f1316 wrote:It may sound an obvious comment, but I think what is becoming particularly clear this year is that it's imperative to be on good tyres at the end of the race. Apart from in Monaco, where I suspect it would have been OK, track position does you little good because you're not able to defend once your tyres reach a certain age.
What is also interesting is that there may be a form of strategy which allows a driver to somewhat avoid the "tip-toeing" some have complained about. Because the cars are *so* far off the qualifying pace in the race - something like 7 seconds per lap at the start of the race - there could be an argument that the non-optimal strategy allows the driver to push so much harder so as to counteract the amount you lose in additional stops throughout the, let's say, four stints. In a sixty lap race, it only takes lapping an average of .333 of a second faster per lap to make up the extra 20 seconds which is roughly average for a pit stop. This is by no means a fact-based comment, but from the purely anecdotal evidence of driver comments, I would estimate that they are losing significantly more per lap by having to conserve.
Not only this, but it allows those drivers who are better at pushing the car to its limits to push for the full race, whilst still giving those drivers (and cars) that are better at conserving to conserve. Purely psychologically, I can imagine certain drivers benefitting from this more agressive strategy - qualifying position and overtaking possibilities allowing.
That is an interesting observation, and it should be noted that Pirelli were aiming to make two different strategies viable so in this respect they are succeeding. The logical extension of this is that we may see teams placing more emphasis on straight line speed in an effort to be able to maximise their end of race pace. This would suggest that cars that are good in a straight line, like the Mercedes and McLaren, could end up having an advantage if this kind of strategy plays out more frequently.
With the high speed corners putting huge loads through the tyres I would imagine Silverstone to be a three stop race again, possibly even four. This should again help those drivers that prefer to attack as at worst they're only going to burn through the tyres a couple of laps more quickly than those trying to conserve their tyres.
We could also see a split in strategy at Red Bull, with Vettel trying to be quick enough whilst managing his tyres and Webber going on a more aggressive strategy.
The only difference is that Kimi gave him a wide berth! 
