Pirelli predicts various strategies for tomorrow

F1 tyre manufacturer forecasts interesting race strategies for tomorrow’s German GP. Big differences occurred between the various compounds brought to Hockenheim which means teams have to be smart to pick out the fastest way to complete the 67 laps of the last race before the summer break kicks off.

Pirelli took a conservative choice for the German GP as it brought the medium, soft and supersoft compounds to Hockenheim. The majority of teams has not even tried out the hardest compound, only Force India made some experiences with it during Friday’s running.

However, the huge difference between the supersoft and soft compounds could spice up race strategies in tomorrow’s race. The time difference was about one and half a second between the softs and mediums yesterday. The gap decreased for today, though.

For the first time of this season Pirelli indicates a three-stop strategy could work very well in the race, but it doesn’t rule out that a two-stop strategy will be the way to approach the race.

“It looks like we might be seeing a mixture of two and three stop strategies tomorrow, with the running up to now showing that there could be a few quite different approaches to the race,” said Pirelli motorsport chief Paul Hembery after today”s qualifying.

Weather can play a key role tomorrow as lower temperatures and possible showers are expected.

“A lot will obviously depend on the weather, which still appears to be changeable.”

Mercedes had such a dominant pace in the pocket that it could afford to get through the first qualifying segment on softs. That meant the Anglo-German team saved up one set of supersofts for each driver.

”Mercedes handed themselves a potential advantage by saving themselves an additional set of supersofts, so it will be interesting to see if they can capitalise upon that tomorrow.”

The Milan-based company predicts that a three-stop strategy is the fastest way to complete the German GP. Three stints on supersofts and one on softs it what Pirelli recommends.
The second quickest way is the two-stopper with two stints on supersofts and one on softs.

Pirelli also suggests that the maximal lap number on softs shouldn’t exceed 29 and 22 on supersofts.