AR3-GP wrote: ↑20 Nov 2022, 00:50
atanatizante wrote: ↑20 Nov 2022, 00:13
Seeing the top speeds after qualy we could see that in the last 8 places there are both Merc, Macca and Aston Martin drivers... then taking into account what Leclerc said about medium tyres after FP2 race sim laps and what Pirelli saying tomorrow it will be a 2 stop race due to being wrong for bringing a step to softer tyres here, then I think that Merc and the customer teams will try to do a one-stop race... for Merc works team it's a no brainer to start on M tyres (the have no stress from behind) followed by a 1 stop for hard tyres bearing in mind that all year (and especially lately) they were kinder to the tyres, then the delta time between hard and soft tyres are within 5 tenths here with C5-C4 and C3 tyres and last but not least for the fact that last year the choosed the same strategy and had a better race pace compared to RB, at least from HAM point of view...
Mercedes will be incredibly vulnerable on the opening lap if they start on mediums. Two big straights and they are parachutes with wheels. The time they lose fussing with the midfielders like Norris will take away the advantage of starting on mediums. The trick to starting on mediums is not throwing away all the time you were suppose to gain over the stint, in the opening lap.
3 reasons they could start on M tyres: Ted Kravitz spoke with some teams saying it's a close call between 1 and 2 stops, then Mexico 2022 and last but not least last year race...