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)

5 Oct 2016

Race 16 – 56 Laps – 5.543km per lap – 310.408km race distance – medium tyre wear

Malaysian GP F1 Strategy Report Podcast – our host Michael Lamonato is joined by Rod Gordon from Superlicense F1 Podcast.

The 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix kicked off with high drama at the first corner, before calming down until the excitement returned for the final 20 laps.

Daniel Ricciardo held off his team-mate Max Verstappen to take his first win of the year, after Lewis Hamilton retired from the lead with 15 laps to go after a spectacular and fiery engine failure.

As always in Sepang, strategy proved to be a crucial element in deciding the race order and there were some fascinating decisions made by the teams. Here are all of the major strategy headlines from the Malaysian GP:

Rosberg fights back

Nico Rosberg was rudely tapped into a spin at the first corner by Sebastian Vettel, ruining the Ferrari driver’s race and severely hampering Rosberg’s challenge. He dropped right to the back of the field but his fight back was impressive and showed the dominance of the Mercedes W07.

Mercedes opted for quite an aggressive strategy to get him up the field. Having started on the soft tyre, he then switched to the hard compound for a long middle stint, where he could make progress up the field due to the advantage he had with his car.

The team moved onto another set of hard tyres for the third stint but then reacted to those around Rosberg and pitted for softs under the Virtual Safety Car for Hamilton’s stranded Silver Arrows, by which point he was already into podium contention and was able to recover to third.

Verstappen does something different

Verstappen started well but the Vettel/Rosberg incident delayed him and he lost a little ground. Red Bull opted to split their strategies and unusually it was the second car on the road, Verstappen, who pitted first.

He went onto another used set of softs for the second stint, before going onto the hard compound on lap 27. Verstappen was looking in a good position to challenge, despite stopping more times than Ricciardo, but the final trip to the pits on lap 41 – where he went for scrubbed softs again – got rid of his advantage and meant he couldn’t quite challenge for victory.

Could Verstappen have won, though?

It seems possible Verstappen could have gone to the end on the hard tyres he went onto on lap 27, there were longer stints out there on that compound but it was a risk. Because the VSC levels the pace of the field out, pitstops don’t cost as much time and Ricciardo would’ve easily closed in on fresher rubber.

Verstappen, on a different strategy, had looked in a good position but its possible that even if he had stayed out, he would’ve lost the win to Ricciardo. He would’ve had a better chance if Red Bull had put him on new softs, like Ricciardo, for the run to the flag but they may well have been limited with tyre options on Verstappen’s car.

Palmer nabs a point

Jolyon Palmer finally picked up his first F1 point with 10^th place in a very unusual strategy. It’s not often we see all three tyre compounds used at the start but Palmer had the hard tyre for his first stint, so this is exactly what we saw.

He moved up the order and dropped back as others pitted, switched tyres and went for different strategies, but decent and consistent pace throughout his long first stint brought Palmer into contention and the hard tyre held up well in the warm conditions.

The Brit went onto a new set of softs on lap 31 and from there, he was able to make it to the finish while holding off the advances of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Marcus Ericsson. It was a good drive from Palmer and was also thanks to a strong strategic move by Renault.

All three compounds get good use

Considering the warm temperatures, the Pirelli tyres held up very well in the heat and humidity of Malaysia and that meant we could well have saw most of the field pit just twice. The Virtual Safety Cars shook this up though and effectively gave people the chance to pit without losing as much time.

All three tyre compounds got extensive use during the race, with the medium being run by quite a few people in the middle of the stint – Valtteri Bottas, Felipe Nasr and Kevin Magnussen even started on the compound. The hard tyre held up well, with a smaller gap to the medium, so it was actually a popular race tyre.

Early stops for some

A couple of drivers suffered hits early in the race, with the first corner mayhem sparking several incidents behind them. Felipe Massa, Daniil Kvyat, Esteban Gutierrez and Kevin Magnussen all stopped on lap one and that put them on the back foot from the very beginning. With the VSC then out on lap nine, that made it harder for them to bounce back.

Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1

Longest Stints

Hard: Palmer (31 laps)
Medium: Nasr (32 laps)
Soft: Palmer (25 laps)

Most Stops

Massa, Gutierrez, Raikkonen, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Verstappen, Kvyat, Rosberg, Wehrlein (3)

21 Sep 2016

Race 15 – 61 Laps – 5.065km per lap – 308.828km race distance – low tyre wear

Singapore GP F1 Strategy Report Podcast – our host Michael Lamonato is joined by James Allen from JA on F1.

Some will say the Singapore Grand Prix kicked off and ended in dramatic fashion, but the mid-part was a little dull. For those interested in strategy, that’s far from the case.

The Marina Bay Street Circuit hosted a fascinating race, with Nico Rosberg just holding off Daniel Ricciardo to take the win and snatch back the top spot in the drivers’ standings. Lewis Hamilton rounded out the podium after beating Kimi Raikkonen.

Singapore saw a whole host of great drives up and down the field, including Sebastian Vettel’s charge from last to fifth and Kevin Magnussen snatching a point with 10^th. We saw a diverse range of strategies used during the race, here were the main headlines.

Qualifying strategy

Red Bull was the only team to do something different and take a risk in Q2, with both Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen setting their best time on the super-soft tyre. They made it through to Q3, meaning they were the only drivers in the top 10 to start on the red-marked Pirelli tyre.

It showed how confident Red Bull felt at the Marina Bay track, with the RB12 being well-suited to the layout. It’s hard to really tell just how much of an advantage it gave them, but the gap between the super-softs and ultra-softs wasn’t massive and it helped both drivers be in better shape at the end of the opening stints.

Aggressive tyre stints

Ferrari opted for quite an aggressive strategy with Vettel to help him move up the field from last on the grid after a problem in qualifying. The German driver started on the softs for a long first stint, helping him pick off the stragglers, before two shorter ultra-soft stints to aggressively weave up the order.

It worked well and was one of the alternative strategies in the race. Red Bull went for a super-soft/super-soft to kick off the race, which helped him to eke out an advantage over the chasing Hamilton. The Mercedes driver felt the soft tyre was the wrong call and it caused him to lose touch of the RBR car.

Perez goes long

Once again we saw a Force India going for several long stints on the soft tyre. Sergio Perez opted for two long segments on the yellow-marked Pirelli compound, having ditched the ultra-soft for the early safety car (ironically caused by his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg). It saw him make steady progress up to eighth and was effectively a two-stop, as the safety car stop was pretty much free.

Merc triggers a big strategy move

Mercedes turned the race on its head when it pitted Hamilton on lap 45 to try and get back ahead of Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari. Stopping one lap earlier and with fresh super-softs helped him move ahead of the Iceman, with Ferrari reacting to put Raikkonen on the ultra-softs.

This didn’t look like a particularly great call. He did close in on Hamilton towards the end of the race but struggled to close the gap early in the stint and this harmed his challenge. Red Bull then seemingly reacted by pitting Ricciardo, maybe feeling threatened by the pace of the Mercedes and Ferrari cars.

It looks like that’s what happened, anyway. Ricciardo could’ve gone to the end on the softs but that would’ve put his second place under threat from the closing Hamilton and Raikkonen. In the end it saw him quickly cut the gap to Rosberg, who did stay out. But he just ran out of time on his super-softs. It proved to be an awesome finish to the race though.

Toro Rosso too conservative?

Daniil Kvyat looked in good form in Singapore and even said Toro Rosso was too conservative on their strategy, which saw him pit for ultra-softs on lap 15 and then go for two super-soft stints, switching tyres on lap 37. He felt possibly challenging Fernando Alonso for seventh was on the cards if they’d been a bit more aggressive, maybe following McLaren with an earlier second stint and move to the softs. The car looked quick so it could’ve been possible.

The undercut works well

As always in Singapore, the undercut worked well with the warm track conditions and gap between the tyre compounds, coupled with the step up in tyre nominations. We saw several times that pitting earlier worked a treat, particularly with Hamilton and Raikkonen.

Ricciardo also stopped one lap before Rosberg and this put him closer to the Mercedes, but the Red Bull driver was on the medium-nominated tyre. He could’ve stayed out a few laps longer and then elongated his middle stint, to give him fresher softs for a final drive to the flag on the same compound as Rosberg – this could’ve worked better. But again, Red Bull had to react to those behind them in this case and it almost paid off.

Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1

Longest Stints

Soft: Perez (36 laps)
Supersoft: Kvyat (24 laps)
Ultrasoft: Wherlein (24 laps)

Most Stops

Ericsson, Massa, Verstappen, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Ocon, Sainz (3)