performance.

Felipe Massa, Sérgio Pérez, Rio Haryanto e Jenson Button arriscaram nos médios mas sem grandes sucessos. Massa e Pérez até ensaiaram uma corrida com apenas um pit stop, mas tiveram que passar pelos boxes mais uma vez, colocando compostos mais macios.

Palmer quase pontua

A Renault decidiu alterar as duas paradas do britânico, colocando-o em uma estratégia de macios/super macios/macios. Isso acabou funcionando muito bem, semelhante ao que aconteceu com Kimi Raikkonen. Palmer escalou o pelotão muito bem e parecia estar perto de seus primeiros pontos na categoria, no entanto, a pista impiedosa em relação a ultrapassagens e uma rodada na curva 4 jogaram o trabalho do calouro fora, terminando a prova em 13º.

Texto Original Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1

Stints mais longos

Médios: Massa – 40 votlas
Macios: Ricciardo – 37 voltas
Super Macios: Magnussen – 24 voltas

Mais paradas

15 Jul 2016

Race 10 – 52 Laps – 5.891km per lap – 306.198km race distance – medium tyre wear

British GP F1 Strategy Report Podcast – our host Michael Lamonato is joined by Luke Smith from NBC Sports.

Formula 1 returned to the historic Silverstone circuit for the British Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton dominating to claim his fourth victory at the track and of the 2016 season so far. There was controversy in the fight for second, with Nico Rosberg being demoted to third behind Max Verstappen after a penalty for breaching radio rules.

Drying conditions after early rain shook up the British GP strategy, but the evolving track environment and deployment of the Virtual Safety Car played a crucial role in deciding the final finishing positions. Here are the major strategy stories to hit the headlines at Silverstone.

Starting behind the safety car

The wet weather Pirelli tyre has gone through several improvements over the years, so it was frustrating to see the British GP start behind the safety car after an earlier rain shower on the grid. With the sun out and warm conditions, Silverstone gradually dried out but had to wait until the end of lap five for the race to properly begin.

We’ve seen this caution from the FIA before. Drivers complained of aquaplaning in the opening one or two laps but by lap three or four, conditions seemed to be ready to race. In fact, several drivers dived into the pitlane as soon as the safety car went in to change onto the intermediate tyres.

When to change

One of the best elements in terms of strategy in a wet-to-dry race is the element of unknown. Drivers each have different comfort levels on a drying track and feel the conditions differently. It’s fascinating to see the change to a drier tyre play out and is always one of the most interesting strategy features in these races.

Some opted to make a move right as the safety car retreated to the pits while others opted to stay out one lap, or even more. Those who stayed out on the intermediates benefitted from the deployment of the Virtual Safety Car for Pascal Wehrlein’s stranded Manor, while the change to dry tyres later on was treacherous – off the racing line, conditions were still tricky and we saw plenty of spins and incidents because of this.

VSC winners and losers

The deployment of the VSC was a big boost for Hamilton, Rosberg, Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Felipe Nasr, who all gained time and were elevated positions due to the decrease in the differing speeds of the cars on track compared to those in the pits. It hit Daniel Ricciardo hard in his fight for a podium, Nico Hulkenberg lost time too alongside several others.

Pirelli’s lap guides

After qualifying Pirelli shared in their post-race press release a set of lap number guides for each tyre, if things were to remain dry. Silverstone is a tough track for the tyres and with problems there in the past, as well as fairly high tyre degradation in practice, it was clear they wanted to give an estimate of what each tyre was capable of. It wasn’t necessarily a ‘you can’t do any more laps than this’ statement but more a piece of advice.

The wet start meant most of this information wasn’t really necessary but typically the teams still did more laps than advised, especially the medium compound. Felipe Massa did the most laps on the soft tyre with 13, below Pirelli’s guide, but a whole host of drivers did over 30 laps on the medium.

Medium tyre works well

As expected, the medium tyre was the preferred race tyre, with strong performance while still holding up well on long stints. It also had good performance in the slippery conditions, warming up fairly quickly and not producing too much degradation or wear. This is why we saw so many drivers go right to the end on the white-marked tyre after switching from the intermediates.

Of course, a few drivers struggled out there with tyre degradation, particularly the Williams drivers. The car lacks downforce and that’s not something you want at Silverstone. Massa had to stop again for a set of softs, while Fernando Alonso and Kevin Magnussen also had to pit for a third time.

Mercedes unstoppable again

Well, Hamilton was. The three-time world champion looked in a league of his own all race, he excels in wet weather (we saw this at Silverstone in 2008) and is obviously just as quick in the dry. His superiority in the wet looked even greater in the early laps before the switch to intermediates, where he scampered off into the distance as team-mate Rosberg struggled.

Rosberg hasn’t typically gone well in the wet while driving for Mercedes, perhaps due to a characteristic in the car, set-up or he just doesn’t feel as confident in those conditions. While Hamilton was well clear out front, Rosberg had to fend off Verstappen and he ended up finishing ahead of him, only to be demoted by the radio penalty. Red Bull were best of the rest, the Silverstone track clearly suiting the RB12.

But the gap to Rosberg behind did mean Mercedes were able to double-stack their cars in the pitstops, which really helped them maximise the strategy and the conditions. They even snatched the quickest stop award away from Williams, breaking the team’s nine-race run!

What if it had been dry?

It’s always interesting to think what could’ve happened if the race had been dry throughout. The predicted quickest strategy was a two-stop with two soft tyre stints and one on the mediums, but a dry race would’ve opened up more strategy options and we could’ve seen a very different race outcome. It was quite warm on Sunday and the higher temperatures would have likely produced higher tyre wear and a few more three-stop races.

Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1

Longest Stints

Wet: Rosberg, Ericsson, Perez, Nasr, Verstappen, Hamilton (7 laps)
Intermediate: Alonso, Magnussen, Gutierrez, Hulkenberg, Sainz (12 laps)
Medium: Vettel (37 laps)
Soft: Massa (13 laps)

Most Stops

NORTHAMPTON, ENGLAND – JULY 10: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (33) Red Bull Racing Red Bull-TAG Heuer RB12 TAG Heuer leads Nico Rosberg of Germany driving the (6) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes F1 WO7 Mercedes PU106C Hybrid turbo on track during the Formula One Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone on July 10, 2016 in Northampton, England. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)