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Pirelli’s first race of its three-year agreement to supply Formula One has
provided close competition, two to three pit stops per car, and a total race
time that was three minutes quicker than last year underlining the
performance of the PZero tyres.
This year’s PZero tyres have been designed to combine technology with
entertainment, contributing some breath-taking duels from the start to the
finish of the Australian race and plenty of overtaking.
Prior to the race Pirelli predicted two to three pit stops for most runners,
and this proved to be exactly the case. Eleven of the 16 classified
finishers, including race winner Sebastian Vettel, stopped twice, with five
finishers stopping three times and one driver – 21-year-old rookie Sergio
Perez – stopping only once en route to seventh place.
The podium finishers, from three different teams, all stopped twice. All the
top three finishers started the race on soft option tyres and ended it on
the harder prime, having completed their first two stints on the option
tyres. This turned out to be the most effective strategy in Albert Park,
which has unique circuit characteristics, as it is only a semi-permanent
facility.
It was the very first race finish in Australia for Red Bull’s reigning World
Champion Sebastian Vettel, who started from pole position after driving the
fastest-ever lap of Melbourne in qualifying and concluded: “We have to make
some compliments to Pirelli.”
Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Paul Hembery said: “What a fantastic
race! Australia had everything: the quickest lap of Melbourne ever seen in
qualifying, plenty of on-track battles, close competition, and some
thrilling overtaking manoeuvres. At the end of it we have three drivers from
different teams standing on the podium, all of whom performed outstandingly.
I think that the same can be said of our tyres too: we had no issues
whatsoever and the degradation was less than expected meaning that most
drivers – including the top three – chose a two-stop strategy, as we had
predicted.
We also saw a wide spread of strategies ranging from one stops to three,
giving the teams the opportunity to think creatively about their race
management. I’d like to thank all the teams and drivers for their support as
we built up to our race debut and we hope that the action today has rewarded
their faith in us. I’d also like to thank all our people at Pirelli: this
exciting start has only been made possible by their unstinting hard work
since our agreement was confirmed just nine months ago in June. We’re not
about to rest on our laurels though: we’re already thinking ahead now to the
next race in Malaysia, which will provide us with a new and different
challenge.” |
