14 Jul 2016

10ª Etapa – 52 Voltas – 5.891km por volta – 306.198km distância total – desgaste médio de pneus

British GP F1 Strategy Report Podcast – nosso host Michael Lamonato recebe Luke Smith da NBC Sports.

A Fórmula 1 retornou ao templo histórico de Silverstone para o GP da Inglaterra, com uma vitória dominante de Lewis Hamilton, sua 4ª na temporada e no circuito. Ainda tivemos polêmica na briga pela 2ª posição, com Nico Rosberg sendo rebaixado para 3º devido a uma penalidade pelas mensagens de rádio.

A pista secando bagunçou o grid. Além disso, a evolução da pista e o Safety Car Virtual foram fator decisivos na briga por posições. Aqui estão os principais pontos estratégicos do GP.

Largando sob Safety Car

O pneu de chuva extrema da Pirelli passou por inúmeras evoluções com o passar do anos, por isso foi frustrante assistir a largada do GP da Inglaterra atrás do Safety Car, graças a chuva que castigou o circuito antes da prova. Com a aparição do sol e as altas temperaturas, a pista foi secando gradualmente mas ainda assim tivemos que esperar até a volta 5 para que a corrida começasse de verdade.

Nós já vimos esse cuidado da FIA antes. Alguns pilotos relataram aquaplanagem nas duas primeiras voltas, mas a partir das voltas 3 e 4 a pista já parecia em condições de corrida. Outro indicativo dessas condições apropriadas foi o tráfego no pit-lane em busca dos intermediários logo que o carro de segurança voltou para os pits.

Quando Trocar?

Um dos melhores elementos estratégicos em uma transição do molhado para o seco é o desconhecido. Cada piloto tem um nível de conforto diferente em uma pista secando, além de um julgamento particular das condições. Assistir a mudança para os pneus slicks é sempre fascinante e com certeza uma das partes mais fascinantes da corrida.

Alguns optaram por fazer a troca logo que o Safety Car voltou para os pits, enquanto outros optaram por ficar mais uma volta, ou até mais. Aqueles que escolheram permanecer na pista com os pneus de chuva se beneficiaram com o Safety Car virtual gerado pelo acidente de Pascal Wehrlein, já a troca para os slicks foi traiçoeira, com muitas escapadas e rodadas sendo causadas pelo piso extremamente escorregadio fora do traçado ideal.

Sorte e revés no VSC

A entrada do Safety Car Virtual beneficou Hamilton, Rosberg, Verstappen, Perez e até Felipe Nasr, que se aproveitaram da velocidade mais baixa do pelotão para fazer a parada e ganhar muito tempo em relação aos concorrentes. No entanto, prejudicou Nico Hulkenberg e praticamente tirou Daniel Ricciardo da briga por um pódio.

Guia da Pirelli

Após o Quali, a Pirelli publicou um guia com o número de voltas sugeridas em cada composto, se a pista permanecesse seca. Silverstone costuma ser uma pista dura para os pneus e com os problemas recentes no circuito, aliados a um alto índice de desgaste nos treinos livres, ficou claro que a fornecedora italiana queria dar uma estimativa do que cada composto era capaz. Não foi expressamente “Você não pode dar mais voltas que isso”, mas sim um conselho.

A largada no molhado significou que boa parte daquela informação não era mais necessária, entretanto, equipes ainda deram mais voltas do que o recomendado, especialmente no pneu médio. Felipe Massa foi o piloto com mais voltas calçando pneus macios, com 13, ainda abaixo do guia da Pirelli, mas boa parte do grid passou das 30 voltas nos médios.

Médios funcionando bem

Como esperado, os pneus médios foram os mais utilizados na corrida, com ótimo desempenho e resistindo bem ao desgaste duro da pista inglesa. Além disso, apresentaram boa performance na pista escorregadia, aquecendo rapidamente e evitando uma degradação repentina. Por esse mesmo motivo nós vimos tantos pilotos indo até o final com os pneus brancos, após se livrarem dos intermediários.

Obviamente, alguns pilotos sofreram com o desgaste de pneus, especialmente os da Williams. O bólido não tem tanta downforce, algo que realmente faz falta em Silverstone. Massa teve que parar novamente, dessa vez para os macios, enquanto Alonso e Magnussen também foram obrigados a parar pela terceira vez.

Mercedes imbatíveis novamente

Bom, Hamilton foi. O tricampeão parecia estar em uma liga própria durante todo o GP, a pista molhada é uma de suas especialidades (Interlagos 2008 mandou lembranças) e ainda é obviamente rápido no piso seco. Sua superioridade sob chuva ficou ainda mais clara logo após a passagem para os intermediários, quando o inglês sumiu na liderança enquanto Rosberg encarava dificuldades.

O alemão tradicionalmente não tem apresentado bons resultados na chuva nessa passagem pela Mercedes, talvez por uma característica do carro, ajustes ou apenas uma falta de confiança em condições adversas. Enquanto Hamilton estendia sua liderança, Rosberg tinha que se defender de Max Verstappen, missão que o alemão cumpriu na pista, mas caiu para 3º após receber a punição pela mensagem de rádio. A Red Bull foi a melhor do resto, em uma pista que recebe muito bem o RB12.

A diferença entre os companheiros de equipe possibilitou que a Mercedes chamasse os dois para os boxes na mesma volta, o que realmente ajudou a maximizar suas estratégias e condições na prova. A equipe até roubou o prêmio de pit-stop mais rápido da Williams, quebrando a sequência de 9 corridas da equipe de Grove.

E se não tivesse chovido?

É sempre interessante pensar no que poderia ter acontecido se a corrida tivesse sido disputada no seco desde o início. A estratégia mais rápida parecia ser de duas paradas, com dois stints nos pneus macios e um nos médios, entretanto, uma pista seca poderia abrir o leque de possibilidades e poderíamos ter visto um resultado bem diferente. Domingo foi um dia bem quente e as altas temperaturas poderiam aumentar a degradação e gerar mais estratégias de três paradas.

Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1  – BR version by Fernando Campos.

Stints mais longos

Chuva Extrema: Ericsson, Perez, Nasr, Verstappen – 7 voltas
Intermediários: Alonso, Magnussen, Gutierrez, Hulkenberg – 12 voltas
Médios: Vettel – 37 voltas
Macios: Massa – 13 voltas

Mais paradas

4 Jul 2016

Race 9 – 71 Laps – 4.362km per lap – 307.020km race distance – medium tyre wear

Austrian GP F1 Strategy Report Podcast – our host Michael Lamonato is joined by Ted Kravitz from Sky Sports F1 in an extra long (and extra insightful!) episode.

Formula 1 returned to the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, for round nine of the 2016 season. The breathtaking scenery and backdrop at the undulating circuit were matched by a truly frenetic race, which featured some very interesting strategy points.

Lewis Hamilton stormed to win number three of the year, following a last-lap overtake (which involved the now infamous contact) on team-mate Nico Rosberg. Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen completed the podium. There were a number of major strategy headlines to emerge from the race.

Teams play the Q2 game

All three Pirelli tyre compounds were used for the start of the race, with Rio Haryanto and Felipe Nasr opting for the softs, a large majority of the drivers who qualified from 11-22 on the super-soft and most of the top 10 on the ultra-soft.

But we also saw a few drivers who made it through to Q3 go for a fastest lap in Q2 on the middle tyre compound, the super-soft. Drivers in the top 10 start on the tyre they set their best time on in the second segment and Daniel Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen, Max Verstappen, Felipe Massa and Sebastian Vettel all setting going for this strategy.

With little difference between the ultra and super-soft tyres in terms of pace, it meant they could run at similar speeds to those on the softest compound while having a more durable tyre to work with. But overall it fell a bit flat for those trying to make it work, some made it work better than others but for one driver it didn’t work out at all…

Vettel goes long

Vettel opted for a long first stint on the super-soft tyre to see how much progress he could make from ninth on the grid after his gearbox penalty. He was running in the lead and was running decent pace, despite the softer compounds not lasting that long in Austrian GP practice. But it all ended in tears on lap 26 when his right-rear tyre exploded on the main straight. Pirelli is still investigating the issue, it was side of the car that gets the least load, so many feel it was not due to wear but perhaps debris. We will wait and see.

The Ultrasofts last

In practice many drivers were struggling with tyre graining and higher degradation than expected but this proved to not be the case on Sunday, with many managing long stints. One of these drivers was Hamilton, who did 21 laps in total on the ultrasofts in his opening stint.

With the tyre working well, Mercedes kept him out far longer than team-mate Nico Rosberg. Perhaps, with spits of rain falling, they were seeing what the weather would do or if a safety car would emerge. It did – for Vettel’s crash – but not in time for his stop. Still, it made you think once again, could Pirelli go even softer with this top of the range tyre?

It’s also worth noting many drivers pitted under the safety car and the brief pause in the race helped some to eke out their stints and save having to stop again or fall into tyre trouble at the end of their runs.

Rosberg vs Hamilton

This was a fascinating part of the race. Despite Hamilton’s ultra-softs lasting long, Rosberg managed to get the undercut with some seriously quick laps on the soft, which helped him move ahead of Hamilton when the British driver emerged from his stop.

Mercedes opted to keep Rosberg out until lap 55 before stopping again, a very considerable stint on the hardest of the three tyres. Hamilton had managed to cut the gap to his team-mate during this time due to his fresher tyres and both stopped again for the second time.

This time Hamilton pitted first and moved a bit closer when Rosberg emerged but they were on different tyres, the former on the softs and the latter on the super-soft. It was puzzling but the cooler temperature didn’t work as well for the super-softs and Hamilton was able to close in and eventually try an overtake on the final lap.

We all know what happened with the contact and Rosberg was handed penalties for the crash and continuing to the flag with a damaged car. It was unusual to see the super-soft not working as well and Hamilton being able to challenge on the harder compound, the temperatures and track conditions certainly played a crucial role in how the tyres worked and how different they worked compared to practice.

Ricciardo loses out

Both Red Bulls started on the super-soft, with Ricciardo lining up fifth and Verstappen eighth. But it was the 18-year-old star who proved the quicker of the two during the race, with Ricciardo struggling more with the tyres, to get them up to temperature and make them last.

It was never going to be a particularly strong track for Red Bull despite it being the team’s home circuit, but Verstappen enjoyed much better performance on the tyres – maybe just through a better set-up with the condition changes – and he worked his way up the order with some extremely long stints.

He only stopped once, whereas Ricciardo pitted twice, and did some feisty defending from Raikkonen late on. Meanwhile Ricciardo lost ground throughout the race with his tyre struggles and ended up fifth, just ahead of Jenson Button.

Wehrlein scores a point

Arguably the most heart warming story of the race was Pascal Wehrlein scoring a point for Manor in P10, just behind Valtteri Bottas. He qualified in P12 and had two strong, short stints on the ultra-soft early on, pitting for the final time just before the safety car. Despite recent rear deg struggles Wehrlein completed a brilliant final stint on the softs and was quick right through to the end.

Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1

Longest Stints

Soft: Raikkonen, Grosjean, Button, Verstappen, Sainz, Wehrlein (42 laps)
Supersoft: Nasr (27 laps)
Ultrasoft: Hamilton (21 laps)

Most Stops

SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JULY 02: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (33) Red Bull Racing Red Bull-TAG Heuer RB12 TAG Heuer on track during final practice for the Formula One Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on July 2, 2016 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

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

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

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 11^th 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 10^th – 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

Stints by Driver