Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Monte-Carlo, 2016

2016 Monaco Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

2016 Monaco Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

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For the second year in a row the early leader of the Monaco Grand Prix lost their chance for victory in the pits.

While 12 months ago Lewis Hamilton made an unnecessary visit to the pits during a Safety Car period, this time Red Bull weren’t ready in time to get Daniel Ricciardo back on track in the lead.

The RB12 sat in the pit box for an agonising ten seconds while the mechanics hurried to get super-soft tyres on Ricciardo’s car. He rejoined the track just asHamilton was passing by.

The Mercedes driver avenged his lost win of last year, but it was a cruel outcome for Ricciardo.

2016 Monaco Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1 Stint 2 Stint 3 Stint 4 Stint 5
Lewis Hamilton Wet (31) Ultra soft (47)
Daniel Ricciardo Wet (23) Intermediate (9) Super soft (46)
Sergio Perez Wet (21) Intermediate (9) Soft (48)
Sebastian Vettel Wet (13) Intermediate (18) Soft (47)
Fernando Alonso Wet (14) Intermediate (18) Super soft (46)
Nico Hulkenberg Wet (15) Intermediate (16) Soft (47)
Nico Rosberg Wet (20) Intermediate (11) Ultra soft (47)
Carlos Sainz Jnr Wet (21) Intermediate (10) Super soft (46)
Jenson Button Wet (8) Intermediate (22) Super soft (47)
Felipe Massa Wet (20) Intermediate (12) Super soft (45)
Valtteri Bottas Wet (15) Intermediate (15) Super soft (19) Ultra soft (28)
Esteban Gutierrez Wet (16) Intermediate (16) Ultra soft (45)
Pascal Wehrlein Wet (31) Ultra soft (45)
Romain Grosjean Wet (15) Intermediate (15) Ultra soft (46)
Rio Haryanto Wet (11) Intermediate (23) Ultra soft (13) Ultra soft (27)
Marcus Ericsson Wet (11) Intermediate (18) Ultra soft (20) Ultra soft (2)
Felipe Nasr Wet (8) Intermediate (24) Ultra soft (16)
Max Verstappen Wet (12) Intermediate (19) Soft (3)
Kevin Magnussen Wet (7) Intermediate (14) Intermediate (8) Super soft (3)
Daniil Kvyat Wet (7) Intermediate (11)
Kimi Raikkonen Wet (10)
Jolyon Palmer Wet (7)

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2016 Monaco Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

Driver Team Pit stop time Gap On lap
1 Valtteri Bottas Williams 24.673 49
2 Felipe Massa Williams 24.934 0.261 20
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 25.054 0.381 23
4 Romain Grosjean Haas 25.111 0.438 30
5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 25.114 0.441 13
6 Felipe Massa Williams 25.182 0.509 32
7 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 25.215 0.542 15
8 Jenson Button McLaren 25.450 0.777 30
9 Max Verstappen Red Bull 25.459 0.786 31
10 Valtteri Bottas Williams 25.478 0.805 30
11 Fernando Alonso McLaren 25.512 0.839 14
12 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 25.561 0.888 31
13 Kevin Magnussen Renault 25.583 0.910 7
14 Max Verstappen Red Bull 25.604 0.931 12
15 Sergio Perez Force India 25.608 0.935 30
16 Sergio Perez Force India 25.714 1.041 21
17 Jenson Button McLaren 25.766 1.093 8
18 Kevin Magnussen Renault 25.879 1.206 29
19 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 26.044 1.371 16
20 Rio Haryanto Manor 26.292 1.619 47
21 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 26.315 1.642 31
22 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 26.435 1.762 29
23 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 26.517 1.844 31
24 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 26.698 2.025 20
25 Fernando Alonso McLaren 26.836 2.163 32
26 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 27.064 2.391 31
27 Felipe Nasr Sauber 27.166 2.493 32
28 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 27.176 2.503 11
29 Valtteri Bottas Williams 27.364 2.691 15
30 Rio Haryanto Manor 27.380 2.707 34
31 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 27.407 2.734 32
32 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 27.680 3.007 31
33 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 27.698 3.025 7
34 Carlos Sainz Jnr Toro Rosso 27.738 3.065 21
35 Carlos Sainz Jnr Toro Rosso 28.112 3.439 31
36 Felipe Nasr Sauber 28.242 3.569 8
37 Rio Haryanto Manor 29.117 4.444 11
38 Kevin Magnussen Renault 31.241 6.568 32
39 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 33.342 8.669 49
40 Romain Grosjean Haas 33.490 8.817 15
41 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 35.327 10.654 32
42 Kevin Magnussen Renault 38.811 14.138 21

2016 Monaco Grand Prix

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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 “2016 Monaco Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops”

  1. Red Bull are (deservedly) getting a lot of stick for their pitstop balls-up with Ricciardo. I think that a lot of people are overlooking the fact that these things do happen from time to time and always have (across all teams), preferring to come up with ridiculous conspiracy theories involving Red Bull deliberately mucking up Dan’s race.

    I’m sure Red Bull will investigate and try to reduce the risk of it happening again, but in all likelihood there is probably some very specific reason why it happened which might never crop up again. More concerning for me is that Mercedes did three pitstops which were all very poor (though not as costly as RB’s). It was quite clear on TV and from the times above that Mercedes stops were not up to scratch – Rosberg’s switch from inters to slicks cost him 3 seconds relative to Bottas. Had it been a dry race with Rosberg nipping into the lead at the start it’s likely that Red Bull could have won the race through poor stops by Mercedes – and with three out of three Merc stops being poor it looks like an issue much more likely to affect Merc’s races in future.

    1. I also noticed that @jerseyf1; rather being safe than sorry with pitstops is one thing, but all three of their pitstops were in the bottom half of the table. And with Rosberg dropping behind Alonso and Vettel in the pitstops, it could have cost him 3 places (he probably wouldn’t have spent the rest of the race stuck behind somebody so much, even if still a bit slow).

      1. I noticed that. Also, looking at the lap charts, Rosberg went from being 3.5s ahead of Vettel, in 3rd, the lap before, to 6th after his stop. Vettel took him in the pits, while Perez and Alonso zippered in between them.. Only saw this happen in a quick replay at the end of the race. Rosberg should’ve finished 3rd!

  2. Why are the Toro Rosso pitstops so slow? Their stops are consistently 3 seconds slower than what they should be. Sainz was ahead of Pérez before the first stops and they pitted together, but while Pérez finished 3rd, Sainz only finished 8th. That’s hugely disappointing.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      30th May 2016, 16:27

      @f1infigures yeah Sainz was ahead of Perez on lap 20, then he was behind on lap 21 and fell to P7 on lap 22. What happened there? Did Perez overtake Sainz or did the pitstops cost Sainz a shot at the podium?

      1. He was a second or so ahead of Pérez before the stops and maybe 3 seconds behind after the stop, while he lost over 2 seconds with the stop itself. Vettel and Hülkenberg then got between Pérez and him, which cost him even more time.

        “Honestly there were a lot more points on the table for us,” said Sainz. “But every time we did a pitstop we exit two places behind, so not happy at all.

        “Perez showed that [we could have done much better], he was behind us before the first pitstop and he ended up third, and we ended up eighth. It’s not good enough.”
        http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sainz-says-toro-rosso-s-pitstops-not-good-enough-742073/

        1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          31st May 2016, 14:10

          @f1infigures So Perez didn’t overtake Sainz on track? Wow, then Sainz should have been on the podium. That’s insane… In my book much worse than what happened to Ricciardo and surprisingly not mention by anyone but you.

          That was a carreer altering opportunity for Sainz wasted by his team…

          1. Yes, the order in the top 8 was largely decided by quick and slow pitstops. Apart from Ricciardo, Rosberg and Sainz lost vital positions and were relegated to the Alonso train.

  3. Massa turned out to be the ultimate party pooper for a lot of driversm Not sure why the setup was so jacked up. i guess rain isn’t Wil is strong at.

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