A two-stop strategy was the preferred route home for most of the teams.
But not for Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel – and it potentially cost them the race.
Among the few other drivers who opted for the same route was Felipe Massa. He committed to it early, pitting as soon as lap eight for his first stop and enjoying stellar service from the Williams crew once again.
For Massa the strategy helped keep him out of traffic. But for Ricciardo and Vettel it left them on the wrong side of strategy splits within their own teams, and handed the initiative to their team mates.
Renault were the only team to use the hard tyres during the race, switching both drivers to it at their second pit stops. Neither driver had particularly good pace on this rubber, but while Jolyon Palmer persevered with it until the end, Kevin Magnussen ditched his for soft tyres.
2016 Spanish Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | Stint 5 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Max Verstappen | Soft (12) | Medium (22) | Medium (32) | ||
Kimi Raikkonen | Soft (12) | Medium (23) | Medium (31) | ||
Sebastian Vettel | Soft (15) | Medium (14) | Soft (8) | Medium (29) | |
Daniel Ricciardo | Soft (11) | Medium (17) | Soft (15) | Medium (22) | Soft (1) |
Valtteri Bottas | Soft (12) | Medium (27) | Medium (27) | ||
Carlos Sainz Jnr | Soft (10) | Medium (28) | Medium (28) | ||
Sergio Perez | Soft (9) | Medium (26) | Medium (31) | ||
Felipe Massa | Soft (8) | Medium (17) | Soft (16) | Medium (25) | |
Jenson Button | Soft (10) | Medium (26) | Medium (29) | ||
Daniil Kvyat | Soft (9) | Medium (16) | Medium (26) | Soft (14) | |
Esteban Gutierrez | Soft (16) | Soft (14) | Medium (35) | ||
Marcus Ericsson | Soft (9) | Soft (15) | Medium (16) | Medium (25) | |
Jolyon Palmer | Soft (11) | Medium (22) | Hard (32) | ||
Felipe Nasr | Soft (12) | Medium (24) | Medium (29) | ||
Kevin Magnussen | Soft (10) | Medium (20) | Hard (25) | Soft (10) | |
Pascal Wehrlein | Soft (11) | Medium (22) | Medium (32) | ||
Rio Haryanto | Medium (22) | Medium (26) | Soft (17) | ||
Romain Grosjean | Soft (15) | Soft (14) | Medium (8) | Soft (19) | |
Fernando Alonso | Soft (11) | Medium (28) | Medium (6) | ||
Nico Hulkenberg | Soft (10) | Medium (10) | |||
Lewis Hamilton | Soft (1) | ||||
Nico Rosberg | Soft (1) |
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2016 Spanish Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 21.384 | 8 | |
2 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 21.603 | 0.219 | 37 |
3 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 21.643 | 0.259 | 15 |
4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 21.683 | 0.299 | 43 |
5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 21.738 | 0.354 | 11 |
6 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 21.795 | 0.411 | 11 |
7 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 21.831 | 0.447 | 41 |
8 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 21.856 | 0.472 | 12 |
9 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 21.918 | 0.534 | 35 |
10 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 22.104 | 0.720 | 28 |
11 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 22.107 | 0.723 | 12 |
12 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 22.122 | 0.738 | 55 |
13 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 22.169 | 0.785 | 35 |
14 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 22.176 | 0.792 | 10 |
15 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 22.234 | 0.850 | 25 |
16 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 22.280 | 0.896 | 10 |
17 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 22.348 | 0.964 | 34 |
18 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 22.369 | 0.985 | 12 |
19 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 22.397 | 1.013 | 33 |
20 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 22.430 | 1.046 | 30 |
21 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 22.443 | 1.059 | 39 |
22 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 22.568 | 1.184 | 25 |
23 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 22.590 | 1.206 | 36 |
24 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 22.617 | 1.233 | 29 |
25 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 22.679 | 1.295 | 9 |
26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 22.769 | 1.385 | 51 |
27 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 22.840 | 1.456 | 9 |
28 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 22.843 | 1.459 | 10 |
29 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 22.844 | 1.460 | 29 |
30 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 22.874 | 1.490 | 10 |
31 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 22.897 | 1.513 | 40 |
32 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 22.937 | 1.553 | 38 |
33 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 22.976 | 1.592 | 12 |
34 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 22.987 | 1.603 | 39 |
35 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 23.090 | 1.706 | 36 |
36 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 23.122 | 1.738 | 24 |
37 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 23.133 | 1.749 | 65 |
38 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 23.165 | 1.781 | 30 |
39 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 23.187 | 1.803 | 15 |
40 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 23.206 | 1.822 | 16 |
41 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 23.277 | 1.893 | 9 |
42 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 23.283 | 1.899 | 11 |
43 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 24.387 | 3.003 | 33 |
44 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 24.554 | 3.170 | 11 |
45 | Rio Haryanto | Manor | 26.186 | 4.802 | 48 |
46 | Rio Haryanto | Manor | 28.753 | 7.369 | 22 |
47 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 34.832 | 13.448 | 37 |
2016 Spanish Grand Prix
- Ricciardo still coming to terms with losing Spain win
- Landslide Driver of the Weekend win for Verstappen
- Verstappen win flummoxes Predictions players
- Praise for surprising Spanish GP – and new winner Verstappen
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
15th May 2016, 21:58
Paul Hembury himself said that three stops was the best strategy. Slightly disingenuous to suggest it wasn’t: it wasn’t on the day, but it was in every prognosis and strategy. Verstappen and Kimi just managed to really make them last, and on a track where track position is important, and where Ricciardo had a weakish second stint behind a backmarker, and Vettel had too short a stint on softs, two stops worked better this time. Still not the optimal strategy.
Ben (@scuderia29)
15th May 2016, 22:57
Vettel spent just 8 laps on the soft tyres..i mean, ferrari do like to shoot themselves in the foot, what was the thinking behind that stint?? if he had just put on the mediums he would have saved himself a whole pitstop and would have surely won
Melvin (@)
15th May 2016, 23:08
He followed ricciardo cause otherwise he would have lost time after max. The net undercut actually worked out as he was in a position to hold of ricciardo. Of course like vettel said, they were stronger on softs, so it sees a bit weird to use two sets of mediums.
F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
16th May 2016, 10:11
Ferrari’s strategy was a bit weird indeed. They sacrificed Vettel’s strategy to keep both Ferraris ahead of Ricciardo, but it also meant that Vettel lost out to Räikkönen. In the final stint his tires were only two laps fresher than Räikkönen’s, so there was no way that he could regain second place. His pace in the last stint was quite poor anyway. I was a bit surprised that he wasn’t too unhappy to have lost out to his teammate.
GeeMac (@geemac)
15th May 2016, 23:03
Honestly baffled by the decision to put Ricciardo on a three stopper, particularly as track position is so key at Catalunya. Vettel’s decision made more sense, they were covering the car they were racing. As soon as Verstappen didn’t follow him i and carried on lapping at a good pace it was clear the race was Max’s. If I was Daniel I would be demanding answers.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
16th May 2016, 8:26
For the team it doesn’t matter which driver wins. By switching one driver to a three stopper and leaving the other driver on the two stopper, they secured the win, because both drivers had track position.
Leaving RIC on the two stop strategy would’ve been worse for RB. Ferrari would’ve probably just undercut them.
frood19 (@frood19)
16th May 2016, 9:52
+1. red bull played a great strategic game. it just happened to be at the expense of ricciardo but circumstances made it more sensible to put verstappen on the 2-stop.
ia
16th May 2016, 16:04
They chose to put Riciardo on the weakest Ferrari driver (Vettel). Could not even pass him eventho the RB12 has better exit into the strait then Ferrari and DRS. So Riciardo cannot complain. If he had passed Vettel he had (more) richt to complain. But he couldn’t and would never have been winner even on 2 stop.
Leo B
16th May 2016, 10:41
It was very marginal for both Verstappen and Raikkonen.
If you look at the laptimes of Gutierrez, who went on the Mediums in lap 30, he did a string of 1:30’s, then steadily dropped through the 1’31’s and ended the race with 4 laps in the mid 1:32’s.
Verstappen and Raikkonen went on the mediums in lap 34/35, started with 1’29’s and were in the process of dropping through the 1’30’s. Just as the flag dropped they were about to ‘hit the cliff’ (like Gutierrez).
Ricciardo went on the mediums in lap 43 and had Vettel not been in the way (or if Ricciardo had quickly cleared him) then he would have easily caught (and maybe passed) the two leaders.
Vettel was never a threat for victory after his last stop. His tyres were only 2 laps newer and the gap to the lead too big. He only took the undercut on Ricciardo for third place.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
16th May 2016, 18:46
Had Ferrari got the undercut on Max, Ferrari would have won. On high degradation circuits the cars behind should always get the advantage as they can overtake via the undercut, Ferrari missed that chance on Rai’s 2nd stop. Great story though.
ia
16th May 2016, 16:06
Riciardo would not have won on a 2 stopper. Because he couldn’t pass Vettel.
Vettel was not even the best Ferrari driver of the day.
Patrick FORSANS (@ago-bdp)
17th May 2016, 0:08
Ahem… after the 4 leaders had both their 2 pitstops, on lap 36 to be precise, the board reads:
RIC
VET +1.189
VER +12.416
RAI +16.332
BOT +22.849 (1 pitstop)
now if RIC had kept MED instead of SOF tell me who he had to overtake to win?
Of course at the time it looked like a gamble to keep both drivers on 2 stops strat, but with hindsight the win was there to take.
ia
17th May 2016, 16:20
Max said in an interview on dutch TV that Riciardo’s tyre degregation was worse then his, so a 2 stop for Riciardo didn’t look good.
So Riciardo: better manage your tyres if you want to beat Max. He will set the new standard.
Actually will bring a new aspect to the battles between drivers and teams. Pretty cool stuff.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
16th May 2016, 18:40
Great stops on Haryanto…