2014 Canadian Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

2014 Canadian Grand Prix

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While most drivers had to stop twice for tyres during the Canadian Grand Prix, Force India put themselves in contention using one-stop strategies for both cars.

Although both their drivers qualified outside the top ten, by lap 17 they were running third and fourth behind the Mercedes as their rivals pitted early.

The team split strategies between their drivers, starting Nico Hulkenberg on the soft tyres and Sergio Perez on the super-soft.

Perez rose to second in the closing laps but was unable to attack Nico Rosberg for the lead and was passed by the Red Bulls. He ended up crashing out on the final lap as Felipe Massa tried to overtake him for fourth place.

Hulkenberg, meanwhile, brought his car home fifth, the only driver to finish the race after a single pit stop. It might have been better had the early Safety Car period not allowed his rivals to extend their stints on super-soft tyres at the start.

“Being on a different strategy from everyone else meant I always had someone pushing close behind me,” said Hulkenberg, “It was fun, but also very challenging, especially towards the end of the race as I had quite a long stint on the super-soft tyres.”

“Stopping only once I had a bigger challenge managing the tyres compared to the two-stoppers, but I think we got the right reward for it. I think it was the fastest strategy for us today and to be the only two cars to manage a one-stopper is definitely a positive.”

Canadian Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1 Stint 2 Stint 3 Stint 4
Daniel Ricciardo Super soft (13) Soft (24) Soft (33)
Nico Rosberg Super soft (18) Soft (26) Soft (26)
Sebastian Vettel Super soft (15) Soft (21) Soft (34)
Jenson Button Super soft (14) Soft (24) Soft (32)
Nico Hulkenberg Soft (41) Super soft (29)
Fernando Alonso Super soft (16) Soft (28) Soft (26)
Valtteri Bottas Super soft (14) Soft (21) Soft (35)
Jean-Eric Vergne Super soft (15) Soft (24) Soft (31)
Kevin Magnussen Super soft (15) Soft (30) Soft (25)
Kimi Raikkonen Super soft (17) Soft (22) Soft (31)
Sergio Perez Super soft (34) Soft (35)
Felipe Massa Super soft (15) Soft (33) Soft (21)
Adrian Sutil Super soft (15) Soft (25) Soft (29)
Esteban Gutierrez Soft (1) Super soft (1) Soft (30) Soft (32)
Romain Grosjean Super soft (11) Soft (35) Soft (13)
Daniil Kvyat Soft (29) Super soft (17) Soft (1)
Lewis Hamilton Super soft (19) Soft (26) Soft (1)
Kamui Kobayashi Super soft (23)
Pastor Maldonado Soft (21)
Marcus Ericsson Soft (7)
Jules Bianchi Soft
Max Chilton Soft

Canadian Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

Driver Team Pit stop time Gap On lap
1 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 23.274 37
2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 23.340 0.066 36
3 Valtteri Bottas Williams 23.448 0.174 14
4 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 23.479 0.205 15
5 Jenson Button McLaren 23.493 0.219 14
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 23.554 0.280 45
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 23.606 0.332 13
8 Adrian Sutil Sauber 23.703 0.429 15
9 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 23.790 0.516 44
10 Romain Grosjean Lotus 23.856 0.582 46
11 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 23.882 0.608 18
12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 23.902 0.628 41
13 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 23.904 0.630 15
14 Sergio Perez Force India 23.907 0.633 34
15 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 23.907 0.633 45
16 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 23.925 0.651 17
17 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 23.932 0.658 16
18 Romain Grosjean Lotus 23.943 0.669 11
19 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 23.975 0.701 39
20 Felipe Massa Williams 24.012 0.738 48
21 Adrian Sutil Sauber 24.068 0.794 40
22 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 24.221 0.947 39
23 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 24.370 1.096 1
24 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 24.403 1.129 32
25 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 24.417 1.143 19
26 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 24.433 1.159 15
27 Valtteri Bottas Williams 24.491 1.217 35
28 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 24.768 1.494 2
29 Jenson Button McLaren 25.050 1.776 38
30 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 25.102 1.828 44
31 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 25.235 1.961 29
32 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 25.698 2.424 46
33 Felipe Massa Williams 27.949 4.675 15

2014 Canadian Grand Prix

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Image © Force India

Author information

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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9 comments on “2014 Canadian Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops”

  1. Well thank goodness none of the teams were grossly handicapped with tyre problems, a big improvement from Pirelli allowing the race to flow more naturally than the last few years. I found it interesting that none of the two-stoppers went to the supersofts for the final stint, Massa particularly, I suppose track temperature was to high for them, something for Pirelli to work on for next year.

    1. I think massa had no new super soft tyres left with him for taking in the last stint. That is why he couldn’t take them. Otherwise it was definitely a worthy gamble to try and stay for another 4-5 laps and rush to finish on super sofys in the last 16-17 laps as Williams was very fast on supersofts during qualifying and practice.

      1. What happened to the extra set for Q3 cars.

  2. There were only 33 pit stops this race? Anyway, I noticed that Mercedes’ pit stops are a bit rubbish lately. Lewis had two slow stops in Spain, and now Nico had another in Canada.

    1. Less pit stops, better races.

    2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      9th June 2014, 16:20

      @adrianmorse they can take the chance of working slowly on the pits, because their cars are 30 seconds ahead anyway. Unless they start with their MGUK problems again (by the way what does MGUK mean? Is it a new Korean singer?)

      1. Motor generator unit.

  3. Why did Bottas stop so early for the second time? That was probably the worst timing possible, as it placed him right in traffic.

  4. keith,

    is there a story to be written on red bull strategy costing vettel the opportunity to win?

    ric took advantage of his opportunities – so credit where credit is due – but imagine red bull had allowed a driver from another team to push past vettel from three positions back w/o any overtaking (the position shuffles where all due to pitting if i remember well.)

    did red bull make a mistake (from vettel’s perspective)? or did they simply not have any good options to avoid being trapped behind the force india? did ric actually beat vettel on the track as horner suggested (since their pit times were near identical) or should red bull have anticpated that they were offering ric an open goal by allowing him a clean lap while vettel would have a slower lap due traffic/tyres?

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