2013 Brazilian GP tyre strategies and pit stops

2013 Brazilian Grand Prix

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Completely wet practice and qualifying sessions left F1 teams in the dark about how the slick tyres would perform during the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Most teams preferred the softer medium tyre for the race, though Mercedes in particular did more running on the hard as they were having trouble with rear-end grip.

Red Bull have performed some of the quickest pit stops this year – including during the last race – but they weren’t as hot on pit lane in Brazil. Mark Webber’s first stop was slow, costing him a place to Fernando Alonso.

They pitted both their drivers together on lap 47 moments after the collision between Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton. Webber had to wait briefly behind Sebastian Vettel due to a delay in his team mate’s tyres appearing – just as Vettel experienced during last year’s race.

“I think we were afraid of a safety car at that stage,” said Vettel of the hasty double-stop. “I came in, hoping everybody was ready.”

“I think I had three wheels on the car but I was waiting for the front right. For some reason, last year and this year, it seemed to be the front-right…”

However the drama failed to stop Red Bull chalking up another one-two.

Brazilian Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1 Stint 2 Stint 3 Stint 4
Sebastian Vettel Medium (24) Medium (23) Hard (24)
Mark Webber Medium (23) Medium (24) Hard (24)
Fernando Alonso Medium (21) Hard (26) Medium (24)
Jenson Button Hard (20) Medium (23) Medium (28)
Nico Rosberg Medium (22) Hard (22) Hard (27)
Sergio Perez Medium (19) Medium (25) Hard (27)
Felipe Massa Medium (19) Medium (24) Hard (28)
Nico Hulkenberg Medium (20) Medium (26) Hard (25)
Lewis Hamilton Medium (21) Hard (26) Hard (24)
Daniel Ricciardo Medium (14) Hard (28) Hard (28)
Paul di Resta Medium (20) Medium (27) Hard (23)
Esteban Gutierrez Hard (22) Medium (25) Medium (23)
Adrian Sutil Medium (17) Medium (20) Hard (17) Medium (16)
Heikki Kovalainen Medium (15) Medium (19) Hard (36)
Jean-Eric Vergne Medium (10) Hard (18) Medium (18) Hard (24)
Pastor Maldonado Medium (23) Medium (20) Hard (27)
Jules Bianchi Medium (21) Hard (26) Hard (22)
Giedo van der Garde Medium (24) Medium (23) Hard (22)
Max Chilton Medium (26) Medium (22) Hard (18) Medium (3)
Charles Pic Medium (25) Hard (33)
Valtteri Bottas Medium (17) Hard (24) Medium (4)
Romain Grosjean Medium (1)

Brazilian Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

Driver Team Pit stop time Gap On lap
1 Felipe Massa Ferrari 22.342 19
2 Sergio Perez McLaren 22.397 0.055 44
3 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 22.510 0.168 24
4 Sergio Perez McLaren 22.591 0.249 19
5 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus 22.646 0.304 34
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 22.655 0.313 21
7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 22.655 0.313 43
8 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 22.721 0.379 14
9 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 22.732 0.390 47
10 Jenson Button McLaren 22.746 0.404 20
11 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 22.753 0.411 44
12 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 22.755 0.413 21
13 Adrian Sutil Force India 22.981 0.639 54
14 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus 23.019 0.677 15
15 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 23.138 0.796 47
16 Adrian Sutil Force India 23.161 0.819 17
17 Max Chilton Marussia 23.222 0.880 66
18 Paul di Resta Force India 23.237 0.895 20
19 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 23.237 0.895 46
20 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 23.328 0.986 22
21 Paul di Resta Force India 23.330 0.988 47
22 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 23.340 0.998 42
23 Jules Bianchi Marussia 23.403 1.061 47
24 Max Chilton Marussia 23.449 1.107 48
25 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 23.451 1.109 46
26 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 23.455 1.113 10
27 Pastor Maldonado Williams 23.600 1.258 23
28 Valtteri Bottas Williams 23.695 1.353 41
29 Giedo van der Garde Caterham 23.732 1.390 24
30 Jenson Button McLaren 23.788 1.446 43
31 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 23.857 1.515 22
32 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 23.887 1.545 20
33 Adrian Sutil Force India 24.001 1.659 37
34 Charles Pic Caterham 24.099 1.757 25
35 Valtteri Bottas Williams 24.166 1.824 17
36 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 24.183 1.841 28
37 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 24.423 2.081 47
38 Jules Bianchi Marussia 24.657 2.315 21
39 Mark Webber Red Bull 25.012 2.670 23
40 Max Chilton Marussia 25.060 2.718 26
41 Mark Webber Red Bull 26.718 4.376 47
42 Pastor Maldonado Williams 26.734 4.392 43
43 Giedo van der Garde Caterham 27.107 4.765 47
44 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 32.899 10.557 47

2013 Brazilian Grand Prix

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Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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3 comments on “2013 Brazilian GP tyre strategies and pit stops”

  1. Mercedes missed a trick by letting Massa get ahead of Hamilton after the first round of stops. I appreciate they do not want to shorten their stints too much, but running in the dirty air for 10 laps can’t have done his tyres any good either. If they had pitted him one lap earlier to respond to Massa, they would have come out in front.

  2. a correction for Massas tyre strategy:
    medium-medium-hard

  3. The RBR pit stop incident illustrates what I have been thinking for a while now: Having the first pit box is a disadvantage; it is best to have the last one.

    I can see three advantages of the last pit box, and two disadvantages compared to the first pit box:

    Advantages of the last pit box:

    1) In qualifying, the cars can be sent out by reacting to other cars coming out of their garages. For example, like in Q3 yesterday, RB were waiting for a long time at the red light without anyone else queuing. This time could have been reduced had they been able to send out their cars only when someone else does, while still retaining the first position at the light.

    2) In the race, the pit crew has an additional ~10 seconds to react to a car coming in. This would have all but avoided the time loss for Vettel and Webber. This might also allow a team to react to the pit crew of another team coming out more easily.

    3) It is easier to pull away from the box as there is no other pit garage the drivers need to drive around.

    Disadvantages:

    1) Cars can pull into the box more easily as there is no box of another team in the way.

    2) Drivers have more time to prepare mentally for the pit exit and the lap ahead.

    So, if the order could be chosen, I would always choose the last pit box as the advantages greatly seem to outweigh the disadvantages.

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