High tyre degradation makes three-stop strategies likely

36 comments on “High tyre degradation makes three-stop strategies likely”

1. 

   RumFRESH (@rumfresh)
   23rd March 2012, 13:15

   McLaren really need to capitalize in these early races. Red Bull aren’t going to be lying down for long. I get the sense that the Red Bull package is there, it’s just a matter of understanding it and optimizing performance.
   1. 

      smudgersmith1 (@smudgersmith1)
      23rd March 2012, 13:47

      You might find its the opposite, RBR need to get their act together early as Maccas is a relentless development machine !
      1. 

         Lol
         23rd March 2012, 14:01

         Probably Vettel needs to take sometime to accustom to driving without EBD.
      2. 

         raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
         23rd March 2012, 14:23

         @smudgersmith1 I still don’t buy it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something which definitively proves that to be the case.

         2009 was too much hype. If you looked at the car’s aero since the launch – there was nothing wrong; except one crucial thing. The endplate design. And the weight distribution was wrong too. At Nurburgring they upgraded that endplate to an outwash concept, and the weight distribution was fixed – what happened? McLaren were a frontrunner.

         2010 – they hit a dead end and couldn’t improve the car in Germany.

         2011 – other than 1 DRS wing what development leap did they make? Everyone says their leap from Barcelona testing to Melbourne was amazing – it honestly wasn’t. McLaren wasn’t troubled for outright pace in testing. It was their trick exhaust was melting their floor; which in turn was causing their lack of downforce. In reality there really WASN’T anything fundamentally wrong with the car.
         1. 

            smudgersmith1 (@smudgersmith1)
            23rd March 2012, 15:32

            If you look at the first 5 races of 2011 compared to the last 5 races, in qualifying
            RBR versus Mclaren
            1st 5 qualifying the RBR were on average .62 seconds ahead.
            Last 5 qualifying included a .3, .2, .3, Lewis actually on Pole and Vettel pipping JB by .009 in Japan.
            I havent time to check the rest (Im at work !!) Additionally in the 1st half of the season Mclaren managed only 2 wins, whereas they won 4 races in the second half, that looks like progress to me…
            1. 

               raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
               23rd March 2012, 15:39

               Yes but again – it’s not something super special. The Red Bull was the faster car – and the law of diminishing returns has great effect in F1. It takes a lot more effort to update an excellent package; than it takes to upgrade a very good package.

               Regarding the wins – the McLarens have had many times through the year when they were the faster Sunday car than Red Bull. They had more wins in the second half of the year mostly because JB had just started to wake up, and the team were raising their game.
         2. 

            smudgersmith1 (@smudgersmith1)
            23rd March 2012, 18:18

            OK, we will see…enjoy the season mate
            1. 

               raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
               23rd March 2012, 19:00

               And you!
   2. 

      Bigbadderboom (@bigbadderboom)
      23rd March 2012, 14:29

      Mr Horner has not been himself, not sure whether his moans about Mercedes have been over reported or whether he has genuine development conncerns about this years car, and wishes to reign in othersdevelopment lines. Of course it’s probably both, but the Red Bull looks a handful, If they don’t get the Quali set up right a podium may be a struggle, there may be no safety car to gift vattel a place here!
      1. 

         DMC (@dmc)
         23rd March 2012, 20:37

         It would not be the first car newey designed that had problems. Maybe he is getting bored with f1 again.
2. 

   Cluffy_Wedge
   23rd March 2012, 13:30

   Clearly, giving Mercedes an AMG badge has automatically made them much faster.
   1. 

      George (@george)
      23rd March 2012, 18:08

      Pity it eats tyres like an AMG too :P
      1. 

         McFillin (@kcampos12)
         24th March 2012, 3:04

         +1
3. 

   AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
   23rd March 2012, 13:34

   Good showing by the Toro Rosso drivers, so far, and they are fast on the straights, too.

   Difficult to judge who is looking good on the basis of the longest stints (especially since I didn’t see the last part of FP2), but Webber, Alonso and Button are looking pretty good.
4. 

   Solo (@solo)
   23rd March 2012, 13:40

   I hope it doesn’t take them the full year to fix that power steering or else Kimi will transform from ice-cream man to wine man.
   1. 

      Zecks (@zecks)
      23rd March 2012, 13:59

      i think it is more to do with the wrist he injured before christmas. As he gets fitter, hell stop complaining (it’s not really his style)
5. 

   Akin Aslan
   23rd March 2012, 14:07

   what surprises me is that Fernando Alonso is running ”like” maximum wing on his car, top speed of his car is ”only” 300 km/h which for me is a sign that they are really in a bad situation.
   1. 

      Wooolfy
      23rd March 2012, 20:37

      More wing means more drag which means lower top speed, but better low speed performance.
6. 

   InfectedCrayons
   23rd March 2012, 14:13

   Kimi to get a five place grid penalty according to Autosport for changing his gearbox. This is bad news.
   1. 

      Rahim.RG (@rahim-rg)
      23rd March 2012, 14:19

      oh man…
7. 

   Lex
   23rd March 2012, 14:43

   looking at the longest stint comparison chart. does it mean that Kimi’s long race pace is faster than many of the other drivers?
   1. 

      Ral (@)
      23rd March 2012, 17:29

      Yeah, I was wondering about that. Brundle said after FP2 that Lotus looked like they had a lot of work to do, but from the high fuel long run times, they look in fine form and as if they don’t suffer as much degradation as some of the other teams.

      Also, Keith, the drivers’ lap times chart doesn’t to load for me in 32bit Opera 11.61 on 64 bit Windows 7. Which surprises me, I’ll have to have a look at why Opera thinks I’m running 32bit Windows.
      1. 

         Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
         23rd March 2012, 17:36

         Can you supply details via the contact form please? See here for guidance:

         http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/credits-and-contacts/reporting-technical-problem/
8. 

   timi (@timi)
   23rd March 2012, 16:19

   Keith the opening sentence,-

   Malaysias’a high temperatures combined with Pirelli’s softer 2012 tyres will make life difficult for the drivers last weekend.

   I think it should be “this” weekend, not “last” weekend..?
9. 

   Meander (@meander)
   23rd March 2012, 16:44

   Let’s see if tire management “guru” Button can pull off another tactical coup. This would be the race to prove his skill.
   1. 

      JamieFranklinF1 (@jamiefranklinf1)
      23rd March 2012, 19:09

      I think he has proved his skill on many occasions. But I do think that Button will have the edge here in the race. Hamilton will be better in Quali, but Jenson will be able to eke out more performance on the tyres.

      We saw here last year that Webber had to do another stop because of the tyre wear, and with the softer compounds, it might effect more drivers.
10. 

    Randy (@randy)
    23rd March 2012, 17:03

    Paul Hembery for Autosport:

    “I don’t think Michael was in a situation that you could judge. He was going extremely well until he stopped [with a gearbox problem].

    “And Nico was either in a position where he was attacking cars in front or defending a position. That made him more aggressive than he ordinarily would be, because to try and overtake you have to be very aggressive.

    “So you have to look at it under the context of how much pressure he was under. That probably was a major factor in that.”

    Funny. So if Nico would be alone on the track, he would have won. Well, technically yes, but then it’s not racing.

    I cannot wait for the race to see what is Merc’s real race pace because in Australia it was so rubbish that i don’t believe the results. Rosberg basically came home last (not counting MR) 18 seconds behind Vergne. What happened?
    1. 

       Journeyer (@journeyer)
       23rd March 2012, 17:56

       Well, Rosberg had a puncture after colliding with Perez on the last lap. But even before that, he was in the lower reaches of the points.

       I think Merc clearly have the 3rd-fastest car, but like last year, will probably not bother those above or below them too much when it comes to the points order.
11. 

    AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
    23rd March 2012, 18:58

    I hope there is some truth in what Schumacher says about the team getting on top of the tyres a little more. I’d love at least a podium for Mercedes.
12. 

    jpowell (@jpowell)
    23rd March 2012, 19:59

    Will next years ‘tyres’ be made from a rubber compound or will some more imaginatve materials be required . I suggest crumbled digestive biscuits for the mediums and strawberry jam ( I really like cheese cake) for the super softs that would leave something really Italian for the other two compounds perhaps Calamari for the hards and coffee ice cream for the softs.
    1. 

       Adam
       23rd March 2012, 20:10

       Agreed.

       I was having a surreal conversation this afternoon with someone who agreed that Lewis was better than Jensen at setting quick laps, and at overtaking, but that Jensen is currently better because he was manage tyres.

       I find it rather sad that F1 has ceased to be about driving as quickly as possible, purely to invent a contrived reason for pitstops in a world without refueling.
       1. 

          Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
          23rd March 2012, 20:42

          I see it differently: the refuelling-with-spec-tyres era was an aberration in which a key part of an F1 driver’s skill – namely being able to look after tyres when necessary – was temporarily rendered obsolete.

          Happily that blip is behind us and F1 is better for it. Before it, when we had tyre wars or when in-race refuelling was banned, being able to manage tyres was a vital part of an F1 drivers’ skill as it is today.

          It’s not as if the need to turn the quickest possible lap on a set of tyres at a certain time has disappeared from F1 completely: we see it at times in races – some more than others – and we see it in qualifying.

          F1 is clearly better this way. Now we have cars that are more difficult to drive, tyres that are more challenging to use and, as a result, races that are less predictable and more entertaining.

          I wouldn’t exchange what we have now for what we had four or five years ago. This idea that what went before was automatically better just because we don’t have it any more is classic knee-jerk, rose-tinted glasses thinking.
          1. 

             John H (@john-h)
             24th March 2012, 0:08

             There are pros and cons for me. I loved it when they got rid of refueling, as I knew it would create mixed strategies and more interesting races. Problem is that its gone too far with these crumbly tyres to improve the show, and now drivers are not sliding the back end around, pushing every lap because they’re too scared to damage their tyres.

             Its not rose tinted specs, I think most understand that tyre management is a worthy skill, its just that now its all we ever hear about and personally I think that’s a shame.
          2. 

             Dizzy
             24th March 2012, 7:17

             Difference is that before we had refueling when tyre management was a more important part of F1 the drivers had options on what they wanted to do with tyre strategy, Now there limited.

             Pre-94 you could take the hardest compound & conserve them to run the race on no pit stops, You could take the medium & drive slightly conservatively aiming at 1 stop or you could take one of the soft compounds & run aggressively planning 2 stops.

             I really think this new style F1 would benefit massively from this sort of thing been brought back. Give the aggresive drivers like Hamilton the option of running flat out planning a stop or 2 & give the more conservative guys like Button the option to no-stop trying to conserve his tyres.

             The format as it is now with the tyres falling to bits regardless of what you do isn’t what racing has ever been about & certainly isn’t as exciting as what we have seen in the past.

             Most fans always go on about how drivers like Hamilton, Kobayashi, Montoya, Raikkonen etc.. are exciting to watch because there aggressive, These crappy tyres will end up harming these types of drivers & F1 will become far less exciting as a result!
13. 

    sid_prasher (@)
    23rd March 2012, 20:54

    Looking at the speed trap it seems like Ferrari are having to run a full wing just to add stability to the car.
    McLaren looking untouchable at the moment…will be interesting to see how much does the RBR improve today (Saturday).
    1. 

       CarlitosF1 (@carlitosf1)
       23rd March 2012, 21:15

       Suspecting the same about Ferrari. Such wing could be less about improving lowspeed performance than about just making the damn thing driveable. Sad…

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