ANALYSIS: Tsunoda counterplots classic two-stop strategy at the Hungaroring
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Although the majority of the drivers pursued a classic two-stop strategy at final Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, RB driver Yuki Tsunoda impressed with a one-stop strategy. F1Technical’s lead journalist Balazs Szabo analyses methods from the Mogyoród F1 spherical.
McLaren was capable of convert its one-two end in qualifying right into a double victory on Sunday. The Budapest race noticed Oscar Piastri safe his maiden Formula 1 win, whereas Lando Norris began from pole and completed behind the Australian. Lewis Hamilton made it to the third step of the podium, recording his 2 hundredth top-three end from 345 Formula 1 Grand Prix begins, a success fee of 57.97%.
This was McLaren’s second win of the season, its 185th in complete and the twelfth at the Hungaroring, whereas their tally of one-two finishes is now 49, the final one courting again to the 2021 Italian Grand Prix when Norris was once more second behind an Australian driver, on that event Daniel Ricciardo.
Commenting on the thirty ninth Hungarian Grand Prix, Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Mario Isola stated: “I feel the 310,000 spectators who got here to the Hungaroring this weekend and the thousands and thousands watching on TV and thru different channels round the world will need to have loved themselves.
“The weekend began like a game of chess and then reached its peak with a very closely contested and open race in which the lead changed hands seven times.”
Pirelli introduced its softest tyres to the Hungaroring with the C5 serving as the smooth, the C4 as the medium and the C3 as the onerous compound. Although the red-walled tyres endured a sudden lack of grip simply after a single sizzling lap, it was a viable race tyre. It meant that whereas Pirelli had anticipated groups to pursue a two-stop strategy, it had additionally indicated that a number of variations of compounds had been attainable.
At the begin, 13 drivers opted for the C4 for the first stint, whereas 4 went with the Soft and three, together with Gasly who began from pit lane, selected the Hard.
Almost the complete subject went with a two-stop strategy, with simply three drivers doing one thing totally different. While the three-stop delivered no profit for Ocon and Sargeant, as the ultimate pit cease for Soft tyres got here when there was not something to lose, it was a distinct matter for Tsunoda who was on a one-stop and completed ninth primarily resulting from his managing the tyres effectively in each stints, (first for 29 laps on the Medium after which 41 on the Hard).
Following their decisions made throughout free observe, the two Aston Martin drivers had been locked into planning a strategy utilizing all three compounds in the order Soft/Medium/Hard which yielded only one level courtesy of a tenth place for Stroll, who completed one place forward of Alonso.
The Silverstone-based outfit made a shock name by calling Alonso early in on Lap 7. The Spaniard regarded comfy on his softs, which made the determination awkward, leaving Alonso susceptible afterward throughout the race in opposition to his rivals, who ran a extra typical two-stop strategy, finishing the first cease later.
The two-time world champion commented: “The strategy was not optimum, however clearly it is rather simple to say that after the race. The crew felt it was a great name, but it surely was a giant shock once we stopped on lap seven as a result of we talked about how our automobile is tough on its tyres usually.
“So if you are stopping on lap seven, there are 63 laps to do with one medium and one hard, and it was a challenge from that point. There was a high price to pay if you did one stint on one set of tyres, and they called me in on lap seven and I knew that the race was over,” famous Alonso.
The longest stints (41 on the Hard) had been accomplished by the two RB drivers, Ricciardo and Tsunoda, whereas the longest Medium stint went to Stroll on 31 laps and he additionally did the most laps (14) on the Soft.
Daniel Ricciardo endured comparable fortunes to Alonso as his crew referred to as him very early in on Lap 7. Although the Australian regarded very robust all weekend lengthy, topping the first qualifying phase and qualifying ninth on the grid, the compromised strategy noticed the eight-time F1 race winner find yourself solely twelfth
The early cease meant that Ricciardo couldn’t extract the whole lot from his medium tyres, and spent the majority in visitors.
“Today it was an extended and irritating race,” started Ricciardo. “We didn’t use the tempo we had in the clear air. We had been on the mediums at the begin of the race and after just a few laps we pitted for brand new hards along with the different automobiles who began on softs, popping out in visitors.
“It’s much more irritating as a result of we had been fast all weekend, and I felt like we’ve taken ourselves out of the race so early as we couldn’t combat automobiles that had been coming a lot faster on newer tyres.”
Isola famous: “With temperatures fairly much like these we had seen in Friday’s second free observe session, the Medium most likely turned out to be the most effective compound general: if it had not been for the collision with Hamilton, Verstappen would virtually actually have completed third.
“But the Hard, which was undoubtedly the most used compound, was additionally aggressive, not simply on the two Mercedes, however on different automobiles too. In the finish, I feel this race as soon as once more demonstrated how necessary it’s for the groups to rigorously work out that are the compounds greatest suited to their automobiles, in addition to displaying how the present vary of tyres lets us see how totally different strategy decisions work out on observe.
“After all, that’s truly the predominant goal set for us yearly by the FIA, Formula 1 and the sport’s different stakeholders, specifically to supply tyres which can be at first a assure of the most attainable security, whereas permitting the groups and drivers to take advantage of their potential to the full.
“That what we try our best to achieve, not just in Formula 1, but also in the two junior categories, for which we are the sole tyre supplier,” commented Isola.
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