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Barcelona is
renowned for being one of the most demanding tracks on tyres of the entire
year, but eight of the top 10 finishers all completed the 66-lap grand prix
with just two stops. Last year, the race winner stopped four times in
Barcelona, underlining the further improvements and increased durability
built into Pirelli’s Formula One tyres this season. This has led to lower
levels of wear, degradation and ‘marbles’ on the track, without compromising
performance.
Tyre strategy was instrumental to the Spanish Grand Prix, with Mercedes
driver Lewis Hamilton claiming his fourth consecutive win to move into the
lead of the drivers championship. The Englishman, who went on a
medium-medium-hard strategy from pole, beat his team mate Nico Rosberg by
just six tenths of a second, who chose a medium-hard-medium strategy. The
two strategies ensured a thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle as Rosberg was able
to take advantage of his newer and faster tyres at the end of the race.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel started from 15th on the grid but finished
fourth with a three-stop sprint strategy, running mostly on the faster
medium tyre and setting fastest lap. He was also able to make up several
places in the closing stages.
The second two-day in-season test of the year now takes place after the
Spanish Grand Prix, from Tuesday. Sauber and Toro Rosso will be testing 2015
tyres for Pirelli on the opening day of the test, followed by Force India
and McLaren on day two.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “We saw some very
exciting battles all the way down the top 10 in the closing stages of the
race, despite many of the drivers having chosen very different
strategies. This underlines the importance of strategy in every race this
year, with not just the number of stops but also the order in which
the tyres are used really making a difference. Following some overnight
rain, ambient and track temperatures were cooler today, and this reduced the
time difference between the hard and medium compounds: adding another factor
into the equation. Although Barcelona is one of the most demanding circuits
of the year, tyre wear and degradation was fully under control, as proved by
the fact that the majority of drivers completed just two pit stops. That’s
down to the hard work of all our team in Milan and Izmit since last year, so
a big thank you to all of them. Now we focus on the second in-season test of
the year, where we will be developing tyres for 2015.”
Truth-O-Meter:
We said that a two-stop strategy was possible for the 66-lap race. Our
prediction was: start on the medium, change to medium on lap 22, then change
to hard on lap 45. Lewis Hamilton followed the expected pattern but stopped
slightly earlier than we predicted: for the first time on lap 18 and then
again on lap 43. |
