2014 German Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

2014 German Grand Prix

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Nico Rosberg made two pit stops on his way to victory in Germany but most of the drivers behind him came into the pits three times.

After two days of sunshine and track temperatures in the high fifties, Sunday brought cloudy conditions and a cooler track which presented teams and drivers with a challenge.

Track temperatures remained high at the Hockenheimring which led to several drivers switching from two- to three-stop strategies.

Among those to be caught out by the high tyre degredation was Jenson Button. He felt his team’s attempt to cover 36 laps – more than half the 62-lap race distance – on a single set of soft tyres was too optimistic. He had to pit for tyres with six laps to go.

After the leading duo of Rosberg and bValtteri Bottas, the only other driver to pit twice and finish in the points was Nico Hulkenberg.

“It was a difficult race and different to what we expected, mainly due to the lower temperatures with the track being 20 degrees cooler than on Friday,” said the Force India driver.

“We were expecting a lot of rear degradation but after a couple of laps it became clear the fronts were the limiting tyres, and that changed the game.”

German Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Daniel RicciardoRed Bull18.86846
2Sebastian VettelRed Bull18.8790.01145
3Jenson ButtonMcLaren18.9160.04831
4Romain GrosjeanLotus18.9280.06024
5Fernando AlonsoFerrari19.0320.16433
6Daniel RicciardoRed Bull19.0500.18213
7Sebastian VettelRed Bull19.0610.19334
8Pastor MaldonadoLotus19.0990.23118
9Pastor MaldonadoLotus19.1260.25838
10Kevin MagnussenMcLaren19.1350.26729
11Fernando AlonsoFerrari19.1740.30612
12Jenson ButtonMcLaren19.2210.35361
13Fernando AlonsoFerrari19.3080.44055
14Daniel RicciardoRed Bull19.3580.49035
15Kevin MagnussenMcLaren19.4270.55953
16Nico HulkenbergForce India19.5140.64639
17Nico HulkenbergForce India19.5640.69614
18Sebastian VettelRed Bull19.6070.73914
19Adrian SutilSauber19.6380.77032
20Lewis HamiltonMercedes19.7100.84226
21Kimi RaikkonenFerrari19.7370.86920
22Kimi RaikkonenFerrari19.7400.87253
23Esteban GutierrezSauber19.7790.91150
24Sergio PerezForce India19.8430.97534
25Kimi RaikkonenFerrari19.8670.99934
26Lewis HamiltonMercedes19.8681.00050
27Marcus EricssonCaterham19.8901.02218
28Lewis HamiltonMercedes19.9181.05042
29Sergio PerezForce India19.9321.06452
30Adrian SutilSauber20.0311.16316
31Jules BianchiMarussia20.0311.16320
32Nico RosbergMercedes20.0551.18715
33Kamui KobayashiCaterham20.0921.22432
34Valtteri BottasWilliams20.1151.24715
35Kamui KobayashiCaterham20.1211.25315
36Valtteri BottasWilliams20.2061.33840
37Daniil KvyatToro Rosso20.2511.38332
38Nico RosbergMercedes20.2571.38941
39Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso20.2741.40613
40Daniil KvyatToro Rosso20.3131.4459
41Kamui KobayashiCaterham20.3581.49048
42Marcus EricssonCaterham20.4231.55541
43Adrian SutilSauber20.4241.55647
44Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso20.4311.56349
45Jules BianchiMarussia20.5751.70745
46Max ChiltonMarussia20.6321.76447
47Max ChiltonMarussia20.9202.05232
48Esteban GutierrezSauber21.0022.13414
49Sergio PerezForce India21.8022.93414
50Jenson ButtonMcLaren22.6043.73613
51Esteban GutierrezSauber23.3054.43731
52Max ChiltonMarussia23.8835.01516
53Kevin MagnussenMcLaren25.8596.9911
54Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso26.7117.84337
55Marcus EricssonCaterham27.4958.6273

German Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4
Nico RosbergSuper soft (15)Soft (26)Soft (26)
Valtteri BottasSuper soft (15)Soft (25)Soft (27)
Lewis HamiltonSoft (26)Soft (16)Super soft (8)Super soft (17)
Sebastian VettelSuper soft (14)Soft (20)Super soft (11)Soft (22)
Fernando AlonsoSuper soft (12)Soft (21)Soft (22)Super soft (12)
Daniel RicciardoSuper soft (13)Soft (22)Super soft (11)Soft (21)
Nico HulkenbergSuper soft (14)Soft (25)Soft (28)
Jenson ButtonSuper soft (13)Soft (18)Soft (30)Super soft (6)
Kevin MagnussenSuper soft (1)Soft (28)Soft (24)Super soft (13)
Sergio PerezSuper soft (14)Soft (20)Soft (18)Super soft (14)
Kimi RaikkonenSoft (20)Super soft (14)Soft (19)Super soft (13)
Pastor MaldonadoSuper soft (18)Super soft (20)Soft (28)
Jean-Eric VergneSuper soft (13)Soft (24)Super soft (12)Soft (17)
Esteban GutierrezSuper soft (14)Super soft (17)Soft (19)Soft (16)
Jules BianchiSuper soft (20)Soft (25)Super soft (21)
Kamui KobayashiSuper soft (15)Soft (17)Soft (16)Super soft (17)
Max ChiltonSuper soft (16)Soft (16)Soft (15)Super soft (18)
Marcus EricssonSuper soft (3)Soft (15)Soft (23)Super soft (24)
Adrian SutilSuper soft (16)Soft (16)Soft (15)Soft (0)
Daniil KvyatSuper soft (9)Soft (23)Soft (12)
Romain GrosjeanSoft (24)Super soft (2)
Felipe MassaSuper soft

2014 German Grand Prix

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Image © Red Bull/Getty

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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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7 comments on “2014 German Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops”

  1. The tables are swapped; the pit stop times table is under “German Grand Prix tyre strategies” and strategies table under “German Grand Prix pit stop times”.

  2. If only Red Bull were as switched-on strategically as in the pit stops themselves, I am certain they would have scored more points in previous races. Perhaps not today, but certainly Vettel lost time by again being pitted too late and losing position to Alonso.

    1. Mr win or lose
      21st July 2014, 15:24

      True, but he regained the position later in the race by pitting earlier than Alonso.

  3. Something I have noticed an awful lot this season also is (relatively speaking) slow Mercedes pit stops. Are they just erring on the side of caution I wonder, such is their on-track advantage?

    1. @vettel1, I think Toto Wolff admitted as much some time ago, saying something like “when the others get closer, we will put more efforts into our pit stops.”

  4. Interesting stint lengths by the Marussias.. they must like the Super Soft tyre. Bianchi did 20 and 21 laps on them!

  5. Mr win or lose
    21st July 2014, 15:44

    “Among those to be caught out by the high tyre degredation was Jenson Button. He felt his team’s attempt to cover 36 laps – more than half the 62-lap race distance – on a single set of soft tyres was too optimistic. He had to pit for tyres with six laps to go.”

    It was a 67-lap race.

Comments are closed.