Why the British GP could be the battle of the two-stop strategies

19 comments on “Why the British GP could be the battle of the two-stop strategies”

1. 

   AMG44 (@amg44)
   14th July 2019, 1:43

   What is going on with Vettel? Last race and now this race as well, he is way off Lec. Also his body language isnt all that great like it used to be.
   Is he loosing the hunger the motivation? Is the romance with Ferrari over?
   On the other hand Lec has cut down the mistakes and starting to really deliver strong results. Sincerely hope he gets at least one win this season.
   1. 

      Panagiotis Papatheodorou (@panagiotism-papatheodorou)
      14th July 2019, 5:40

      Well last race he had engine issues. Yeah he was like 0.2s behind him until Q1 (started having issues in Q2, so count it out) so we can’t judge quali pace fully. As for the race, he was on par and sometimes better than Charles especially in the end of their first stint.

      Silverstone has never been his best track. He was outqualified 3-1 by Kimi in their common Ferrari years and Webber mostly had the upper hand here as well.

      As for today, he had issues with the DRS in Q1 and Q2 (correct me if I am wrong for Q2). Couldn’t put the sector times together in his final run, not good but happens sometimes. In France he also had some issues with the gearbox in his first Q3 run. I suppose all these issues coupled with the defeat at Canada hasn’t been too kind to his confidence.
2. 

   Mashiat (@mashiat)
   14th July 2019, 7:11

   Another factor is that Silverstone has one of the slowest pitlanes on the calendar, so it costs the driver 24-26s to make a pitstop. So being able to do 1 less stop counts for more here.
   1. 

      F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
      14th July 2019, 9:34

      Is that really true? The pit-lane entry bypasses a part of the circuit. Schumacher was once given a stop-and-go penalty rather than a drive-through penalty because the stewards argued that a drive-through penalty would be too lenient. When looking at the lap-time data it seems a pit-stop costs slightly less than 20 seconds, which is about average.
      1. 

         Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
         14th July 2019, 12:46

         In Dutch commentary they said it Silverstone is the longest pitlane of the season in terms of duration: 29 seconds total pitlane time, incl. the stop.

         So, even if you lose 2 seconds per lap by staying out on old tires you still have 14 laps to come out ahead by driving like a grandma. Besides, if you do go for fresh tires you have to take traffic into account.
3. 

   AMG44 (@amg44)
   14th July 2019, 7:12

   I agree but i cant remember last time Vettel spoke like this.

   Vettel said of his session, “I’ve had worse ones… at least I took part. I don’t know, I didn’t have the speed.

   “I didn’t have a good feeling for the car. I think he [Charles Leclerc] did a good job. For me I don’t have an answer now it’s fairly evenly spread”

   He seems to be lost finding balance and setup in a car which is good enough for pole position. Charles missed pole by less than a tenth.
   1. 

      Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
      14th July 2019, 12:49

      We all know Vettel wouldn’t have been a world champion if Alonso, Hamilton or even Rosberg were his teammates rather than Mark Webber, during his RedBull days.

      Leclerc, despite his young age and inexperience, is looking like he’s well above Webber’s level. So, is it really a surprise Vettel can’t keep up?
4. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   14th July 2019, 7:47

   Will it be a battle of the Mercedes at Silverstone? – Only on lap one.
   Or will Ferrari or Red Bull get in the mix? – Hopefully.
5. 

   Darkman
   14th July 2019, 9:34

   British weather can spice things up a bit!
6. 

   F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
   14th July 2019, 9:39

   For those starting on medium tyres, including the Mercedes pair on the front row, a medium/soft/hard mix is the way to go.

   It makes perfect sense indeed to start on mediums to just switch back to softs…
   Mercedes and Red Bull will be trying to make a medium-hard strategy work, whereas Ferrari will go for soft-soft-medium or soft-medium-medium, depending on tire wear, which could be interesting.
   1. 

      Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
      14th July 2019, 11:48

      @f1infigures
      Leclerc doesn’t have any fresh mediums left though and Vettel has got one fresh set.

      I’ve just taken a look a Pirelli’s twitter and according to them a 1-stopper isn’t even on the cards, which I found quite interesting. It seems they are expecting quite high tyre wear.

      But I agree with you. Mercedes and Red Bull will try to make a 1-stopper work and I assume Ferrari will go for soft-hard-soft (for Leclerc) and probably soft-medium-soft for Vettel.
      1. 

         F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
         14th July 2019, 12:35

         @srga91
         If that set of mediums was only used in qualifying it shouldn’t make much of a difference, but perhaps Leclerc will only do one stint on the medium tire (soft-soft-medium or maybe even soft-medium-hard).
         It seems the situation is very much like in Barcelona, another high-tire-load circuit, when the tire degradation wasn’t very high, but the physical wear was, which forced most drivers to pit twice. I believe Hülkenberg was the only exception and he did quite well, only to be caught out by the virtual safety car. I guess Ferrari must be hoping for a virtual safety car.
         1. 

            Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
            14th July 2019, 12:51

            Yeah I think Leclerc used that set in Q1 only, so it should be good for the race if he needs them.
7. 

   hahostolze (@hahostolze)
   14th July 2019, 10:22

   Wasn’t Leclerc on the mediums? Or did he improve on the softs in Q2?
   1. 

      F1oSaurus (@f1osaurus)
      14th July 2019, 12:34

      @hahostolze He went out again on softs and completed the (faster) lap. Really odd. In the poirst race interview he claimed everything was according to plan.

      Perhaps Ferrari were trying to sell Mercedes and Red Bull the dummy and they feel this strategy to start on softs is a brilliant move. We’ll see soon I guess.
      1. 

         Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
         14th July 2019, 12:55

         I think Ferrari did want to fool the competition because they believe a two stop is quicker. However, with the long pitlane at Silverstone Merc & RB can lose 2 seconds per lap by driving slowly for 15 laps straights and still be in front of the Ferrari’s….

         I’m afraid Ferrari shot themselves in the foot again. They should have at least split the strategy I think.
8. 

   falken (@falken)
   14th July 2019, 10:22

   “heat not altitude”

   Nor.
9. 

   az
   14th July 2019, 10:25

   Anyone knows why Q2 times fell for most of the drivers ?
   1. 

      Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
      14th July 2019, 12:57

      Could be track temps. The sun was moving in and out from behind the clouds all session.

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