TYRE ANALYSIS: Ferrari displayed outstanding management in Austin
Having shown impressive tyre management in Texas, Ferrari secured their first double victory at the United States Grand Prix since 2006. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo analyses the race strategies in the Austin F1 round.
Ferrari locked out the second row on the grid for the United States Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc setting the third and fourth-quickest lap in Saturday's qualifying session.
When the lights went green, both Ferraris had a great start from the second row, but Leclerc had the track position on the inside when the leading duo of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen ran wide. Although an early safety car meant that Leclerc had to defend hard from Verstappen at the restart, he was faultless as he disappeared up the track to take his third win of the year.
His team-mate Carlos Sainz complained about technical issues in the early stages of the race, but Ferrari managed to cure the problem with a tweak to the setting. The Spaniard managed to undercut Verstappen in the pit stops, and then was also able to pull away for to Ferrari’s second 1-2 of the season.
Commenting on the race, Pirelli's motorsport director Mario Isola said: "First and foremost, congratulations to Ferrari for a wonderful one-two finish in a country which has always been very important for the Prancing Horse. "
Ahead of the race, Pirelli had expected teams to orientate their strategies around a two-stop strategy, given the tyre wear seen during Saturday's sprint race. However, the start of the race had quickly indicated that tyre degradation was much lower than anticipated, allowing top drivers to commit themselves to a single-stop approach.
Fifteen drivers opted to start on the Medium tyre, with the Sauber drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu going with a used set. Five others, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in the Mercedes, Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Franco Colapinto (Williams) and Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) lined up on Hard tyres.
As expected, no one opted to start on the softs, although Esteban Ocon (Alpine) fitted them right at the very end with the aim of depriving Colapinto in the Williams of picking up the point for the race fastest lap, a mission successfully accomplished by the Alpine driver.
Although the one-stop was the preferred strategy for the vast majority of drivers, Ocon, Zhou and Magnussen made two planned stops, while Alexander Albon had to stop in the early stages to take on a second set of Mediums.
"On the tyre front, it was a very interesting Sunday, because of the technical insights it provided. Based on previous data and from what we learned in yesterday’s Sprint, when the Medium demonstrated a very high wear rate, combined with what we knew from this race last year, a one-stop did not seem viable.
"And yet it proved to be not only the winning strategy, but also almost the only one adopted by the field. As for the behaviour of the Medium, the Safety Car following Hamilton going off the track in the early stages, meant that those who had started on this compound could extend their stint, while it also meant the tyres were put under less stress during the crucial early stages, when the cars are running with a heavy fuel load.
"There were two other elements to consider: the significant evolution of the track condition, with much of it resurfaced leading to a major reduction in graining compared to what we saw in the Sprint and then the changes the teams were able to make to their set-up, based on what they learned yesterday.”
As for the stint lengths, Russell and Bottas both drove the longest stints of all, driving 40 laps on the Hard, the Englishman on his first stint, the Finn on his second. The longest run on the Medium tyre was completed by Piastri who drove 32 laps in the McLaren.
