Tag: pirelli

F1 2016: Russian GP Preview – Russian Showdown

When you think of motorsport Russia isn’t the first place that comes to mind. In fact, it’s probably not even in your top five. However, this weekend the Formula 1 paddock puts Russia front and center as it heads to the Sochi Autodrom for the fourth round of the 2016 season.

The Sochi circuit hosted its first grand prix race in 2014 and is the first purpose-built Formula 1 site in Russia. The 5.8 kilometer track was built under the watchful eye of F1’s favoured designer Herman Tilke and has a capacity of 55 000. The most striking feature of the circuit is its integration to the Olympic Park that hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The circuit, second in length only to Spa and Silverstone, requires compromise in terms of car setup. The start and end of the lap demands good traction and braking performance while the middle sector requires a more technical approach to master the flow of the corners.

“It’s a very modern track with a few corners that look quite similar by they are never as easy as they might look, because you have to try and driver the car in the limit each time you turn,” says Russian driver Daniil Kvyat.

In the two races it’s put on the Sochi Autodrom has shown little tyre wear. So little in fact that in 2014 Nico Rosberg was able to complete a stint of 52 laps on one set of tyres. But the introduction of a third compound choice in 2016 means that we’re unlikely to see a repeat of what happened here two years ago.

The Red Bull and Haas F1 Team have opted for an aggressive tyre strategy by selecting ten sets of supersofts, two sets of softs, and one set of the medium compound tyre. It’s an expected choice for these two teams who have been able to make the supersoft tyre last longer than their closest rivals. The Red Bull drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat, may not have a straight forward shot at the podium but will be ready to pounce should either of the Merc or Ferrari drivers have an issue during the Russian GP on Sunday.

There is a marked difference between Mercedes and Ferrari’s Russian GP tyre choices too. While all four drivers have only one set of mediums on the shelf Hamilton and Rosberg have opted for eight sets of supersofts, and four sets of the yellow-walled soft tyres. In contrast, Raikkonen and Vettel have chosen six sets each of the soft and supersoft compound.

The thinking behind Ferrari’s tyre choice could be to do one less stop than Mercedes in the race by running the more durable soft tyre for a longer stint. As the supersoft is generally the quicker tyre to run on much will depend on how big a time deficit there is between it and the more durable soft tyre.

The run down to the first corner is a long one, which dramatically tightens into turn one. Ferrari will be extra vigilant after Sebastian Vettel got into the side of Kimi Raikkonen in China. In every round so far Ferrari has faced some issues whether through their own making or uncontrollable reliability problems. If the Italian team is to mount a serious challenge for the top step of the Russian GP podium, which it seems likely they can, the first order of business will be to have a clean race.

The last time we visited Russia, Mercedes were on the brink on clinching a constructor’s title and Lewis Hamilton had been outperforming teammate Nico Rosberg by a considerable margin. In 2016, the story so far reads much differently. Now it’s up to Lewis Hamilton to show what being a three time world champion really means.

April 28, 2016
Russian GP tyre choices – Red Bull and Haas go aggressive

F1’s official tyre supplier Pirelli, has announced the tyre choices for the upcoming Russian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull and Haas F1 teams have gone super aggressive with their selections – both choosing 10 sets of super-soft tyres per driver for the race weekend.

Teams are able to select 10 of the 13 sets of tyres available to them for the grand prix weekend with the remaining three sets being determined by Pirelli. The tyre manufacturer earmarks one set of each compound for the race weekend – in the case of the Russian GP, the medium, soft and super-soft tyres were chosen.

The Red Bull and Haas teams both chose 10 sets of super-softs per driver, with two sets of softs and one set of mediums each for the remainder of the weekend.

As was the case for the Chinese GP, tyre choices are very varied across the field with Ferrari being the only team to choose six softs and six super-softs.

In quite a contrast, Mercedes’ tyre choices are for four sets of soft tyres and eight sets of super-softs. The Manor F1 team is the only team on the grid including more than one set of mediums in their tyre choices with Pascal Wehrlein & Rio Haryanto each getting five sets of softs and six sets of super soft tyres each.

Soft and medium tyres are usually allocated as race tyres (at least one of which must be used on race day). The new tyre rules which allow tyre choices for the drivers have been applauded for increasing the amount of differing tyre strategies available for a race weekend and are likely to remain for the foreseeable future.

In previous seasons, we’ve only seen two compounds available per race weekend. These tyre choices certainly make the forecasting on race weekend strategies a lot more interesting than we’ve seen in the recent past.

Below is the table of tyre choices as released by Pirelli:

April 19, 2016
F1 2016: Chinese GP – Rosberg Makes Hay In China

For years we’ve been frustratingly calling for Nico Rosberg to up his game. With a third win out of three in 2016 he’s done it.

The German driver effortlessly converted pole position into victory as the chaos unfolded behind his Mercedes. However, it was second-placed starter Daniel Ricciardo who snatched the lead of the race off the line in his Red Bull. Behind this pair the two Ferrari’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, starting third and fourth, looked set to challenge for the race win until Vettel barged into the side of Raikkonen to avoid the sister Red Bull of Dannil Kvyat on his inside.

Although Vettel recovered to second place in the end it was a sloppy race for the four time champion. The clash with teammate Raikkonen caused damage to his front-wing which was required replacing. But it would be damaged again as he tried to find his way passed the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.

Visibility in F1 car is limited but into such a tight corner Vettel should’ve been aware of Raikkonen on his outside given that he started close to him on the grid. Though the German did his best to shift blame to Dannil Kvyat the Russian driver was well within his rights to place his car alongside Vettel’s Ferrari into turn one. Kvyat eventually finished third and despite a confrontation with Vettel after the race wasn’t unhappy at all to secure only the second podium of his career.

Raikkonen’s front-wing damage and punctured tyre meant into turn one meant he had to crawl around the entire lap to make it back to the pitlane. It dropped him right to the back of the field and onto an alternative strategy which had him running on the white-walled medium tyre in the middle stint of the race. The Finn had shown great pace throughout the weekend was able to resist an attack from Hamilton on quicker tyres. It left the soft, yellow-walled, tyre for the final stint of the race and with it Raikkonen was able to make up enough positions to ultimately finish fifth.

Even Lewis Hamilton was involved in the mess of the opening lap. After starting last following an overnight power unit change the Brit also lost his front-wing and sustained damage to his barge board into turn one.

In the lead of the race Daniel Ricciardo’s hopes evaporated as he picked up a left-rear puncture on lap three. Ricciardo was able to recover to fourth. If it wasn’t clear before why both Mercedes and Ferrari refused to provide the Red Bull team with an engine from their shed it is surely clear now. The 2016 Red Bull car is a great chassis, with two great drivers and all they’re missing is a great engine.

Debris from Ricciardo’s blown tyre prompted the deployment of the safety car and drivers took the opportunity to fit the more durable soft and medium tyres. Behind Raikkonen in fifth Williams’ Felipe Massa was able to hold onto sixth while Hamilton had to settle for seventh. Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen finished eighth ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz in ninth and the second Williams of Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top ten. Despite numerous incidents throughout the race all twenty-two cars saw the chequered flag at the end of the race.

Since the start of the 2016 season things haven’t been going Lewis Hamilton’s way. Less than ideal starts off the line, unreliability, and damage early in the last two races have severely tested the champion. He’s response has been to remain remarkably cool about it all. However, three victories and a thirty-six point lead in the driver’s championship for a perfect Nico Rosberg is getting to be a bit tight. It’s a good thing Lewis Hamilton likes a fight because he has a big one on his hands now.

(Featured image courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport)

April 18, 2016
F1 2016: Chinese GP Free Practice 2 Report – Raikkonen On Top

Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen topped the second free practice session for the Chinese grand prix.

The Finnish driver sets a quickest time of 1:36:896 on the red-walled supersoft tyre. Teammate Sebastian Vettel was one tenth adrift in second. Nico Rosberg was the first of the Mercedes in third, two and a half tenths off Raikkonen’s session topping time. Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top four in the sister Mercedes with a time of 1:37:329.

The second free practice session of a grand prix weekend is customarily reserved for longer stints and evaluation of the different tyre compounds for Sunday’s race. As the softest tyre available this weekend the supersoft compound showed signs of degradation after a three lap quali sim and roughly eight laps on high fuel. The indications were that both Ferrari and Red Bull suffered less degradation on the supersoft than Mercedes. In particular, Nico Rosberg experienced a loss of three seconds in laptime over his stint on the supersoft tyres.

However, Hamilton’s stint on the medium tyre, the hardest compound available this weekend, showed a consistent and fast pace. Comparatively, Vettel’s stint on the medium, earlier on in the session, was evenly matched to Hamilton’s.

Although Friday practice sessions are difficult to decipher the signs point to what could be a very competitive Chinese grand prix between Ferrari and Mercedes.

April 15, 2016
F1 2016: Chinese GP Free Practice 1 Report – Rosberg Quickest

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg topped the first free practice session ahead of Sunday’s Chinese grand prix.

The session stumbled into life as cars trickled out onto the Shanghai International circuit which was holding a track temperature of 33 degrees Celcius. Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg set the quickest time of the session, a 1:38:037, on the yellow walled soft tyre. Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton followed in second one and a half tenths adrift.

The Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, and sister Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top five positions. Fernando Alonso was back in the McLaren for the first free practice session and ended the session twelfth overall. Alonso has not yet been given the all clear to race for the remainder of the weekend and is expected to undergo his second medical check-up of the weekend fifteen minutes after the conclusion of the first practice session.

The one and a half hour session was marred by two red flag periods brought about first by the Williams of Felipe Massa and secondly by the Renault of Kevin Magnussen. The first red flag was shown as a result of gravel on the circuit caused by the left-rear tyre on Massa’s car letting go. Peculiarly, once the track re-opened Massa ventured back out only to experience the same delamination on the left-rear tyre. There is no word as yet to the cause of the delamination however.

The second red flag was a bit lengthier and required a bit more clean-up as the left-rear tyre on Kevin Magnussen’s Renault let go halfway down the back strait. On the face of it the two incidents for Massa and Magnussen don’t seem to be related. It was the McLaren teams opinion that Magnussen’s issue might have been caused by debris on the circuit.

The tyre compouds available this weekend are the medium (white), soft (yellow), and supersoft (red).

April 15, 2016
Pirelli reveals driver tyre choices for Chinese Grand Prix

Pirelli has revealed the driver tyre choices for the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix and some interesting differences in tyre strategies have emerged.

Pirelli will be supplying the medium, soft and super-soft tyres for the race.

The two Mercedes drivers have made different tyre choices – indicating different strategies for the duo. Lewis Hamilton has chosen four sets of mediums – one more than his team mate Nico Rosberg. Both drivers have taken five sets of super-soft tyres with Rosberg taking an extra set of soft tyres.

Ferrari has opted for softer tyres, choosing six sets of super-softs, four sets of soft tyres and three sets of mediums for both of their drivers.

The Haas team is going aggressive again, choosing seven sets of super-softs, five softs and only one set of medium tyres. Both McLaren and Williams drivers have opted for the same tyre choices.

In contrast, the Sauber and Manor Formula One teams have have picked only four sets of super-softs with Sauber favouring the mediums, choosing five sets – more than any other team on the grid.

Carlos Sainz Jr has chosen the most soft tyres for the race, choosing six sets, with his Toro Rosso team mate Max Verstappen choosing an extra set of mediums instead.

Here is the full list of driver tyre choices for the Chinese Grand Prix:

April 5, 2016
F1 2016: Bahrain Gp Tyre Strategy

The introduction of a third available compound by Pirelli has positively added to the spectacle. Here is a look at the different strategies adopted by drivers during the 2016 Bahrain grand prix.

In Friday’s second free practice session Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen competed a twenty lap run on the medium compound tyres. The stint showed up well in terms of pace and would’ve been considered a good choice for those opting for a two stop race strategy. However, conditions in Sunday’s race were not conducive to competitively running the medium tyre.

Although Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo ran his final stint on the medium tyre his second stint, on the soft tyre, was the decisive factor in his race. The Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas started the race without any new sets of the soft tyre, thereby compromising how innovative they could be on tyre strategy. Massa ran the longest stint on the medium tyre and though he ran as high as second at the start of the race ultimately finished eighth ahead of teammate Bottas in ninth.

Haas’ race strategy engineer Ruth Buscombe calleed the most dynamic and aggressive of the race for Romain Grosjean. The Frenchman ran three stints on the supersoft tyre and his final stint on a new set of yellow-walled soft tyres.

April 4, 2016
F1 2016: Bahrain GP Preview – Bahrain Battle Between Merc & Ferrari

Formula 1 has long been known as a sport that is both complicated and the technical supreme of motorized sport. This and the allure of speed and victory and glamour is what draw millions of fans to it. But recently the sport, which celebrates more than six decades of existence, has been anything but glorious.

Of late all of what makes Formula 1 great has been overwhelmed and buried under the awkward mess of the new qualifying format. The elimination style qualifying format was universally slammed by all who tuned into the farcical hour that would determine the starting grid.

The qualifying change was an idea cooked up by Jean Todt’s FIA, F1’s governing body. It put the choice of the ill-conceived elimination-style quali or a reversed starting grid before the teams. Rather than choose the preposterous idea of a reversed grid they opted for the lesser of two evils and so elimination-style quali came to pass. Subsequent to scorching criticism a reversion to the previous quali session was called for. However, F1’s strategy group has decided to give the new format another chance in Bahrain. It’s difficult to imagine that the new format will suddenly transform unenthusiastic opinion it’s currently viewed with.

The qualifying debacle has, unfortunately, dominated headlines for the last two weeks. It’s nearly made us forget that as the opening round of the 2016 season the Oz Gp was a compelling race. The choice of three tyre compounds in the race worked well and produced several different strategies up and down the field which is an exciting precursor for the rest of the season. And although Mercedes were eventual victors with a 1-2 finish they were pushed to the limit of what they could produce.

As Formula 1 tracks go the Albert Park circuit is unique. Its street-style layout is not a definitive barometer for car performance and it’s difficult to overtake on. As the second round of the season Bahrain’s Sakhir International circuit presents a bigger test on performance and more chances for overtaking. “The last corner flows quite well and if you can get close for DRS you can get a good run [to overtake] into Turn 1,” said Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo. “If you don’t get it into Turn 1, then there’s Turn 4 or the middle sectors where it’s easy to make mistakes. There’s probably four places you can pass on the track which is pretty good.”

As you might expect tyre strategy will play its role in determining what the final result on Sunday will be. The medium, soft, and supersoft Pirelli tyres are the choices available to drivers. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen has opted for three sets of medium tyres each while Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg has taken only one set of the medium compound. It indicates that Ferrari hasn’t ruled out an alternative strategy of a long stint on the medium tyre should conditions be suitable. In 2013 Kimi Raikkonen pulled off a two stop strategy to finish second for Lotus.

The Finn has a record of seven podiums at the Desert track and despite being inches away from winning the grand prix in 2015 has never stood on the top step of the podium here. As the Sakhir International circuit is clearly a venue where Raikkonen excels the 2007 champion may not be a bad bet for the spoils this weekend.

The Bahrain grand prix exploded into life on account of its transformation into a night race. In 2014 it produced an exhilarating wheel-to-wheel battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. In this race it was Hamilton who emerged a memorable victor. In 2016, it could produce a battle between Mercedes and Ferrari that you do not want to miss.

March 31, 2016
Pirelli Reveals Bahrain Grand Prix Tyre Sets For Drivers

Pirelli have revealed the chosen tyre sets each driver has made for the up coming Bahrain Grand Prix.

March 22, 2016
F1 2016: Australian GP Review – Rosberg Wins Frenetic Season-opener

After Saturday’s new qualifying format was unilaterally panned as farcical and anti-climatic F1 needed to bounce back quickly. It did so with an action packed Australian grand prix.

Naturally, before the start of any race several scenarios run through your mind, all them which include some situation that will spice up the race from the get go. The catalyst was an extra formation lap after Dannil Kvyat’s Red Bull was stranded at the back of the grid.

The exhilaration is delivered by the two Ferrari’s of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen who blast past Nico Rosberg and Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton and first and second place. Behind the two Ferraris Rosberg fights to maintain his position and squeezes Hamilton to the edge of the circuit which causes the Brit to fall down to seventh place.

Immediately Vettel is able to open a two second gap over teammate Raikkonen who in turn keeps the Mercedes of Rosberg at bay. It’s a dream start for the Italian team who is more than able to match the race pace of Mercedes.

On lap sixteen the race changes. The race is red flagged for a crash between Haas F1 driver Esteban Gutierrez and Fernando Alonso’s McLaren. The Spaniard’s McLaren clipped the left-rear of the Haas, flipped through the air and came to rest, on its side, against a barrier. The damage to Alonso’s car looked horrific but he exited the car and walked away without injury. There is no question that had this accident happened in any other era of the sport it would’ve had a far different outcome. Once more, this proves that the advancement of safety in F1 should never be taken for granted nor rejected because it may not be visually appealing.

This red flag is where the race changed for Ferrari. As the cars stood in the pitlane teams were able to make changes including which tyre compound to restart the race on. Ferrari opted for the red-walled supersoft tyre while Mercedes fitted the medium compound. It was evident that the Silver Arrow’s aim was to get to the end of the race without another stop.

For Raikkonen it didn’t make much difference as he was forced into retirement a few laps after the re-start. With fire and smoke pouring out the Ferrari it looked ominously like the engine had let go however the team later confirmed that it was a turbo failure.

Ferrari still had Vettel in the lead of the race but the tyre choice meant that the former champion had to pit again. It was a strategic error by Ferrari and it cost them a definite shot at winning the race. The possible reasoning for why Ferrari didn’t go with the medium tyre could be because of a lack of confidence that they could get the tyre up to working temperature in the cooler conditions. Vettel nearly recovered to second place but a slight error at the end sealed his fate in third behind Hamilton and Rosberg, respectively.

Sebastian Vettel said after the race that he feels that Ferrari can challenge for the title this year and given that he’s not the type to say things just for the sake of talking, it’s a great omen for the rest of the season.

Nico Rosberg may have taken the big prize but the Haas F1 Team owns the performance of the day. A sixth place finish for Romain Grosjean on the team’s debut is what Formula 1 dreams are made of. Coming into Formula 1 has always been a monumental task and this team is doing it with a staff of only about 170 people. It’s as great debut as we’ve seen in at least three decades.

If you were to look only at the result of this race another Mercedes 1-2 would make you think it’s pretty much the same story, different season. But they really had to work for it. An overheating right-front brake caliper and critical tyre wear on Rosberg’s car is indicative of just how hard they had to push. Twenty races remain in this F1 season and we may just have ourselves a real championship.

(All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport)

March 21, 2016