Midfield teams prefer ultra-softs for US GP

18 comments on “Midfield teams prefer ultra-softs for US GP”

1. 

   Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
   10th October 2017, 18:06

   Why would you want 3 sets of soft tyres? I’m seeing a 1 stop race, US/SS or S if it’s a hard 1 stop. Therefore take 2 softs to be safe, 3 SS to be safe and the rest US, if you are a middle to bottom team, you won’t be quick enough to use SS in qualifying as a result you don’t need 3 SS, you can, rather like Alonso, go for 2 SS, that said if the race is a definite 2 stopper, you are going to be short on SS.
   Ham’s going safe 3S is too many. I can’t see S1 really destroying the tyres since s1 in suzuka didn’t, then the traction demanding stadium section is going to benefit from ss and US traction, long straights don’t ruin the tyres so, it’s understandable that some teams went for 2/2 and 2/1 soft tyre allocations.
   1. 

      George (@george)
      10th October 2017, 21:05

      @peartree
      I remember a few occasions when Mercedes have used a harder tyre when a softer one seemed more appropriate, there are a lot of reasons it could make a better race tyre outside of simple grip and wear.
   2. 

      Martin
      11th October 2017, 0:42

      Ham’s going safe 3S is too many

      He effectively has 2, Ham will burn 1 set in practice while Bottas will burn the extra SS he has, leaving them both with 2 S and 3 SS. It is a pattern they have repeated during the year.
   3. 

      DonSmee (@david-beau)
      11th October 2017, 1:28

      The third set of soft for Hamilton is for direct comparison to fourth set of supersoft for Bottas. The rest of the tyres are mirrowed for each driver and are for seeking performance / qualifying / racing.
      Mercedes has this stagger in tyre selection for every race. I am not sure why keith said Hamilton will have a more conservative choice than Bottas when we take those comparison sets out the two drivers effectively have the same selection.
      1. 

         Martin
         11th October 2017, 16:17

         I am not sure why keith said Hamilton will have a more conservative choice than Bottas

         Yeah there are frequently problems with Keith’s articles. As you say (and as I had above) Bottas and Hamilton effectively have the same tyre choice once you take the split practice work into account. Anyway:

         But Hamilton has a slightly more conservative selection than the others have picked three sets of soft tyres. The rest have four apart from Kimi Raikkonen, who has chosen five.

         This part of the article basically makes no sense. For starters I guess that should be having not have in the first sentence. Secondly it implies that everyone has 4 sets of softs (except kimi) which is also wrong.
   4. 

      glen young
      12th October 2017, 0:04

      What about race simulations and a run on them for q2
2. 

   Gitanes (@gp4-gitanes)
   10th October 2017, 18:24

   Interesting to see that Renault’s Jolyon Palmer has the same choice as Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz!
   1. 

      Sujeeth
      11th October 2017, 14:07

      :D :D :D :D :D no one noticed that’s sharp… JP is no more with renault Keith.
3. 

   sean
   10th October 2017, 18:45

   Is McLaren midfield now? :o
   1. 

      Krommenaas (@krommenaas)
      10th October 2017, 20:24

      They’ve made Q3 in 5 of the last 6 GP’s!
      1. 

         The Skeptic
         10th October 2017, 21:40

         I know – it’s tragic. As a Mclaren fan of many years… I’m having a lot of trouble adjusting to this.

         They have the DNA of a leading team. It’s not that long ago that they were contending for championships!
         1. 

            sean
            11th October 2017, 11:14

            Definitely noticed the upward swing in performance :) They’re still 9th in the WCC but then again, i guess apart from Sauber there are no real backmarkers this season, the midfield seems to be relatively well matched
         2. 

            F Truth (@)
            11th October 2017, 14:34

            I know – it’s tragic. As a Mclaren fan of many years… I’m having a lot of trouble adjusting to this.

            They have the DNA of a leading team. It’s not that long ago that they were contending for championships!

            He didn’t say midfield in a derogatory way but as a massive improvement.

            And they haven’t really seriously contended the championship since 2012! That is a long time ago dude.
4. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   10th October 2017, 18:49

   Why isn’t anyone going with just one set of the hardest compound available?
   1. 

      akshay.it (@akshay-it)
      10th October 2017, 21:25

      Grosjean, Stroll and Raikkonen are…
      1. 

         Jere (@jerejj)
         11th October 2017, 7:14

         @akshay-it @phylyp I see. Previously all the drivers were shown having at least two sets of soft, so that must’ve been an error.
   2. 

      Phylyp (@phylyp)
      11th October 2017, 5:45

      @jerejj – if you mean why no team is going with just one set, they always prefer having one of their drivers with an extra set of the hardest compound. The driver that has the extra set trials that compound in FP to decide if its race-worthy or not, and that information is used for both drivers.

      As Akshay pointed out, there are 3 teams that have one driver with such an approach, and many more teams with a staggered approach.
5. 

   TribalTalker (@tribaltalker)
   11th October 2017, 10:47

   So 26 sets of tyres per team, 4 tyres per set: just over 100 tyres.
   Sometimes swapped for wets and inters – I wonder how many? Probably about the same numbers.
   10 teams -> 1,000+ tyres per race.
   20 races per season -> 20,000 tyres per season.
   Although I guess they don’t always use all the tyres, so it’ll be less than 20k in all probability.
   Still, wow.

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