Did the decision to put Nico Rosberg on medium compound tyres instead of softs for his final stint cost him a chance to win the Hungarian Grand Prix? Mercedes admitted that in retrospect he would have been better off with a more aggressive strategy.
Rosberg had deviated from the standard strategy at his first pit stop as he tried to get on terms with the Ferraris. Surprisingly, having passed both the Mercedes at the start the red cars pulled away from Rosberg in the opening stint on soft tyres.
When Rosberg hit the pits for the first time on lap 20 he was almost ten seconds behind leader Sebastian Vettel. While most drivers started the race on softs and took another set at their first pit stop, Rosberg switched to mediums. Ferrari chose softs again, so had the race run green from start to finish Rosberg should have had the chance to return to the softs for an attacking final stint while the Ferraris ran the medium tyre.
But it didn’t work out that way. The Virtual Safety Car was deployed after Nico Hulkenberg crashed on lap 42. This handed all the teams the opportunity to make a pit stop while losing minimal time. Mercedes seized it, but due to the position of the cars on the track when the VSC boards came out Rosberg was one of the first drivers in.
“The default set of tyres was the [medium], as we still had around 30 laps to go in the race under normal conditions,” explained the team’s executive director Toto Wolff afterwards. There was an added pressure due to the suddenness with which Rosberg appeared in the pits: “That was the only set we were able to fit to the car in time.”
A few other drivers did opt for the soft tyre at this point or earlier, including Daniil Kvyat (who did more than half the race on one set), Pastor Maldonado and Felipe Nasr. “In hindsight, the [soft] tyre would have been ideal to attack Sebastian, who was forced to run the [medium],” admitted Wolff, “but hindsight is a wonderful thing”.
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2015 Hungarian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sebastian Vettel | Soft (21) | Soft (22) | Medium (26) | |
Daniil Kvyat | Soft (13) | Medium (20) | Soft (36) | |
Daniel Ricciardo | Soft (21) | Medium (21) | Soft (22) | Soft (5) |
Max Verstappen | Soft (14) | Soft (23) | Medium (9) | Soft (23) |
Fernando Alonso | Soft (15) | Soft (21) | Medium (7) | Soft (26) |
Lewis Hamilton | Soft (19) | Soft (23) | Medium (9) | Soft (18) |
Romain Grosjean | Soft (14) | Soft (20) | Medium (8) | Soft (27) |
Nico Rosberg | Soft (20) | Medium (22) | Medium (22) | Soft (5) |
Jenson Button | Soft (14) | Soft (21) | Medium (34) | |
Marcus Ericsson | Soft (16) | Soft (17) | Medium (8) | Soft (28) |
Felipe Nasr | Soft (14) | Soft (18) | Medium (10) | Soft (27) |
Felipe Massa | Soft (14) | Medium (15) | Soft (25) | Soft (15) |
Valtteri Bottas | Soft (13) | Soft (25) | Medium (11) | Soft (20) |
Pastor Maldonado | Medium (25) | Soft (16) | Soft (28) | |
Roberto Merhi | Soft (6) | Soft (24) | Medium (37) | Soft |
Will Stevens | Soft (26) | Soft (15) | Medium (24) | Soft |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | Soft (15) | Soft (21) | Medium (24) | |
Kimi Raikkonen | Soft (22) | Soft (21) | Medium (9) | Soft (3) |
Sergio Perez | Soft (16) | Soft (14) | Medium (11) | Soft (12) |
Nico Hulkenberg | Soft (15) | Soft (21) | Medium (5) |
2015 Hungarian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 21.502 | 54 | |
2 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 21.567 | 0.065 | 15 |
3 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 21.574 | 0.072 | 33 |
4 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 21.753 | 0.251 | 35 |
5 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 21.780 | 0.278 | 20 |
6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 21.824 | 0.322 | 21 |
7 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 21.867 | 0.365 | 38 |
8 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 21.900 | 0.398 | 21 |
9 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 21.915 | 0.413 | 29 |
10 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 22.008 | 0.506 | 42 |
11 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 22.013 | 0.511 | 42 |
12 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 22.028 | 0.526 | 43 |
13 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 22.068 | 0.566 | 16 |
14 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 22.072 | 0.570 | 13 |
15 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 22.199 | 0.697 | 33 |
16 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 22.222 | 0.720 | 36 |
17 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 22.231 | 0.729 | 14 |
18 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 22.270 | 0.768 | 43 |
19 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 22.300 | 0.798 | 36 |
20 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 22.409 | 0.907 | 30 |
21 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 22.536 | 1.034 | 14 |
22 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 22.566 | 1.064 | 22 |
23 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 22.573 | 1.071 | 15 |
24 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 22.574 | 1.072 | 41 |
25 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 22.729 | 1.227 | 14 |
26 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 22.747 | 1.245 | 41 |
27 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 22.805 | 1.303 | 14 |
28 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 22.812 | 1.310 | 25 |
29 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 22.907 | 1.405 | 32 |
30 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 22.930 | 1.428 | 36 |
31 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 22.974 | 1.472 | 13 |
32 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 23.005 | 1.503 | 16 |
33 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 23.043 | 1.541 | 46 |
34 | Will Stevens | Manor | 23.051 | 1.549 | 26 |
35 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 23.097 | 1.595 | 42 |
36 | Roberto Merhi | Manor | 23.125 | 1.623 | 30 |
37 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 23.146 | 1.644 | 19 |
38 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 23.162 | 1.660 | 43 |
39 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 23.431 | 1.929 | 37 |
40 | Will Stevens | Manor | 23.664 | 2.162 | 41 |
41 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 23.972 | 2.470 | 42 |
42 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 24.272 | 2.770 | 42 |
43 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 24.575 | 3.073 | 64 |
44 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 24.972 | 3.470 | 41 |
45 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 25.096 | 3.594 | 15 |
46 | Roberto Merhi | Manor | 26.392 | 4.890 | 6 |
47 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 27.715 | 6.213 | 51 |
48 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 27.936 | 6.434 | 14 |
49 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 28.707 | 7.205 | 34 |
50 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 30.031 | 8.529 | 49 |
51 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 31.037 | 9.535 | 64 |
52 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 59.555 | 38.053 | 52 |
Drive-through penalties: Maldonado on laps 24 and 58, Hamilton on lap 54 and Verstappen on lap 56
2015 Hungarian Grand Prix
- Vettel wins Driver of the Weekend for third time
- Hungary rated fifth-best race since 2008
- 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2015 Hungarian GP Predictions Championship results
- Top ten pictures from the 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix
Miha (@msc157)
26th July 2015, 21:17
Rosberg mentioned the problem in his post-race video, too. What a pity.
George (@george)
26th July 2015, 22:13
To be fair to the team, Rosberg had been asking for the medium tyre already, so they would have had to override him to make that decision too.
elio (@elio)
26th July 2015, 22:36
Is there any solid evidence (e.g. radio communication) of Rosberg asking for medium tyres to do the final stint ? Because at the end of the race, Toto Wolff admitted the team’s fault on the tyre choice for ROS when the VSC/SC was deployed.
It’s unusual for a driver asking the team to fit a slower/underperforming tyre, especially when they know they’re losing a lot of time for a pursuing team mate on that compound.
Traverse
26th July 2015, 23:23
Yes. I was watching it live on BBC1 and Rosberg By the team that they would put the option on for the final stint, Rosberg asked what Tyres Hamilton would be on and was told “softs”. Nico then said he also wanted the softs rather than option.
David Coulthard (commentating) queried the request from Rosberg.
elio (@elio)
26th July 2015, 23:45
What lap was that request ?
BasCB (@bascb)
27th July 2015, 6:28
It was quite early @elio, after the team told him that they were planning to stop Hamlton first because he would be running the mediums (he had to use both compounds).
My impression was that this was Rosberg telling the team that he was not amused by them pitting Hamilton earlier and that he would want to stop first, using the mediums (as the softs wouldn’t last).
Ian Bond (@ianbond001)
27th July 2015, 16:25
Nico wanted to stop ahead of Lewis to keep track position; but that ment he had to stop sooner than planned and they worried if they changed to soft they would not last until the end;
It was the logical decision at the time.
Had he run his medium until he could safely mount the softs he would have been undercut by Lewis. He would have been on the faster tire but behind.
His decision was the right one, to stay ahead of Lewis on the same tire.
Traverse
26th July 2015, 23:25
LOL. I obviously meant “medium” not “Softs”. I’s past my bedtime. :P
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
27th July 2015, 3:50
It’s obvious it was team fault for not ready to give better tyres for driver last stint.
Regardless, Rosberg will falling behind Ferrari in soft too like the first stint.
Mr win or lose
27th July 2015, 9:41
Still I don’t understand why some teams seem to prefer the medium tyre over the soft tyre at the Hungaroring, even though the softs are much quicker over a single lap, while the degradation is more or less similar. Last year Mercedes put Hamilton on mediums and he wasn’t able to overtake Alonso on softs. This year Rosberg’s pace on softs was disappointing early in the race, but he probably would have been faster on softs than Vettel on mediums at the end of the race. Instead, he got mediums, was attacked by Ricciardo, got a puncture and finished in 8th place. Tyre strategies are not really Mercedes’ cup of tea I guess.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
27th July 2015, 11:04
One can only wonder where Hülkenberg finally could’ve finished.
dynamite
29th July 2015, 10:53
+1
Arahones
27th July 2015, 12:15
Is there any way to know how many laps all the tyres had on them at the start?
Fish
28th July 2015, 5:38
Would have been that bad to put on cold softs at the final stop for Rosberg? Even if the pit stop was a few seconds longer just to pull them out, they were still under VSC, and then full SC, so the time wouldn’t have been lost… Wouldn’t the safety car laps heat up the tires enough by the time the grip is needed?
Chris
28th July 2015, 7:59
When across berg was on mediums the team told him Lewis was pitting for mediums, Rossberg then clearly moaned that he wanted mediums again at the next stop. The team said he’d get the faster sifts and he said no he wanted mediums. Both mercs stopped under vsc Rossberg got mediums as requested, Lewis got the faster softs as expected. Rossberg threw therein away with that bad decision. I think he got confused.
David-A (@david-a)
28th July 2015, 17:52
“Across berg”? ;)
dynamite
29th July 2015, 10:57
Both had the mediums. What were you watching? Or did you get confused?
McF1 (@mccosmic)
28th July 2015, 10:01
Rosberg should have been insisting on softs in my view. The evidence does not suggest that he did. This underlines for me the difference between him and Hamilton. Had the boot been on the other foot there would have been no doubt what Hamilton would have gone for. Who’s to blame? Rosberg / Team 50% 50%.
Harald
28th July 2015, 15:45
The team cost Rosberg an almost certain win with that blunder.
In the end it cost him a lot more points than the difference between 1st and 2nd too as the contact was very unlikely to happen as the difference between the 2 tyres was big and he was evenly matched with Vettel on the primes.
Didn’t see him sulking like Hamilton like in Monaco though when the team cost him a win..
dynamite
29th July 2015, 10:57
He wasn’t matching Vettel, he was clearly faster.