16 Nov 2016

Race 20 – 71 Laps – 4.309km per lap – 305.909km race distance – medium tyre wear

Brazilian GP F1 Strategy Report Podcast – our host Michael Lamonato is joined by Fernando Campos.

The 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix will be one of those races we’ll all remember for many years to come. Lewis Hamilton took victory in the heavily disrupted race, which took place in wet conditions and included several safety car periods and red flags.

The chaotic and action-packed Brazilian GP saw Nico Rosberg finish in second place, meaning the title fight between the Mercedes duo will go down to the 2016 finale in Abu Dhabi. But all eyes were on Max Verstappen as he swept up the order to third.

But with wet weather came limited strategy, especially with the red flags meaning cars could change tyres if needed. Nevertheless, we’ve picked out the major strategy headlines to emerge from the Brazilian GP as there’s still plenty to be discussed.

Track drying out?

The weather at Interlagos is notoriously difficult and there were several moments where it looked like things would dry out enough for some quicker and more trouble-free running. This tempted several drivers to go onto intermediates, with some gambling in the early stages after the safety car start.

But the rain never really went away and remained quite constant throughout, which meant the inters proved to be the wrong tyre to be on throughout the race. Many did go for inters in that early period, before ending up changing back to the wet compound later on.

No pit stop

Lewis Hamilton became the first driver since Alain Prost at the 1993 German Grand Prix to win a F1 race without making a proper pit stop. Technically he did change tyres twice during the red flags, going for a new set of wets first and then a used set afterwards, but a proper pit stop was never completed by the Mercedes crew on Hamilton’s car.

Strategic tension

One of the main interesting strategic points from the race was the tension and vibe at Mercedes, Hamilton and Rosberg both didn’t want to stop for wets and lose track position, in case of a safety car or red flag – or to lose out to one another.

With the title fight being so close and the stakes being so high, each driver seemed a little wary of what was going on. Pitting could mean being stuck behind the other or losing ground and especially for Hamilton, that would’ve had an impact on the championship. In the end though, both managed to change tyres during the red flags.

Incidents, everywhere

There were quite a few incidents during the race, as you’d expect from the heavy rain and tricky conditions. Romain Grosjean binned his Haas on his way to the grid and didn’t even make the start, while Marcus Ericsson then crashed towards the end of the lap after 14 laps and deployed the safety car.

Kimi Raikkonen smashed his Ferrari on the pit straight, which ended up bringing out the first red flag on lap 20. These incidents and crashes proved to be quite important in the race outcome and the flow of the race too, making it especially stop-start.

Verstappen loses win?

Undoubtedly, Verstappen excelled in the wet conditions and he proved to be quick from the start. He was as high as second at one point in the race and was one of the drivers to pit for intermediates after Ericsson’s crash, ending up going back onto the wets.

Red Bull opted to pit Verstappen for inters once again on lap 43, going for the gamble. It failed and the subsequent pit stop to go back to wets dropped him well outside the top 10 – as low as 15^th. But the feisty and phenomenal way he moved his way back up the grid was truly incredible and will surely be talked about for years.

The pit stop proved to be a mistake and lost him a huge amount of track position. His new wet tyres gave him an advantage but he certainly looked quick all the way through the race, particularly on the wets. You have to think a win could’ve been possible in those conditions after such a fightback.

Button tries something different

Jenson Button is usually brilliant in wet conditions but the two switches he made to inters backfired and he ended up finishing last of those who made the chequered flag. There was simply too much water and too quickly a changing environment on track for the inters and this proved to be costly for track position and the end result.

Wet tyre lasts

It wasn’t particularly surprising but the wet tyre held up decently in the conditions, especially in terms of the life of the tyre. Drivers weren’t happy with how they performed in terms of getting rid of the water, especially with the amount of aquaplaning going on.

But in general the wets did last quite a while without too much wear or degradation, with the longest stints on it being 43 laps (for Hamilton, Rosberg, Sergio Perez, Felipe Nasr and others). The inters held up quite well too, with Bottas going for the longest stint (33 laps). It’s a shame they didn’t quite work as well as the wets too….

Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1

Longest Stints

Intermediate: Bottas (33 laps)
Wet: Vettel, Rosberg, Perez, Nasr, Alonso, Kvyat, Hulkenberg, Ocon, Hamilton, Sainz (43 laps)

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)

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)

12 Oct 2016

Race 17 – 53 Laps – 5.807km per lap – 307.471km race distance – medium tyre wear

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

Nico Rosberg cemented his lead in the drivers’ championship with a dominant victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, but behind there were plenty of frenetic battles and tense fights over the remaining 21 places.

For only the seventh time in F1 history, all of the drivers made it to the chequered flag. As always at Suzuka, the racing was exciting and there was a decent amount of strategy to keep an eye on too. Max Verstappen finished in second place, with Lewis Hamilton in third.

Away from the Hamilton Snapchat controversy and Verstappen/Mercedes protest (which soon became a non-protest), let’s take a look at the main strategy headlines from the Japanese GP:

Two stops dominate

The vast majority of the F1 grid completed a two-stop strategy at Suzuka, as predicted by Pirelli before the race. Bringing the hard, soft and medium tyres and the cooler temperatures in the race meant each compound lasted a decent amount of time, so wear and degradation wasn’t a major issue.

We did hear a few radio messages during the race of drivers losing temperature in their tyres and struggling a little with wear, but the Pirelli compounds largely held up well. It could be argued the tyre supplier should’ve gone a step up to create more strategy options and produce quicker lap times.

Doing something different

A season or two ago it was rare for all three tyre compounds to be used for the first stint of a race, but this has proved to be the case several times in 2016 so far. It’s probably in part due to the smaller gap between the compounds and also the closer pack in general, meaning teams are willing to take a risk to try and make a difference.

Jenson Button, Felipe Nasr and Kevin Magnussen all started on the hard tyre. Button had a poor start and that hampered his running on the tyre but the others proved to be fairly competitive against those on the other compounds. Nasr and Magnussen each did 25 laps on their tyres, while Button only did 15.

Felipe Massa, Valtteri Bottas, Jolyon Palmer and Marcus Ericsson all lined up on the mediums. This enabled them all to stay out longer and move up the field while others pitted, but they then lost time as those who had already stopped made a move back up the order. Massa managed 24 laps, while Bottas was on used mediums and completed 26.

How Hamilton fought back

Hamilton had a disastrous start and dropped from second to eighth on the opening lap, in part blaming himself and also a slightly damp inside line on the grid from earlier rain. Mercedes had already locked him into a soft tyre first stint, but the soft compound eventually helped him make up ground with the Mercedes’ superior pace.

None of the top six used the medium tyre, with Hamilton pitting later than the rest to go onto the hard tyre. It worked and he made up a few places with the stop, with another set on the stable yet speedy hard compound putting him in contention for a podium.

He then used the Mercedes’ better race pace compared to the Red Bull to close on Verstappen but the Dutch driver’s aggressive defence caused him to go straight on at the final chicane with a few laps to go and he had to settle for third.

Stopping just once

There were a few teams going for an alternative route with strategy. Two stops was the safe bet but the tyres performed so well, some were able to pit just once. There were also few incidents on track, which helped make this a relatively straight-forward strategic race (which is good, in a way, but we’d have liked to see a more varied amount of strategy).

Massa and Bottas both used one stop, going from the mediums to the hard tyre, to move into the top 10 after disappointing qualifying sessions and first laps. Mid-race, it looked like the team was in for a tough and point-less race but they clawed it back with long stints on the hard tyre to end the race.

Ericsson also used this strategy to good effect, while Magnussen and Nasr stopped once, but with starting on the hard tyre and ending on the mediums. It didn’t work quite as well, maybe due to the more rubbered-in and warmer track towards the end of the race.

Two soft tyre stints

Unusually, it looked like the hard compound tyre was the one to go for during the race, but a few drivers tried to use the soft tyre’s quicker pace and faster wear to make up ground. Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button both spent two stints on the softest of the three compounds.

For Vettel, he made most of his progress in the early stint, using the faster speed of the Ferrari to move through the midfield runners after his penalty. His team-mate Kimi Raikkonen did the same, albeit at a slightly slower rate.

He was holding third after the first stop but lost out to Hamilton with his second trip to the pits, but a new set of softs right to the end did help him keep hold of fourth. Button two stints on the soft to end the race and it moved him up a few positions with a more aggressive strategy but he’d lost so much time in the first stint and start, it only got him to 18^th.

Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1

Longest Stints

Hard: Massa, Kvyat (29 laps)
Medium: Nasr, Magnussen (27 laps)
Soft: Vettel (19 laps)