Assessment: tyre tactics at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Whilst an incident induced an early interruption, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix observed the the vast majority of the area operate a one-quit approach at Spherical two of the 2024 F1 year. F1Technical’s senior author Balázs Szabó provides his approach investigation for the Jeddah F1 race.
Though Pirelli introduced the more challenging compounds to the year-opener in Bahrain, the 2nd race of the year observed motorists use the a few compounds from the center of Pirelli’s array. It usually means that the C2 served as Really hard, the C3 as Medium and the C4 as Tender on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
The Milan-centered producer experienced elected for rather superior least commencing pressures, with 24. psi for the fronts and 21. psi for the rears. The camber restrictions had been-three.25° for the entrance tyres and -one.75° for the rear tyres.
Tactics
Forward of the race, Pirelli predicted that motorists would favor the one particular-quit approach in the fifty-lap Jeddah F1 race. That was determined by the info that overtaking is at a quality on the
On the commencing grid, eighteen of the twenty motorists opted to operate the 1st stint on Medium tyres, the only exceptions getting Oliver Bearman and Valtteri Bottas who chosen the Tender. The Security Motor vehicle arrived out on lap seven right after Lance Stroll strike the limitations, triggering a operate of pit stops. Only 4 motorists – Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg and Zhou Guanyu – resolved to keep out on the Medium, delaying their quit as substantially as feasible.
As from lap thirty, this quartet started to pit: Hulkenberg on lap 33, Hamilton on 36, Norris on 37, though Zhou went all the way to lap forty one. The Haas driver was the only one particular to match Really hard tyres, with the other a few likely for Tender to attempt and make up some locations, though they did not control it.
Of the motorists who observed the chequered flag, only Bottas built two stops (Tender-Really hard-Tender).
Talking of the approach, Pirelli’s Head of Motorsport Mario Isola claimed: “It’s been a really clear-cut race, the two in conditions of the ultimate outcome, which was just about a carbon duplicate of Sakhir and when it arrives to how the tyres carried out.
“We understood this would be a race exactly where the fastest approach was a one particular-quit. Of course, the Security Motor vehicle right after 7 laps introduced ahead the pit quit window.”
Tyre compounds
As for the various compounds, every single one particular built an look in Jeddah with all of them acquiring carried out as predicted.
The Really hard was the most chosen tyre in Jeddah with numerous motorists finishing the the vast majority of the race length on the exact established of the white-walled tyre pursuing the security auto interruption. Alex Albon, Oliver Bearman, Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen and Fernando Alonso had been all compelled to comprehensive a mammoth a forty three-lap stint right after the security auto lured him into the pits to have out the tyre alter in just 11s as a substitute of 20s.
In reality, Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, Daniel Ricciardo and Logan Sargeant concluded just about the exact length on the hards, but as they had been all lapped by race winner Verstappen, their race length was a lap shorter.
The finest lap was achieves by Charles Leclerc who went on to publish a 1m31.632s on a established of forty three-lap aged challenging tyres, securing the quickest lap of the grand prix.
The medium tyre was also a chosen compound in Jeddah with Stake Sauber driver Zhou Guanyu racking up a complete of forty one laps on a established of the yellow-banded rubber. McLaren’s Lando Norris posted the fastest lap on the C3 compounds, registering a lap of 1m33.309s on Lap 32.
The delicate compound turned out to come to be a significantly less chosen compound through the fifty-lap race. In complete, 6 stints had been concluded on the C4 compound with Oliver Bearman and Valtteri Bottas electing to commence the race on the pink-walled compound. Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Zhou Guanyu and Bottas finished the race on the softs.
The 7-time earth winner registered the finest lap on the C5 rubber, putting up a time of 1m31.746s.
Growing on the general performance of the a variety of compounds, Isola extra: “The C2 proved to be really regular, the two in conditions of general performance and degradation, as can be witnessed from the reality that the quickest lap of the race arrived correct at the stop courtesy of Leclerc on a established that experienced finished forty three laps.
“The C3 was also up to the process, for the reason that the 4 motorists who selected to keep out when the Security Motor vehicle appeared, had been in a position to just take it all the way to its use restrict though continue to jogging fairly competitively. In contrast to Friday’s lengthy operates, graining on this compound was small, which was down to the monitor steadily rubbering in extra and extra with use. Hamilton’s and Norris’ stints on the C4 also shown that the softest compound we experienced in this article could be aggressive even in the 1st component of the race, though only two motorists experimented with to exploit that.”
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