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THE RACE FROM
A TYRE POINT OF VIEW
* Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Australian Grand Prix for the first time
in his career. In an action-packed race, the reigning world champion led two
other world champions past the chequered flag: Mercedes driver Lewis
Hamilton and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. All the podium finishers ended
the race on the P Zero Red soft, following a tyre change one lap from the
finish.
* The Australian Grand Prix was interrupted by three safety car periods and
three red flag periods, including a red flag just a lap from the finish,
leading to two standing starts and a final rolling start. The virtual safety
car also made an appearance, due to a car stopped on the exit of the
pitlane.
* The race strategies were largely influenced by the frequent safety car
periods and other race interruptions. The top three started on the P Zero
Yellow medium and then went onto the P Zero White hard at the first
neutralisation. The last three laps were instead run on two different sets
of soft tyres.
* A total of 10 drivers completed the longest stint on the hard tyre,
covering 47 laps on this compound, including all three podium finishers.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon kept the same set of hard tyres that he had fitted on
lap one without changing them during the first red flag period, completing
54 laps on the same tyres. Alfa Romeo drivers Valtteri Bottas and Guanyou
Zhou, also used the same set of hard tyres for more than 50 laps.
* AlphaTauri’s Nyck De Vries was instead the driver to complete the most
consecutive laps on the two other available compounds: 37 on the medium and
nine on the soft.
* Red Bull’s Sergio Perez set the fastest lap of the race, using the hard
tyre (1m20.235s), and was also one of the drivers to complete the longest
stint on this compound. Alonso and De Vries were instead fastest on the
medium and soft tyres, setting times of 1m22.603s and 1m21.183s on these
compounds respectively.
MARIO ISOLA - MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR
“This was a truly eventful Australian Grand Prix, with three red flag
periods as well as a safety car and a virtual safety car. All these
occurrences effectively defined how the strategies shook out, while in terms
of tyre behaviour, the compounds performed as we expected them to, with the
hard C2 tyre playing a leading role. When the first safety car came out
after Albon went off on lap seven, some drivers who had started on the
mediums switched to the hard – followed by others once the red flag came out
to allow the track to be cleaned. Despite not having much information over
long runs – very few drivers strung together stints of longer than 10 laps
or so in free practice – the C2 showed itself to be a very consistent tyre
in terms of degradation and not far from the pace of other nominated
compounds, fulfilling all the demands placed on it. The fact that we saw all
three compounds on the starting grid highlights how bringing the C4 tyre to
Melbourne this year was the correct choice, as it was judged to be a valid
race tyre as well as becoming the protagonist of the final run to the flag,
thanks to two red flag periods that were almost consecutive. Both this
compound and the medium showed good performance today, albeit over
relatively short stints, with higher temperatures and a more rubbered-in
surface.”
WHAT'S NEXT?
After a very intense start with three races in one month, there’s now a
brief pause for the FIA Formula One World Championship. Next up is the
Azerbaijan Grand Prix, from April 28 to 30, supported also by Formula 2.
Just one week after that comes the first of three American races this year,
with Miami hosting its grand prix around the Hard Rock stadium for the
second year. |
