Analysis: Tyre usage at the British Grand Prix

Pirelli’s new specification of slick tyres made their debut in yesterday’s Silverstone race, and displayed wonderful sturdiness. F1Technical’s senior author Balázs Szabó analyses the tyre usage at the British Grand Prix.

After utilizing the softer compounds at the earlier two rounds, groups had more durable compounds obtainable at Silverstone: the C1 served as the P Zero White laborious, C2 as the P Zero Yellow medium and C3 as the P Zero Red tender in Great Britain.

Pirelli’s alternative was dictated by the excessive power masses that Silverstone places by means of the tyres with a few of the highest common cornering speeds of the yr being skilled at Silverstone and drivers are subjected to lateral forces that may exceed 5g.

Last yr’s British Grand Prix noticed the discipline desire a two-stop technique and yesterday’s race had additionally been anticipated to propel drivers in direction of the identical method. However, Friday’s lengthy runs indicated {that a} one-stop technique may additionally be viable.

Weather circumstances had been ideally suited for the Silverstone race with rain staying away for the most essential monitor motion of the race weekend. Ambient temperatures fluctuated between 21.2 and 24.0 levels Celsius. Track temperatures dropped to a minimal of 28.8 levels Celsius when the clouds arrived a couple of laps into the race. However, with the clouds blown away, monitor temperatures rose as much as 35.9 levels Celsius.

Ahead of the race, Pirelli was not sure which technique would possibly transform the quickest approach to full the 52-lap British Grand Prix. However, throughout the race it quickly turned evident that tyres held on very effectively, enabling a one-stop technique for the race regardless of the high-speed corners and the comparatively excessive ambient and monitor temperatures.

12 of the 17 drivers who completed the race accomplished the 52-lap race distance with a single cease. In truth, the 5 different drivers -Charles Leclerc, Yuki Tsunoda, Nico Hulkenberg, Zhou Guanyu, Nyck de Vries – had been additionally set to finish the race with a single cease, however the security automotive intervention modified their plans.

After beginning on the mediums, Leclerc made an early cease on Lap 18 for the laborious compound with Guanyu following an analogous technique, albeit making his first cease a bit in a while Lap 24. AlphaTauri drivers began the race on the red-walled softs with Tsunoda making an early tyre change on Lap 14 whereas his teammate de Vries swapping his softs for mediums on Lap 27.

Hulkenberg got here in for brand spanking new tyres very early on Lap 7, however his early cease was a results of a contact, that means that his cease was not deliberate.

All of them made use of the security automotive intervention, coming in for brand spanking new tyres for a second time. However, the security automotive was fairly an obstacle for them as a few of their direct rivals gained beneficial time by solely pitting below the interruption. Moreover, they’d no different alternative than pitting for brand spanking new tyres as they’d used, more durable tyres against the contemporary, tender compounds of their rivals.

As for the efficiency of the completely different compounds, every of them confirmed nice sturdiness with no important drop off. Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas racked up the highest variety of laps on the laborious compound with the Finn finishing a 32-lap stint on the white-walled tyres. McLaren’s Lando Norris set the quickest lap on this compound on Lap 43 with a time of 1m30.543s as he was desirous to cling on to P2, defending his place from seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

On the yellow-banded medium, the longest stint was a 33-lap run with 4 drivers – Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Norris and Max Verstappen – having achieved this extraordinarily lengthy stint. The quickest lap was recorded by George Russell, who went on to publish a 1m31.124s on the thirteenth lap of his second stint.

The longest stint on the C3 compound belonged to Russell, who prolonged his opening stint till Lap 28, exhibiting nice consistency. The Briton was additionally capable of decide up his tempo when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc pitted for brand spanking new tyres early on which give the Mercedes driver free air. Race winner Verstappen set the quickest lap on the C3 compound with a 1m30.275s on Lap 42 which turned the quickest lap of the race.

In phrases of technique, two groups executed questionable strikes. Running fourth 4 second adrift of the McLaren duo and just below a second forward of George Russell, Leclerc got here in very early for brand spanking new tyres with Ferrari servicing the Monegasque on Lap 18.

On the final two laps of his first stint, Leclerc posted a time of 1m33.248s and a 1m33.151s on Laps 16 and 17 respectively which had been solely two tenths of a second slower than his finest time throughout his opening stint. With his workforce mate Carlos Sainz additionally capable of decide up his pace in a while throughout the first stint, it’s truthful to recommend that Leclerc had rather more left in his tyres.

In truth, Ferrari anticipated larger tyre degradation and rather more grip on the new tyres and therefore a way more highly effective undercut impact. However, Leclerc’s rivals had been capable of prolong their opening stint and even elevate their tempo, that means that he couldn’t make use of his early pit cease. In truth, the security automotive meant that he dropped down the order and wanted to pit below the SC interruption for a second time to not grow to be weak after the restart.

Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseuer conceded that his workforce was too conservative relating to Leclerc’s technique.

“And we had been a bit scared with the degradation. Probably someplace in our thoughts we had the first races of the season. Today we had been far too conservative on the tyre administration and we did not push sufficient.

“Then we’re a bit unfortunate with the Safety Car – this isn’t in our fingers and we do not have to consider this, we have now to consider what we will handle. Honestly I believe that we may have pushed rather more,” concluded the Frenchman.

Elsewhere, McLaren put their drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in a really troublesome state of affairs after the late-race Safety Car interval.

A digital security automotive interval was triggered on Lap 31 when Kevin Magnussen stopped on the Wellington straight. It prompted the drivers who had been but to pit at that time of the race to dive in to the pit for brand spanking new tyres.

McLaren additionally known as their drivers in and needed to play it secure, becoming the laborious compounds on each vehicles. However, the VSC was then upgraded to a security automotive, that means that the direct rivals behind the McLaren duo closed in on Norris and Piastri and the variety of remaining laps on race pace was additional decreased.

With Hamilton making a big leap to P3 because of the security automotive and Mercedes becoming the tender tyres on the Briton’s automotive, Norris turned weak in the first laps.

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella defined that his workforce ready the laborious tyres for the two drivers and it will have been operationally troublesome to make a sudden swap to tender tyres.

“Under the Virtual Safety Car, we had been comfortable to go on Hard tyres as a result of it would not have been an issue by way of heat up. But then the Virtual Safety Car was transformed right into a Safety Car after we had been pitting, and all the things was [ready] at the pitstop to place Hard tyres on. A final-minute change to Soft would have been an operational downside.

“If you have the pit crew ready with the Hard tyres, and you make a call for Soft tyres, it means that the guys that need to pick the tyres would have to rush in the garage, remove the blankets, and bring the tyres back. It can create quite a bit of a situation, and it could have delayed the pitstop.”