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Pirelli’s P Zero
Yellow soft and P Zero Red supersoft tyres took to the track in Korea for
the first time this season, during the two free practice sessions at the
5.615-kilometre Yeongam circuit.
Ambient and track temperatures were higher than they were last year, with
ambient temperatures of 21 degrees centigrade and track temperatures
approaching 31 degrees centigrade.
With the track containing a wide variety of characteristics – a fast and
open part at the beginning of the lap, followed by a tight and technical
section at the end that is more reminiscent of a street circuit – the teams
as usual concentrated on gaining as much data as possible heading into
qualifying and the race.
The run plans in free practice followed their normal pattern: in the first
session the teams concentrated on the harder compound only, generally using
just one set of the soft tyres to dial their cars into the unique
characteristics of the Yeongam circuit. In the afternoon, under conditions
that will be more typical of qualifying and the race, they also assessed the
red supersoft tyre. The priority was to gather information on both full and
empty fuel tanks, in order to establish wear rates and crossover points:
vital parameters for race strategy.
In the morning, McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was fastest on the P Zero
Yellow with a time of 1m39.148s: comfortably eclipsing the quickest FP1
times established on both previous occasions that the Korean Grand Prix was
run, in 2010 and 2011 (although last year’s free practice was affected by
rain). Ferrari’s championship leader Fernando Alonso was quickest for much
of the first session, with Hamilton setting his fastest time right at the
end.
The trend continued in the afternoon, with the fastest time of 1m38.832s
from the Red Bull of Sebastien Vettel on the supersoft tyre also being
quicker than last year (when FP2 was wet). Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric
Vergne was first to switch to the supersoft after half an hour of the second
session, with the drivers also judging how the rubber reacted to
multiple-lap fast runs: pushing hard on one lap and then backing off for
another lap to see if they could subsequently replicate their pace on used
tyres. In the last 40 minutes of the hour and a half session, most of the
frontrunners used the P Zero Red supersoft, with Vettel setting his fastest
time after an hour of FP2 had elapsed, ahead of his team mate Mark Webber.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “With the soft
compound softer than it was last year and temperatures generally higher this
time in Korea, our tyres faced quite a challenge – particularly the
supersoft, which is subjected to the biggest energy loadings it faces all
season. The teams worked through their programmes exactly how we expected,
using the harder compound in the morning and the softer compound in the
afternoon. In contrast to last year, we are expecting dry weather all
weekend and probably the warmest Korean Grand Prix in its short history to
date, so the data gathered today will be of crucial relevance for qualifying
and the race. We should see a two-stop race and while we still need to
analyse the data to have a firm idea of the performance gap between the
compounds, we’re expecting it to be in the region of half a second. This is
likely to provide plenty of opportunities for strategy, which has been a
real talking point this year.”
Pirelli numbers of the day:
Sets used overall:
Soft: 48
Supersoft: 24
Intermediate: 0
Wet: 0
Total number of laps per compound:
Soft: 839
Supersoft: 317
Intermediate: 0
Wet: 0
Longest runs per compound:
Soft: 13 (Vergne)
Supersoft: 13 (Rosberg, Webber)
Intermediate: 0
Wet: 0
Pirelli fact of the day:
The main straight between turns two and three at the Yeongam track is the
longest one in Asia, at 1.2 kilometres. Coming so early in the lap, it means
that the cars often struggle to warm up the tyres coming straight out of the
pits so the drivers have to judge the grip in turn three extremely
carefully: particularly at the beginning of the weekend when the circuit is
‘green’ and slippery. This can lead to graining, where a
sliding car wears its tyres unevenly if the driver does not carefully manage
the situation. Top speeds on this straight are in the region of 320kph,
contributing to the highest energy loadings that the supersoft tyres
experience all year. |
