Although an incident prompted an early interruption, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix noticed the majority of the area run a single-stop technique at Round 2 of the 2024 F1 season. F1Technical’s senior author Balázs Szabó delivers his technique evaluation for the Jeddah F1 race.
While Pirelli introduced the tougher compounds to the season-opener in Bahrain, the second race of the season noticed drivers use the three compounds from the center of Pirelli’s vary. It implies that the C2 served as Hard, the C3 as Medium and the C4 as Soft on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
The Milan-based producer had elected for comparatively excessive minimal beginning pressures, with 24.0 psi for the fronts and 21.0 psi for the rears. The camber limits were-3.25° for the entrance tyres and -1.75° for the rear tyres.
Strategies
Ahead of the race, Pirelli predicted that drivers would favor the one-stop technique in the 50-lap Jeddah F1 race. That was motivated by the details that overtaking is at a premium on the
On the beginning grid, 18 of the 20 drivers opted to run the first stint on Medium tyres, the solely exceptions being Oliver Bearman and Valtteri Bottas who most popular the Soft. The Safety Car got here out on lap 7 after Lance Stroll hit the obstacles, triggering a run of pit stops. Only 4 drivers – Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg and Zhou Guanyu – determined to remain out on the Medium, delaying their cease as a lot as potential.
As from lap 30, this quartet started to pit: Hulkenberg on lap 33, Hamilton on 36, Norris on 37, whereas Zhou went all the technique to lap 41. The Haas driver was the just one to suit Hard tyres, with the different three going for Soft to attempt to make up some locations, though they didn’t handle it.
Of the drivers who noticed the chequered flag, solely Bottas made two stops (Soft-Hard-Soft).
Speaking of the technique, Pirelli’s Head of Motorsport Mario Isola mentioned: “It’s been a really easy race, each when it comes to the remaining end result, which was virtually a carbon copy of Sakhir and on the subject of how the tyres carried out.
“We knew this would be a race where the quickest strategy was a one-stop. Obviously, the Safety Car after seven laps brought forward the pit stop window.”
Tyre compounds
As for the completely different compounds, every one made an look in Jeddah with all of them having carried out as anticipated.
The Hard was the most most popular tyre in Jeddah with many drivers finishing the majority of the race distance on the similar set of the white-walled tyre following the security automotive interruption. Alex Albon, Oliver Bearman, Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen and Fernando Alonso have been all pressured to finish a mammoth a 43-lap stint after the security automotive lured him into the pits to hold out the tyre change in simply 11s as an alternative of 20s.
In truth, Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, Daniel Ricciardo and Logan Sargeant accomplished virtually the similar distance on the hards, however as they have been all lapped by race winner Verstappen, their race distance was a lap shorter.
The greatest lap was achieves by Charles Leclerc who went on to submit a 1m31.632s on a set of 43-lap outdated laborious tyres, securing the quickest lap of the grand prix.
The medium tyre was additionally a most popular compound in Jeddah with Stake Sauber driver Zhou Guanyu racking up a complete of 41 laps on a set of the yellow-banded rubber. McLaren’s Lando Norris posted the quickest lap on the C3 compounds, registering a lap of 1m33.309s on Lap 32.
The comfortable compound turned out to develop into a much less most popular compound throughout the 50-lap race. In complete, six stints have been accomplished on the C4 compound with Oliver Bearman and Valtteri Bottas electing to begin the race on the red-walled compound. Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Zhou Guanyu and Bottas ended the race on the softs.
The seven-time world champion registered the greatest lap on the C5 rubber, posting a time of 1m31.746s.
Expanding on the efficiency of the varied compounds, Isola added: “The C2 proved to be very constant, each when it comes to efficiency and degradation, as may be seen from the proven fact that the quickest lap of the race got here proper at the finish courtesy of Leclerc on a set that had completed 43 laps.
“The C3 was additionally as much as the process, as a result of the 4 drivers who selected to remain out when the Safety Car appeared, have been capable of take all of it the technique to its put on restrict whereas nonetheless working fairly competitively. Compared to Friday’s lengthy runs, graining on this compound was minimal, which was right down to the monitor steadily rubbering in increasingly with use. Hamilton’s and Norris’ stints on the C4 additionally demonstrated that the softest compound we had right here could possibly be aggressive even in the first a part of the race, though solely two drivers tried to use that.”
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