2014 Bahrain Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

11 comments on “2014 Bahrain Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops”

1. 

   Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
   6th April 2014, 23:43

   Was Sutil planning to do an 8-stop race based on the first two stint lengths?
2. 

   OOliver
   7th April 2014, 7:25

   Mercedes have had to dig very deep to solve their tyre issues from last year for which they suffered lots of humilation and I think it had paid off handsomely this season. Not only have they been very fast, they have had the least degradation on their tyres.
3. 

   Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
   7th April 2014, 9:51

   If i was to be hyper critical of the Mercedes team i would say that their decision to put Nico on the medium for the second stint was intended to keep the two cars apart for as long as possible. Maybe they didn’t fancy their chances of bringing two cars home if it was 57 laps of side by side racing.

   But also, i don’t see how Nico’s strategy was supposed to pay off. As i understand it, the medium tyre was between 0.5-0.7 secs per lap slower so the best strategy would be to keep the soft for as long as possible. Nico did 21 laps at the start (on full fuel) so he should have been able to do at least the same at the end, meaning his medium stint should have been 15 laps at most. They couldn’t have gambled on a safety car, so why did he do 20 laps on the medium? Maybe the performance difference wasn’t as big as expected? I just don’t see how he would have had a chance to win the race without a safety car, despite seemingly being a little faster than Lewis when both were on the same tyre at the start.
   1. 

      frood19 (@frood19)
      7th April 2014, 10:27

      i thought he might be trying to one-stop, but that definitely wouldn’t have worked based on the gap hamilton had pulled before the safety car.
      1. 

         Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
         7th April 2014, 11:55

         Having now read the press conference it seems they had planned this strategy before the race (presumably in the event of being jumped at the start). But still doesn’t explain why he spent so many laps on the medium, unless as you said he was trying to one stop, but that was never mentioned so i assume wasn’t viable.
   2. 

      Khalid (@leblep)
      7th April 2014, 11:58

      I believe they didn’t expect Lewis to have a 10 second gap by the time second pitstops arrived.
      1. 

         Joe (@joetoml1n)
         7th April 2014, 13:28

         I’m not sure, they said the performance deficit was less than expected, so surely they could of only predicted a larger gap? I thought they were trying to go long enough to smash in 10 good (almost qualy) laps in clean air to close the gap to Hamilton and pass.
         Sounds easy on paper doesn’t it!
         1. 

            Khalid (@leblep)
            7th April 2014, 21:45

            That might be the case as well. Or they might have expected Lewis’ tyres to go off earlier than Rosberg’s and hence the gap to be smaller
4. 

   68btyme (@steadyb)
   7th April 2014, 12:07

   I really thought Nico was going to try a one stopper. After hearing the team tell Nico that they we’re going to an alternative strategy when he lost the lead at the start. At the rate he seemed to let Lewis pull away after the first stint, I thought he was trying to hit delta times and not worry about running with Hamilton at that point. It would have been a lot of laps on this medium tires, but maybe Nico could have pulled it off. Dunno.
5. 

   68btyme (@steadyb)
   7th April 2014, 12:08

   this=those
6. 

   DeX
   7th April 2014, 16:07

   Lewis was faster all weekend, only a small error at turn one on final Q3 lap screwed up another pole for him.
   Even without the safety car Nico had this 10 second gap to make up but he would not have got past Lewis. That is a certainty, because he was unable to pass him with new softs and the gap wiped out by the safety car. Lewis is just faster.

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