Ferrari have made an aggressive tyre selection for the next round of the championship in Austria, selecting nine sets of ultra-softs for each of their drivers.
The only other team to do the same is Renault. Ferrari pair Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will also only have one set of the soft tyres available.
Mercedes has chosen eight sets of ultra-softs each for its drivers, though Nico Rosberg will have one more set of super-softs than team mate Lewis Hamilton.
Red Bull, Williams and Force India have all opted for seven sets of the softest available rubber.
| Driver | Team | Tyres |
|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes |    |
| Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | |
| Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | |
| Felipe Massa | Williams | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Williams | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | |
| Max Verstappen | Red Bull | |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | |
| Sergio Perez | Force India | |
| Kevin Magnussen | Renault | |
| Jolyon Palmer | Renault | |
| Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | |
| Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | |
| Felipe Nasr | Sauber | |
| Fernando Alonso | McLaren | |
| Jenson Button | McLaren | |
| Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | |
| Rio Haryanto | Manor | |
| Romain Grosjean | Haas | |
| Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | |
spafrancorchamps
21st June 2016, 10:42
8 sets of US over a weekend or 9 sets. I think it doesn’t matter that much. It seems like the new tire regulations really fired up the sport again in the beginning of the season, but now that everyone knows the tires it starts to become boring again.
Yoseph
21st June 2016, 10:57
What’s the point? All teams will gravitate towards the same number of tyres for each compound anyway, come race day.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
21st June 2016, 13:01
You have to take the weekend as a whole. You don’t have all the tires available to you come race day. You have to give 1 set back halfay in FP1, another after FP1, another after FP2 and FP3 each. Then you have 9 sets remaining to do the qualy and race on. Aggressive vs conservative ture choice affects the way you approach your weekend, what tires you practice on, what’s available for you for Q3, etc. It’s not as simple as you make it to seem
nase
21st June 2016, 17:15
@montreal95
That’s exactly what Yoseph was referring to, even though he didn’t state it explicitly. His point is that, even though some teams and drivers start with different tyre selections, these differences tend to be smoothed out by the mechanisms you mention. Most of the time, the only real difference consists in the tyres used in Free Practice, leading to a virtually identical tyre situation on Saturday afternoon.
dimbo
21st June 2016, 11:17
could prob do a whole season on ultras at this stage
CG
21st June 2016, 13:35
+1
nase
21st June 2016, 17:18
Nah. Some circuits (e.g. Catalunya, Shanghai, Silverstone, Spa, Suzuka, Sepang) are way too demanding for the tyres. The Ultrasoft would be ripped off the rim within 5 laps of race pace.
Akshat
21st June 2016, 17:32
+1
sam3110 (@sam3110)
21st June 2016, 18:53
If i was the teams i would be choosing 9 of the softest compound, 3 of the middle and 1 of the hardest compound pretty much every race, as the tyres in general have been way too conservative this season. Both Canada and Baku should have been 2/3 stops easy, but weren’t. We’ve seen races where teams can go almost full distance on one set, which shouldn’t ever be an option
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
22nd June 2016, 3:06
Yes because of what you said though being the tyres so durable it means that besides having as many of the US you need for qualifying and practice the rest can be levelled out as the tyres do last and you won’t need more than one set of any for the race. Haas knows they’ll do q1 and maybe q2 so 4 for qualifying 2 for practice and that’s it, the more you run on qualifying the more US you need, that said everyone has enough US for qualifying, from Haas to Ferrari.