2016 3 tire compound rules

[mikeerfol]

Please remind me is the Aus GP normally SS/S or S/M compound?

S/M, they only used SS (along with medium) back in 2013.

So, time to open the 2016 Australian gp thread?


EDIT: So, help me out with this: Pirelli will bring Supersoft, soft and Medium in Melbourne. They choose 1 set of each for all drivers (3 in total) and then the teams have to select 10 more sets from all 3 compounds for each driver, correct?

[Sevach]

Pirelli forces the teams to take 1 of each.
A driver will have to forcibly use either the soft or the medium selected by Pirelli during the race.
10 sets free choice, could be all SS's =D>
Soft and Medium were an easy 1 stopper last year, no problems whatsoever...

[Italiano]

How the 2016 Formula 1 tyre rules will work

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122220

And this is the one that pisses me off...

Are there any particular races that will be dramatically changed by this?

Pirelli believes all the races can potentially be very different compared to 2015, especially at the beginning of the season when all teams will likely struggle to apply the new rules, introducing a high level of uncertainty.

This is just the FIA and Pirelli trolling all the F1 teams just to get some excitement into the mix.

[livinglikethathuh]

Uncertainty is the keyword here.

Welcome 2012-13 tyre lottery...

[Neno]

So this new season is not about who has most downforce or best car, or drivers or biggest budget and car development. It's about who can predict future (weather conditions, circuit grip, and what are optimal tires for your car who you didnt even yet test on track) and pick good tires for that specific GP. That's basically playing SuperEnalotto. Thanks FIA, thanks Bernie, thanks whoever was in job "to create excitement". Thank you with all my heart.

[f1316]

I think it's just adding another element to the mix. The car with most downforce, most grip, highest top speed etc still has the ability to go fastest- nothing changes there. What changes is that there an increase in the role strategy plays - to me this is like a football team without such good players having the chance to win via better tactics; so that's a good thing.

It's also interesting that they've earmarked one set of the softest compound that all Q3 teams will use, so there's no real chance of upsets on pole - the fastest car will still set the fastest lap, given there's no way to 'undercut' them with softer tyre choice. I'm not sure if I like this or not; I would have thought it would be interesting to have returned to Q3 tyres being used for the race to mix up the grid a bit. It does, however, maintain what you might call the 'correct' sporting order.

I suspect it will all become pretty uniform by mid season but should cause some interesting early races. A more sustainable, easier solution to strategy variation is refuelling but that's apparently out the door (for all the wrong reasons in my view) so this is better than nothing.

[Joseki]

I don't expect much drama in Australia, and in Malaysia I expect them to use just the M/H, so probably there will be some drama in China like in 2013.

[continuum16]

I wonder if they'll have the ultra soft for Russia (it's like the fourth or fifth race) considering the extreme lack of wear that we've seen over the last two races. Also isn't Malaysia late in the year this year?

[BanMeToo]

I wonder if they'll have the ultra soft for Russia (it's like the fourth or fifth race) considering the extreme lack of wear that we've seen over the last two races.

I'll be surprised if they don't. No reason to bring the Medium back to Russia........

[godlameroso]

Are the soft and medium the mandatory sets for Australia? If so will the super soft be the third compound? I can't possibly see them use the hard. This way they'll be mandating a two or thee stop race. Maybe the required race sets will be medium and super soft, where a brave team can try one stopping and everyone else will run super soft, soft, medium. They could also nominate two super softs and this would probably create the greatest variability to strategy.

[BanMeToo]

Are the soft and medium the mandatory sets for Australia? If so will the super soft be the third compound?

Yes. As confirmed by Pirelli. But look at 3jawchuck's thing again bc I don't think you understand the rule yet......

I scribbled a quick ... thing to try and get to grips with it. It isn't so complicated, but still it is pretty arbitrary.

[Sevach]

I think it's just adding another element to the mix. The car with most downforce, most grip, highest top speed etc still has the ability to go fastest- nothing changes there. What changes is that there an increase in the role strategy plays - to me this is like a football team without such good players having the chance to win via better tactics; so that's a good thing.

It's also interesting that they've earmarked one set of the softest compound that all Q3 teams will use, so there's no real chance of upsets on pole - the fastest car will still set the fastest lap, given there's no way to 'undercut' them with softer tyre choice. I'm not sure if I like this or not; I would have thought it would be interesting to have returned to Q3 tyres being used for the race to mix up the grid a bit. It does, however, maintain what you might call the 'correct' sporting order.

I suspect it will all become pretty uniform by mid season but should cause some interesting early races. A more sustainable, easier solution to strategy variation is refuelling but that's apparently out the door (for all the wrong reasons in my view) so this is better than nothing.

The whole, start the race with Q2 tires, makes even less sense now.
You could see a team like Mercedes going through to Q3 on harder tires and then taking pole on the softer one while everyone around them sits on the grid with the softer tires.

[BanMeToo]

Wait but how is that different from now. If Mercedes have a huge pace advantage they can (and have in the past, I think?) choose which tire they want to start the race on, by using it in Q2. Even if it's the slower tire.

[Vortex Motio]

The whole, start the race with Q2 tires, makes even less sense now.
You could see a team like Mercedes going through to Q3 on harder tires and then taking pole on the softer one while everyone around them sits on the grid with the softer tires.

You've raised an interesting wrinkle to tire strategy for 2016.

Q2 serves essentially 2 purposes:

• Determine grid position. Either be faster than the 11th place qualifier to move up into the Q3 session, or the session directly determines the grid location.
• Determine the tires for the grid. If fast enough to move up to Q3, the set of tires on the car when it set its fastest Q2 lap will then be on the car on the grid. If 11th fastest or slower in Q2, then the car has full liberty to start with the unused Q3 tires (super soft at Melbourne), or either designated race set (unused softs or mediums at Melbourne), or any of the 4 remaining sets available.

For Mercedes, or another team, to try to make it into Q3 while using one of the harder compounds, would require a reliable estimate of the qualifying time of the 11th place Q2 car.

Looking back at 2015, we see the following:

• Australia qualifying - In Q2, the 11th & 12th place qualifiers both turned 88.8 second laps, while the two Mercedes team drivers did 86.9 and 87.0, each with a single run. That is a 1.8 seconds advantage and would enable 1 step harder compound.
• Abu Dhabi - In Q2 of the last race of 2015, the 11th & 12th qualifiers turned 102.5 & 102.7 sec laps respectively, while the Mercedes team ran 100.8 & 101.0 sec laps (again using a single run). so the gap was 1.5 seconds, which may be enough to gamble on a 1 step harder compound.

For Melbourne, we not likely to see such a gamble since it's the first competitive session of the season for the 2016 cars. I suppose there is much less solid data available to make such a gamble, compared to qualifying sessions later in the season.

But later in the season, if a team holds such a strong advantage in qualifying, and there is a significant enough strategic advantage to start on a harder compound, it could be devastating to their opposition.

[BanMeToo]

I still don't get why it's any different from 2014 and 2015?