2022 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, May 20 - 22

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Interesting Lec has the new soft but no other frontrunner. Will be interesting to see strategy choices tomorrow

[dialtone]

Interesting Lec has the new soft but no other frontrunner. Will be interesting to see strategy choices tomorrow

He's the only one that went through q2 with a single attempt on used softs and he had a better lap than everyone else that tried their first attempt on used. If this doesn't show they can manage soft tyres at least decently I don't know what will.

[SirBastianVettel]

I think Verstappen has a set of soft tires that are as good as new. He abandoned his last Q3 lap after 2 turns. Do we expect the soft tire to be a good race tire? I kinda doubt it seeing how it wasn't even good enough to do two qualifying laps on.

[dialtone]

I think Verstappen has a set of soft tires that are as good as new. He abandoned his last Q3 lap after 2 turns. Do we expect the soft tire to be a good race tire? I kinda doubt it seeing how it wasn't even good enough to do two qualifying laps on.

Isola said 2 stops medium and soft combo. Medium-medium-soft i think.

[SirBastianVettel]

Isola said 2 stops medium and soft combo. Medium-medium-soft i think.

That would suggest the hard tire is rubbish. I haven't seen the long-run simulations on Friday, does anyone know if it was decent compared to the medium?

[BlueCheetah66]

Interesting Lec has the new soft but no other frontrunner. Will be interesting to see strategy choices tomorrow

Given how much running Ferrari have done on Softs today in FP3 and yesterday, I think they might start Leclerc on Softs. If it is a guaranteed two stop for the top runners then it puts him in a very good position

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Isola said 2 stops medium and soft combo. Medium-medium-soft i think.

That would suggest the hard tire is rubbish. I haven't seen the long-run simulations on Friday, does anyone know if it was decent compared to the medium?

only Ricciardo and Stroll really used hards, so difficult to say, but they didn't look particularly good at least. Stroll was around a second slower than Vettel on mediums, Ricciardo only did two quick laps (also around a second slower than his own run on softs)

[f1316]

The teams definitely seem to think the hard is no good or they would have tried some long runs on it.

If you’re going to use a soft, I’d be surprised if they do it at the end. I get that it might last longer on lower fuel but starting in the soft is (a) useful off the line (b) opens up the option a one-stopper. If you go medium-medium for your first two stints then you’re locked into a second stop. I predict at least someone within the top 10 - and probably Leclerc - will start on the soft.

[dialtone]

[Zynerji]

I'm reaching here, but I think Bottas and Magnusson both are fast enough to M/H 1 stop and might threaten a podium.

[Schippke]

Somewhat looking forward to this one strategy wise... I think it is too risky to go for a 1 Stop Medium/Hard, logically would be Soft/Medium/Medium or maybe Medium/Medium/Soft... expecting Charles to do the Former, Max the later to try hunt him down at the end. In saying that, maybe put Max on the Softs to get the better start maybe and try get Charles in T1 off the line?

I think we'll see Mercedes playing a part in this one. If their race pace from Friday is anything to go by, they can mess things up for Red Bull and Ferrari (particularly the later). I'd still put Red Bull the faster race car overall, despite Ferrari seemingly making progress with their long tyre runs... but lets see.

I'm reaching here, but I think Bottas and Magnusson both are fast enough to M/H 1 stop and might threaten a podium.

Bottas would be most likely, BUT considering the caliber of cars/drivers in front of him... it would take some reliability issues from the others to make that a reality. In saying that, run a bit longer, VSC or SC? Cheap pit stop... could be possible. Also, the Hard Tyre or a lot of seems didn't seem to be ideal, despite it's endurance... might help a bit more now the track has rubbered up; I'd expect the teams further down the field to give it a go... probably Aston Martin.

[Wouter]

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What about a S-H-S or S-M-S for Lecrerc? Is there any possibility?

[dialtone]

this was Ferrari's FP3 racing sim at averages of 25.4 and 25.7 after 10 and 9 laps. Leclerc in particular did a 25.3 at lap 9 and the tyres were 16 laps old at that lap 9.



this was RedBull's FP2 racing sim at averages of 26.0 and 26.4 after 13 and 9 laps with tyres that ended 26 laps old for VER (26.577) and 22 laps old for PER (26.8 )

It's obvious that Ferrari had less fuel than RBR during this FP3 sim, but the tyre deg improved significantly, I think S-M-S is definitely possible given the 66 laps of the track for either team and the difference in tyre deg, if there's any, seems extremely minimal to me.

I just added this stint graph to my scripts, next step will be to align it by tyre age since currently it's aligned at first lap.

[SirBastianVettel]

Thank you for your insights @dialtone, really appreciate it!