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[Jensonb]

Tyre wear at Monaco is mega low (relatively speaking) - there's a lot of turns, but they're all pretty slow...

True, but the soft is pretty damn marginal, I can't see the Super Soft being particularly good at clinging on, even with the reduced wear rate. But then again, they've yet to run it so maybe it's better than I imagine.

[spankyham]

Absolutely no-one started the race on a 4 stop strategy in China.
Absolutely no-one changed to a 4 stop strategy during the race in China.

[darwin dali]

GPUpdate.net:

Peter Sauber has praised Italian tyre manufacturer Pirelli for rising to the challenge with its new-for-2011 tyres. Ahead of its return to the sport, Pirelli was given the task of creating compounds with less overall life, therefore leading to increased degradation. After the first three races, Sauber believes the tyre company has succeeded in its task and he has been left impressed by its efforts.

"Pirelli was given a baptism of fire; the requirements it was asked to fulfil were very tough and the amount of time for development extremely short," he began. "They were also asked to produce tyres that would wear more rapidly to inject extra excitement into the races. After three Grands Prix we should applaud Pirelli for getting to grips with this tricky challenge so impressively.

Sauber added that tyre wear has not been much of an issue for his drivers this year, with the team working hard in this area over the winter.

"Our car is very easy on the tyres, but this has not come about by chance," he added. “Our engineers started working on this issue at a very early stage and have carried out the requisite measures. And now we can enjoy the benefits of this work during races.

"Needless to say, the character of the races has changed markedly as a result of the frequent pit stops, and the fans and TV commentators now have quite a tough job keeping track of how the race is unfolding. The same applies for the team strategists on the pit wall."


Full interview with Peter Sauber here

[What's Burning?]

Absolutely no-one started the race on a 4 stop strategy in China.
Absolutely no-one changed to a 4 stop strategy during the race in China.

Options for the last stint is not a bad strategy at all... look how many laps Webber got out of his last set of options and they were still in fantastic shape because of the reduced fuel load. I keep saying that this may turn out to be the strategy of choice of some mid field teams to make it to the podium.

[spankyham]

Options for the last stint is not a bad strategy at all... look how many laps Webber got out of his last set of options and they were still in fantastic shape because of the reduced fuel load. I keep saying that this may turn out to be the strategy of choice of some mid field teams to make it to the podium.

Yep, this is something that other teams will pay a lot of attention to.

Overall the Pirelli's have been a massive success for F1. IMO DRS and KERS together don't equate to 1 tenth of what the Pirelli's have added.

I guess it's a bit unfair to criticize them given how much they've added, but, you can always improve I guess. There is a slight danger, which WB has mentioned before, that the need to conserve tyres for the race, and the knowledge that you can overtake much easier this year are both tending to diminish the benefit of qualifying. Webber's drive last weekend, going from 18th to podium simply emphasizes this.

[bud]

Only problem is Webber was going against the grain so to speak, If everyone used the same strategy then Webber would not have had an advantage and been able to pass as easy. The only reason its working is because there are different strategies through the grid.
Once the status quo is set, and everyones on the same tyre strategy then im afraid it wont be like what we saw in China.

[darwin dali]

Options for the last stint is not a bad strategy at all... look how many laps Webber got out of his last set of options and they were still in fantastic shape because of the reduced fuel load. I keep saying that this may turn out to be the strategy of choice of some mid field teams to make it to the podium.

Yep, this is something that other teams will pay a lot of attention to.

Overall the Pirelli's have been a massive success for F1. IMO DRS and KERS together don't equate to 1 tenth of what the Pirelli's have added.

I guess it's a bit unfair to criticize them given how much they've added, but, you can always improve I guess. There is a slight danger, which WB has mentioned before, that the need to conserve tyres for the race, and the knowledge that you can overtake much easier this year are both tending to diminish the benefit of qualifying. Webber's drive last weekend, going from 18th to podium simply emphasizes this.

I'm still not enthusiastic about the 'clag' aka marbles that pollute the track and make going off-line (for overtaking, e.g.) a veritable adventure. If Pirelli can get those under control, I'd be happy as a clam.

[acosmichippo]

Isn't that the nature of the beast, though? Can you have high tire wear, and NOT have more marbles?

[darwin dali]

Isn't that the nature of the beast, though? Can you have high tire wear, and NOT have more marbles?

Apparently Pirellis are different from the Bridgestone: rather than rubbering in a track over the course of a weekend (i.e., wearing by laying rubber on the track), they simply (and almost ONLY) produce marbles that clutter the track instead of rubbering it in.

[What's Burning?]

Isn't that the nature of the beast, though? Can you have high tire wear, and NOT have more marbles?

Apparently Pirellis are different from the Bridgestone: rather than rubbering in a track over the course of a weekend (i.e., wearing by laying rubber on the track), they simply (and almost ONLY) produce marbles that clutter the track instead of rubbering it in.

The word being thrown around by the SPEED commentators is that they create a "clagmire"

[darwin dali]

Isn't that the nature of the beast, though? Can you have high tire wear, and NOT have more marbles?

Apparently Pirellis are different from the Bridgestone: rather than rubbering in a track over the course of a weekend (i.e., wearing by laying rubber on the track), they simply (and almost ONLY) produce marbles that clutter the track instead of rubbering it in.

The word being thrown around by the SPEED commentators is that they create a "clagmire"

And it was actually suggested by a Speed viewer in reference to David Hobbs' calling the marbles 'clag'

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

Pole position not as important in 2011 - Horner

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes qualifying on pole position is no longer the key to winning at certain circuits.

A combination of new tyres and overtaking aids has made it easier to pass for position this season and put an onus on pit strategy. At the recent Chinese Grand Prix Red Bull driver Mark Webber failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying, but raced from 18th to third on Sunday. He was helped by the fresh sets of soft tyres he saved by not taking part in the final two stages of qualifying and Horner has admitted Webber's performance has made his team rethink its approach to grand prix weekends.

"It makes you question the value of qualifying," Horner told the Sunday Times. "Now the cars can overtake and with such a big difference between old and new tyres, we are going to have to reassess at each track how important it is to get to the front of the grid. Our strategists will look at how we should be structuring our race weekends."

Each driver has three sets of soft tyres and three sets of hard tyres available to them for qualifying and the race. At most races last year front-running drivers used all three sets of soft tyres in qualifying, carrying the final set in to the race before stopping once for hard tyres.

However, with this year's Pirellis degrading more quickly, Horner believes drivers could be better off saving fresh sets of soft tyres for the race, even if it compromises grid position.

"According to the characteristics of the track and the tyres at any given weekend, you might want to tilt the whole thing in favour of having fast, new tyres at key parts of the race, maybe at the expense of qualifying," he added. "You have to do a lot of overtaking to make it work, but Mark showed it can be done. You could say he needed a couple more laps to have won. With two laps less we could have won with Sebastian, using a conventional strategy, based on good grid position."

[vlad]

Well, it has proven to be like that. I think that Vettel will use the harder component through first 2 quali sessions, and softer on Q3, doing only one run. He has the best times this season, so he could really benefit from that.

[FRAFPDD]

Well, it has proven to be like that. I think that Vettel will use the harder component through first 2 quali sessions, and softer on Q3, doing only one run. He has the best times this season, so he could really benefit from that.

i wonder if thats bad news for Vettel, firstly, he usually takes his poles on the second time of trying at the end of Q3, now hes only got one chance to get it. Sure so does everyone else if theyre only doing one run, but hes usually second/third after the first run and then pulls out an immense lap on his second.


Secondly, he loves going out right before the deadline to get a lap in, considering the trend may now become one quali lap, he might have to go out earlier to get his lap in without any nuisances, or...He goes out late and gets caught up in traffic... And if that happens and he dont get pole. He has no advantage in tyres cause eeryone else is on the same level....

[vlad]

Don't worry, he is fast enough.