|
POSSIBLE RACE STRATEGIES
A two-stop strategy seems set to be the fastest approach to the 87-lap
Sakhir Grand Prix, which is the highest lap count of the year. While the
demands on tyres are a bit less than they were at the Bahrain Grand Prix,
wear and degradation is still relatively high on the abrasive surface.
The fastest two-stopper should be two stints on the P Zero Yellow medium
tyre of 26 laps each, plus one 35-lap stint on the P Zero White hard tyre
(which could be the middle stint).
Alternatively, another good two-stopper would be one 21-lap stint on the P
Zero Red soft plus two stints on the hard tyre of 33 laps each. Very close
to that is a strategy with 25 laps on the medium and two stints of 31 laps
each on the hard.
What’s slower is using all three tyres: 23 laps on the soft, 27 laps on the
medium, and 37 laps on the hard.
All of the above stints can be run in any order, and with the two
frontrunners starting on the medium tyre, they have plenty of options –
depending on the actual degradation rates that they encounter during the
race, with track temperatures capable of falling over the course of the
night race.
FOCUS ON:
* Strategy. Seven drivers ran the P Zero Yellow medium tyres in Q2, but the
Mercedes drivers were the only ones to set their fastest times on this
compound – meaning they will start on it tomorrow – with Valtteri Bottas on
pole and his team mate George Russell second.
* Tactics. Both AlphaTauri cars ran the medium tyres at the start of the
final Q3 session, preserving a new set of softs for the final decisive run.
* Rapid laps. This was the shortest timed pole lap in Formula 1 since
Ferrari driver Niki Lauda took pole for the 1974 French Grand Prix at Dijon.
The short lap meant that finding a clear lap in the traffic was essential in
qualifying, and this will be an issue in the race tomorrow as well.
* Temperatures. Track temperatures for qualifying were similar to how they
had been in FP3 (where Red Bull’s Max Verstappen went fastest) at 26 degrees
centigrade. |
|
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“It was a very open qualifying session because of the very short lap, which
meant that traffic was an issue and any mistakes were magnified, with the
cars being so close together. Finding a gap was crucial, and all three
sessions were extremely closely-fought, which should make for an exciting
race tomorrow. The two Mercedes in first and second will be the only ones in
the top 10 starting on the Yellow medium tyre, so it will be fascinating to
see if they can turn that into an advantage for the Sakhir Grand Prix;
especially at the start, with so many cars on the faster soft tyre
immediately around them. All three compounds performed well, with a
two-stopper set to be the quickest choice for tomorrow. Formula 2 came down
to a brilliant strategic battle that revolved around tyre choice: both title
protagonists qualified lower down than they expected but made opposite
tactical decisions to address the issue. As a result, the driver’s
championship battle goes down to the final race – typical of the close
competition we have seen in F2 all year – while we’d like to congratulate
Prema for winning the teams’ title today” |
