2023 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Sep 22 - 24

[Cassius]

no one but Verstappen even has more than three sets of medium/hard (in whatever combination) left, so I guess two stops are more likely indeed.

Do you have a graphic/spreadsheet of tyres left? I guess Verstappen has extra set of med/hard left bc he used an additional soft tyre instead?

yeah, Verstappen used H-S and S-S today, everyone else only one (Alfa) or two sets of Softs. Going into Qualifying with only three sets of softs is a bit risky, though, even with a dominant car, so not sure if that's really the plan.

Pirelli hasn't released the list yet, so this is only based on my notes, assuming no one returned any unused sets instead:

https://i.imgur.com/INfoeUO.png

edit: Official tyre list from Pirelli is available now as well (and similar): https://i.imgur.com/kY68uoV.png

Max will just use 1 medium and 1 soft in fp3. Probably a relatively early soft qualy simulation and then a long run on mediums to check deg again.

[Bill_Kar]

Entertaining stuff. RB obviously the car to beat, Ferrari has made a step forward, Macca strong as expected.

I expect a close battle for pole, but come Sunday a pecking order of RB - McLaren - Ferrari, with Mercedes a distant 4th.

[organic]

Entertaining stuff. RB obviously the car to beat, Ferrari has made a step forward, Macca strong as expected.

I expect a close battle for pole, but come Sunday a pecking order of RB - McLaren - Ferrari, with Mercedes a distant 4th.

I don't

[organic]

no one but Verstappen even has more than three sets of medium/hard (in whatever combination) left, so I guess two stops are more likely indeed.

Do you have a graphic/spreadsheet of tyres left? I guess Verstappen has extra set of med/hard left bc he used an additional soft tyre instead?

yeah, Verstappen used H-S and S-S today, everyone else only one (Alfa) or two sets of Softs. Going into Qualifying with only three sets of softs is a bit risky, though, even with a dominant car, so not sure if that's really the plan.

Pirelli hasn't released the list yet, so this is only based on my notes, assuming no one returned any unused sets instead:

https://i.imgur.com/INfoeUO.png

edit: Official tyre list from Pirelli is available now as well (and similar): https://i.imgur.com/kY68uoV.png

great info. here's from pirelli and is the same as yours I think ?

[search]

great info. here's from pirelli and is the same as yours I think ?

yeah, it's the same.

No idea how much of an advantage it came with, but AmuS mentioned that Verstappen "violated" tomorrow's minimum lap time rule by 50s ahead of his quickest attempt in FP2. So having to do a significantly faster outlap could change things a bit, at least.

[basti313]

great info. here's from pirelli and is the same as yours I think ?

yeah, it's the same.

No idea how much of an advantage it came with, but AmuS mentioned that Verstappen "violated" tomorrow's minimum lap time rule by 50s ahead of his quickest attempt in FP2. So having to do a significantly faster outlap could change things a bit, at least.

But 50s is too long to discuss a slow outlap. Furthermore I think RB goes usually a quite fast outlap. I do not think you can read anything into this.

Furthermore to tires:
I think we can mostly expect a 2 stop race, right? The deg on the Soft did not look good and Hards were never really an or the best option for this track. Usually this is either S-M-S or S-M-M. In this regard I am surprised by two things:
- Most of the teams did not use the Hard in FP so far and FP3 is not a usual place for Hards. Why not? Soft- Hard- Hard would be a super strange strategy here.
- Most teams only have one set of Mediums left, no used ones? This limits the strategy a lot in my point of view as you can only go for Hards in case of a Safety car after the first stop if it is not close to the end.

So I am surprised that only RedBull and Ferrari kept 2 Medium sets...

[chrisc90]

Verstappen has 3 new mediums compared to everyone else 2.

Could be a M-H-M for him yet others would have to run a used medium if 2 stopping

[search]

Verstappen has 3 new mediums compared to everyone else 2.

Could be a M-H-M for him yet others would have to run a used medium if 2 stopping

What makes you think so? A M-H-M strategy requires only two sets of mediums.

[chrisc90]

Verstappen has 3 new mediums compared to everyone else 2.

Could be a M-H-M for him yet others would have to run a used medium if 2 stopping

What makes you think so? A M-H-M strategy requires only two sets of mediums.

Only really Ferrari who could run 2 new mediums. Merc, mclaren, Aston etc only have 1 new medium.

[search]

yeah, but they will have no used mediums either.

[chrisc90]

Fair one. Half asleep here still lol.

Must be a M-H-H then. If the RB can look after the medium then be a big difference

[Juzh]

great info. here's from pirelli and is the same as yours I think ?

yeah, it's the same.

No idea how much of an advantage it came with, but AmuS mentioned that Verstappen "violated" tomorrow's minimum lap time rule by 50s ahead of his quickest attempt in FP2. So having to do a significantly faster outlap could change things a bit, at least.

Do we know what minimum laptime rule is? as in how many seconds?

[search]

great info. here's from pirelli and is the same as yours I think ?

yeah, it's the same.

No idea how much of an advantage it came with, but AmuS mentioned that Verstappen "violated" tomorrow's minimum lap time rule by 50s ahead of his quickest attempt in FP2. So having to do a significantly faster outlap could change things a bit, at least.

Do we know what minimum laptime rule is? as in how many seconds?

1:54 between the two SC lines:

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... 20Time.pdf

But 50s is too long to discuss a slow outlap. Furthermore I think RB goes usually a quite fast outlap. I do not think you can read anything into this.

I just re-watched Verstappen's FP2 outlap on F1TV, and it just was deliberately slow indeed. Nothing else to report.

[KimiRai]

With this degradation it looks like a start with mediums and two stops maybe for hards, unless the track improves for Sunday

[organic]

https://press.pirelli.com/busy-busy-in-suzuka--/

According to pirelli the c2 test tyre didn't work as hoped

Over 1300 kilometres was completed on this prototype C2 and from the initial feedback it seems it is not delivering the potential for improvement in terms of the grip we wanted to achieve, but obviously, now all this information will have to be analysed carefully before reaching a final decision.