2016 Austrian Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

2016 Austrian Grand Prix

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Could Nico Rosberg have made it to the end of the race without making a second pit stop?

Rosberg, who jumped ahead of his team mate during the first round of pit stops, needed to complete 61 laps on a set of Pirelli’s soft tyres to do so. That would have been the longest stint of the race by one lap – Daniel Ricciardo managed 60.

His team mate Max Verstappen also managed a 56-lap stint with little drop-off at the end and was even able to keep Kimi Raikkonen behind.

Nico Hulkenberg spent the race looking around for any tyres he could get pace out of. He ended up running a 50-lap stint on ultra-softs but sunk to the tail of the field before retiring.

Rosberg may have made an extra pit stop but at least it was a quick one. For the first time since the Australian Grand Prix, a team other than Williams managed the fastest complete time.

2016 Austrian Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4
Lewis HamiltonUltra soft (21)Soft (33)Soft (17)
Max VerstappenSuper soft (15)Soft (56)
Kimi RaikkonenSuper soft (22)Soft (49)
Nico RosbergUltra soft (10)Soft (45)Super soft (16)
Daniel RicciardoSuper soft (14)Soft (46)Ultra soft (11)
Jenson ButtonUltra soft (9)Soft (17)Soft (45)
Romain GrosjeanSuper soft (26)Soft (45)
Carlos Sainz JnrSuper soft (9)Soft (19)Soft (43)
Valtteri BottasUltra soft (9)Soft (42)Super soft (19)
Pascal WehrleinUltra soft (13)Ultra soft (10)Soft (47)
Esteban GutierrezSuper soft (21)Super soft (20)Soft (29)
Jolyon PalmerSuper soft (12)Soft (38)Super soft (20)
Felipe NasrSoft (43)Super soft (27)
Kevin MagnussenSuper soft (11)Soft (38)Super soft (21)
Marcus EricssonSuper soft (12)Soft (38)Super soft (20)
Rio HaryantoSoft (27)Super soft (23)Super soft (20)
Sergio PerezUltra soft (9)Super soft (17)Soft (43)
Fernando AlonsoSuper soft (8)Soft (18)Soft (38)
Nico HulkenbergUltra soft (8)Super soft (16)Soft (26)Ultra soft (14)
Felipe MassaSuper soft (12)Soft (44)Super soft (7)
Sebastian VettelSuper soft (26)
Daniil KvyatUltra soft (1)

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2016 Austrian Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Nico RosbergMercedes21.03555
2Valtteri BottasWilliams21.0470.0129
3Felipe MassaWilliams21.0970.06212
4Daniel RicciardoRed Bull21.1830.14814
5Felipe MassaWilliams21.2310.19656
6Sergio PerezForce India21.4120.37726
7Nico HulkenbergForce India21.5800.54524
8Valtteri BottasWilliams21.6390.60451
9Jolyon PalmerRenault21.7450.71012
10Sergio PerezForce India21.8830.8489
11Nico RosbergMercedes21.8900.85510
12Kimi RaikkonenFerrari21.9160.88122
13Esteban GutierrezHaas21.9210.88641
14Fernando AlonsoMcLaren21.9240.8898
15Max VerstappenRed Bull21.9450.91015
16Kevin MagnussenRenault22.0330.99811
17Jenson ButtonMcLaren22.0351.00026
18Esteban GutierrezHaas22.0531.01821
19Lewis HamiltonMercedes22.1091.07454
20Daniel RicciardoRed Bull22.2841.24960
21Nico HulkenbergForce India22.6011.5668
22Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso22.6051.5709
23Pascal WehrleinManor22.6131.57813
24Romain GrosjeanHaas22.6621.62726
25Felipe NasrSauber22.7071.67243
26Jolyon PalmerRenault22.7281.69350
27Jenson ButtonMcLaren22.8591.8249
28Fernando AlonsoMcLaren22.8791.84426
29Lewis HamiltonMercedes22.9181.88321
30Marcus EricssonSauber22.9801.94512
31Rio HaryantoManor23.3262.29127
32Pascal WehrleinManor23.7382.70323
33Marcus EricssonSauber24.3263.29150
34Rio HaryantoManor25.2344.19950
35Kevin MagnussenRenault27.1196.08449
36Nico HulkenbergForce India27.8346.79950
37Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso33.46212.42728

2016 Austrian 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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18 comments on “2016 Austrian Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops”

  1. Jelle van der Meer
    3rd July 2016, 19:22

    Keith an error – Riccardio didn’t do 60 laps on a set of softs. He pitted lap 14 and 60 – Verstappen pitted only on lap 15 doing 56 laps on his softs.

    1. True. Sainz managed the longest stint on 62.

      1. Sainz 62 laps….no way he did a 2 stopper……See above

        1. Sorry you are right. I saw it wrong

  2. @keithcollantine

    Nico Hulkenberg spent the race looking around for any tyres he could get pace out of. He ended up running a 50-lap stint on ultra-softs but sunk to the tail of the field before retiring.

    50 laps on Ultra Softs?! No wonder he had no pace! haha

  3. So the pitstop trophy will be for Mercedes this time.

  4. So where did the avantage of Ferrari and RB go to start on the supersofts? The ultrasofts were supposed to last about 4 laps…

    1. Jonathan deitrick
      4th July 2016, 3:01

      The advantage went away due to the much colder weather causing much lower track temps then saturday.

    2. The temperature was quite low, which helped the ultrasofts last.

    3. And Hamilton was nursing his tires beautifully.

  5. Rosberg might have been possible to keep going but surely Hamilton would have been able to? Don’t understand either why he stopped one lap earlier than Rosberg. Surely Rosberg leading would have had first choice to stop, and would have preferred not to be undercut by Hamilton (which didn’t work out in the end due to slow stop and mistake by Hamilton but under normal circumstances it should have worked).

    1. @mike-dee

      Surely Hamilton leading in the first stint meant he had first choice to stop and all of this would have been avoided, no? Rosberg was given a 10-12 lap undercut in the first stint, whilst Lewis was given a 1-lap undercut. How was that fair?

      1. in the first part of the race, Hamilton (and the strategist) was watching more closely the Ferrari pair, which were running the SS tires. If he pitted too early, he would have certainly fallen behind Kimi, Vettel, Max and even Daniel. And making progress would have been probably pretty difficult, even on new tires, because those 4 were lapping close together in DRS zone.

        Add the light rain that started falling and Hamilton could have lost track position with an early pit stop if this turned out into a full rain shower, because the ones who haven’t pitted yet would go directly to Inters.

        So, i’m not sure this conspiracy theory that Mercedes was trying to screw lewis stands up.

      2. @andrewf1

        Obviously, Hamilton had first choice in the first stop but decided not to take it as Rosberg was far behind anyway.

        So my main question stands: why did Hamilton stop for a second time? He would have easily made it to the end.

        1. @mike-dee because Mercedes screwed up and called him in. You make it sound as if the driver decides his strategy, when to stop and how often.

          1. @andrewf1 Driver and his engineer decide together normally, subject to some rules with the teammate so that both don’t come in at the same time.

  6. Interesting Rosberg stops is 1st and 11th fastest while Hamilton is 19th and 29th. They served Hamilton 1s slower on average. Did Hamilton has problem on putting his car right in the pit?

    1. In fact, no Hamilton didn’t have a problem. And the entire “strategy” talk is simply bs with Toto lying and people choosing to believe the lie. Rosberg burnt his tires up in 10 laps and was rewarded for his gross error. Hamilton, on the other hand, explicitly told the team he could and would make the opening stint tires last longer than they were thought to last.

      As for Hamilton’s 2nd pit stop —- why??? Has everyone already forgotten Canada? Surely Nico had to pit as he did not care for his tires well enough at all. On the other hand Hamilton put himself in position to use the exact strategy he used to win the Canadian GP. There was absolutely no reason for him to be called into the pits for a 2nd stop.

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