Pirelli's Motorsport Director Paul Hembery has predicted a three stop Chinese Grand Prix.
He sights the three stop strategy with the higher degradation of the 2013 Pirelli rubber but does reveal a two stop strategy could work.
With the evidence shown at the moment, Lotus and Force India could possibly walk down the route of a two stop strategy in a similar way to that of the Australian Grand Prix. However it all depends on temperatures because China is notorious for its mixed conditions.
In a statement from Pirelli, Hembery said "China has often produced some of the best races of the year, where strategy has been at the forefront of the action. With all our compounds having got softer this year the degradation is deliberately more extreme leading to increased performance, but history has shown that it never takes too long for the teams and drivers to get on top of the tyres."
In 2012 the steep tyre learning curve created seven different winners in the same amount of races. Moving to the present teams are currently struggling to get to grips with the updated rubber, particularly Red Bull who asked if the Italian firm could look into making the tyres more durable.
However with a three or two stop strategy split being expected in China, it seems the tyres are possibly not as bad as first thought. He said "Shanghai is less aggressive on the tyres than the last round in Malaysia but we would expect to see the majority of competitors go for three stops although some may try two."
If you want to win in China it is key that the tyres work well. The track has a mix of big braking zones, high speed sweeps and heavy load full throttle corners that take a lot out of the tyres.
Last years winner Rosberg did just that and found the sweet spot. Hembery added on this "Last year we had a new winner with Mercedes and Nico Rosberg, who were able to get the most out of their tyres from the very beginning of the weekend in order to spring a surprise. That goes to show exactly what is possible with the correct tyre management at this point in the season."
 |
| (c) Octane Photographic |
With the evidence shown at the moment, Lotus and Force India could possibly walk down the route of a two stop strategy in a similar way to that of the Australian Grand Prix. However it all depends on temperatures because China is notorious for its mixed conditions.
In a statement from Pirelli, Hembery said "China has often produced some of the best races of the year, where strategy has been at the forefront of the action. With all our compounds having got softer this year the degradation is deliberately more extreme leading to increased performance, but history has shown that it never takes too long for the teams and drivers to get on top of the tyres."
In 2012 the steep tyre learning curve created seven different winners in the same amount of races. Moving to the present teams are currently struggling to get to grips with the updated rubber, particularly Red Bull who asked if the Italian firm could look into making the tyres more durable.
However with a three or two stop strategy split being expected in China, it seems the tyres are possibly not as bad as first thought. He said "Shanghai is less aggressive on the tyres than the last round in Malaysia but we would expect to see the majority of competitors go for three stops although some may try two."
If you want to win in China it is key that the tyres work well. The track has a mix of big braking zones, high speed sweeps and heavy load full throttle corners that take a lot out of the tyres.
Last years winner Rosberg did just that and found the sweet spot. Hembery added on this "Last year we had a new winner with Mercedes and Nico Rosberg, who were able to get the most out of their tyres from the very beginning of the weekend in order to spring a surprise. That goes to show exactly what is possible with the correct tyre management at this point in the season."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.