Pirelli: two-stop strategy is the way to go at Austrian Grand Prix
Formula One’s tyre supplier Pirelli thinks that its bold tyre selection for the Red Bull Ring will lead to a two-stop strategy at today’s Austrian Grand Prix. F1Technical's pitlane reporter Balazs Szabo delivers his tyre analysis from the Red Bull Ring.
Another pole position for Max Verstappen as he continues to put together the perfect weekend: fastest in free practice, fastest in Sprint Qualifying, first in the Sprint Race and quickest in qualifying for tomorrow’s Grand Prix.
It’s the seventh time the Dutchman has topped the time sheet in grid-deciding sessions at this circuit: prior to today’s pole he was quickest at the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix, the 2021 and 2023 Austrian Grands Prix, along with Sprint Qualifying for the past two years. The three-time world champion now has 40 pole positions to his name, while Red Bull Racing is on 103.
Tomorrow’s front row is identical to that in today’s Sprint. Verstappen, whose best lap was a 1’04”314, will again have McLaren’s Lando Norris (1’04”718) alongside him, while on the second row one finds the Mercedes of George Russell (1’04”840) and the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz (1’04”851).
Pirelli's Motorsport Director Mario Isola commented: "Yet another pole for Verstappen, who really seems unbeatable here, especially over a single timed lap, given that this is the seventh consecutive time he has been fastest in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring.
Tyre performancePredictably, the Medium proved to be the only choice for the Sprint Race, given that the C3 was selected by all the drivers as the best compound for the 24 lap race. The Sauber pair opted to run a new set, while all the others went with a part worn set. The Medium behaved as expected, providing the teams with plenty of useful data to help plan strategy for tomorrow’s race.
For qualifying, obviously, everyone ran the Softs with a mix between new and used sets, based on availability and how far they progressed through the sessions. The C5 confirmed its excellent performance over a flying lap on the Spielberg track, even with very high track temperatures.
The Milan-based tyre manufacturer thinks that drivers will need to stop twice as high temperatures will lead to a higher degradation than expected.
The ideal strategy would see drivers start on the hards before completing the middle stint on yellow-banded mediums. The last stint would see drivers revert to the hards.
Those who want to have better grip at the start can also elect to start on the mediums, but they would need to complete their first stop a bit earlier. Their middle and last stint would see them use the white-banded hards.
Speaking of the optimal strategy for today's Austrian Grand prix, Isola noted: "Today’s high temperatures, with the track hovering around the 50 °C mark, was an additional difficulty to deal with, but at least it gave teams the chance to try the Medium tyre in these conditions, providing important information regarding strategy.
"According to our calculations, two pit stops will be required, with a mix of C3 and C4. Clearly, those who chose to use extensively, and therefore give back a set of C3s, will favour the Medium more, while the others will have a greater degree of flexibility.
"A one-stop is not a realistic choice, not because of tyre wear, but in terms of degradation and pace, although a three-stop could work if there is a Safety Car in the second part of the race, or if degradation is higher than expected. In this case, even the C5 could come into play, albeit not in a major way," concluded Isola.
