2014 Chinese Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

Felipe Massa lost almost a minute during a disastrous pit stop on lap ten of the Chinese Grand Prix.

Had it not been for that he would certainly not have been lapped and finished in the points. At minimum he would have finished near Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez, and most likely he would continued scrapping with his team mate and Nico Hulkenberg for sixth place.

There was little vairation between drivers in terms of the strategies they chose, the main aim being to avoid problems with graining. Some of those who made early first stops appeared to be leaning towards three-stop strategies, but most ultimately pitted twice.

Among those were Red Bull, as Christian Horner explained: “After the second stop, it was apparent Sebastian [Vettel’s] degradation was particularly worse than Daniel [Ricciardo’s], so we looked at switching him to a three-stop.” But they too stuck to two-stopper.

Red Bull performed the quickest pit stop of the race and three of the top five. But Ricciardo’s first stop was slightly slow and may have contributed to him losing track position to Nico Rosberg.

Chinese Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

	Stint 1	Stint 2	Stint 3	Stint 4
Lewis Hamilton	Soft (17)	Medium (21)	Medium (16)
Nico Rosberg	Soft (13)	Medium (24)	Medium (17)
Fernando Alonso	Soft (11)	Medium (22)	Medium (21)
Daniel Ricciardo	Soft (15)	Medium (22)	Medium (17)
Sebastian Vettel	Soft (12)	Medium (22)	Medium (20)
Nico Hulkenberg	Soft (11)	Medium (20)	Medium (23)
Valtteri Bottas	Soft (12)	Medium (19)	Medium (23)
Kimi Raikkonen	Soft (10)	Medium (21)	Medium (23)
Sergio Perez	Soft (10)	Medium (20)	Medium (24)
Daniil Kvyat	Soft (14)	Medium (17)	Medium (22)
Jenson Button	Soft (7)	Medium (21)	Medium (25)
Jean-Eric Vergne	Soft (15)	Soft (17)	Medium (21)
Kevin Magnussen	Medium (17)	Soft (14)	Medium (22)
Pastor Maldonado	Soft (11)	Medium (21)	Medium (21)
Felipe Massa	Soft (10)	Medium (21)	Medium (22)
Esteban Gutierrez	Soft (14)	Medium (13)	Medium (13)	Soft (13)
Jules Bianchi	Soft (11)	Medium (17)	Medium (25)
Kamui Kobayashi	Soft (11)	Medium (19)	Soft (10)	Soft (13)
Max Chilton	Soft (12)	Medium (20)	Medium (16)	Soft (4)
Marcus Ericsson	Soft (10)	Medium (17)	Soft (15)	Soft (10)
Romain Grosjean	Soft (9)	Medium (19)
Adrian Sutil	Soft (5)

Chinese Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

	Driver	Team	Pit stop time	Gap	On lap
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	22.246		34
2	Jenson Button	McLaren	22.408	0.162	7
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	22.498	0.252	37
4	Jenson Button	McLaren	22.548	0.302	28
5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	22.570	0.324	12
6	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren	22.579	0.333	31
7	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber	22.734	0.488	40
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	22.764	0.518	31
9	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	22.776	0.530	11
10	Sergio Perez	Force India	22.914	0.668	10
11	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	22.947	0.701	33
12	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	22.968	0.722	17
13	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber	22.988	0.742	14
14	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	22.994	0.748	10
15	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	23.022	0.776	32
16	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	23.089	0.843	37
17	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	23.186	0.940	15
18	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	23.213	0.967	9
19	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber	23.252	1.006	27
20	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	23.277	1.031	13
21	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	23.291	1.045	31
22	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	23.438	1.192	11
23	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	23.521	1.275	14
24	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	23.628	1.382	31
25	Sergio Perez	Force India	23.636	1.390	30
26	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	23.639	1.393	31
27	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren	23.670	1.424	17
28	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham	23.677	1.431	10
29	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham	23.730	1.484	27
30	Max Chilton	Marussia	23.781	1.535	12
31	Felipe Massa	Williams	23.830	1.584	31
32	Max Chilton	Marussia	23.878	1.632	32
33	Max Chilton	Marussia	23.886	1.640	48
34	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham	23.969	1.723	42
35	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	23.999	1.753	38
36	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	24.010	1.764	11
37	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	24.119	1.873	15
38	Jules Bianchi	Marussia	24.320	2.074	28
39	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	24.417	2.171	32
40	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham	24.722	2.476	40
41	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	24.780	2.534	12
42	Jules Bianchi	Marussia	24.784	2.538	11
43	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham	24.883	2.637	11
44	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham	25.402	3.156	30
45	Felipe Massa	Williams	78.277	56.031	10

2014 Chinese Grand Prix

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Image © Williams/LAT

10 comments on “2014 Chinese Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops”

iAltair (@)
20th April 2014, 16:12

Sebastian Vettel’s pit stop timing is really good.

Ivan (@wpinrui)
20th April 2014, 16:14

Even when not taking into account Massa’s fateful stop, Williams’ pit stops are still rather pitiful and lacklustre, and if Sauber and Force India can set the 7th and 8th fastest pit stops, I don’t see why Williams can only manage the 26th fastest pitstop, 1.3s off the best.

Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
20th April 2014, 20:26

@wpinrui At least the wheel nuts are staying on the tyres this year.

Jake (@jleigh)
20th April 2014, 17:00

If I was Lewis I would have done an extra couple of laps in the middle stint so I could put the softs on at the end and put a blistering lap in. I’m pretty sure the team wouldn’t allow it though!