|
High
temperatures in Montreal, and a lengthy safety car period right at the
beginning of the race, meant that tyre strategy formed a central part of a
thrilling Canadian Grand Prix, with the teams having to assimilate to a new
set of tyre characteristics compared to the cooler conditions of free
practice and qualifying.
The race was won by Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo, with the top five
separated by just five seconds in the closing stages of the race. Tyre
strategy was central, with drivers on younger and fresher tyres using them
to gain an advantage as the grand prix drew to a close. Ricciardo took the
lead with just two laps to go, from Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, while Red
Bull’s Sebastian Vettel completed the podium. All three adopted a two-stop
strategy.
The highest-placed one-stopper was Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg in
fifth, who started on the soft tyre and completed a 41-lap stint before his
single stop from the soft to the supersoft.
His team mate Sergio Perez also stopped only once: switching from the
supersoft to the soft on lap 35; exactly half-distance. An accident on the
final lap between him and Williams driver Felipe Massa, while both were
fighting for a possible podium, meant that neither could finish the race,
which concluded behind the safety car. Nonetheless, both their strategies
had launched them into podium contention, with Massa benefitting from the
extra speed of tyres that were considerably younger than those of his rivals
during the final stint.
Another safety car period, lasting eight laps right at the beginning of the
race, altered the strategy, with tyre degradation at the most critical
fuel-heavy period minimised. Wear on both compounds was generally low,
despite track temperatures that exceeded 45 degrees centigrade and 30
degrees centigrade ambient.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “Once again, Canada
delivered a thrilling grand prix: this time in hot conditions, which led to
plenty of interesting tyre strategies. With such an action-packed race, we
saw plenty of improvisation from several drivers as they attempted to use
tyre strategy to their best advantage. Congratulations to Daniel Ricciardo
for his first win after a truly memorable race. Congratulations also to
Force India, which has often taken a different approach to tyre strategy
compared to their rivals in all the time we have been involved in Formula
One. In Canada this led to a good result, which could have been even better
had it not been for the accident right at the end, demonstrating again how
tyre strategy can be used to boost final positions.”
Truth-O-Meter:
Our prediction for the quickest strategy was a two-stopper: start on
supersoft, then soft on lap 13 and soft again on lap 41. This was more or
less correct: Ricciardo stopped on lap 14 for his first set of softs and
then again on lap 38. The supersoft-soft-soft strategy was used by all the
top 10 apart from Hulkenberg.
Ferrari Challenge: a long-standing relationship with Pirelli
Another highlight of the Canadian Grand Prix was the Ferrari Challenge,
which has been supplied by Pirelli since 1993: one of the longest
relationships between a tyre manufacturer and a championship that has ever
existed. This championship uses specially-prepared Ferrari 458 race cars,
which have undergone a further evolution this year. The championship visits
some of the most prestigious circuits throughout North America, rejoining
the Formula One calendar at Austin in November. Two 16-lap races were held,
with Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery presented the prizes on the
podium |
