Ferrari go softer on tyres again for Germany

2016 German Grand Prix

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Ferrari will continue its policy of choosing a more aggressive tyre selection at next week’s German Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen have both opted for nine sets of the super-soft tyre which is the softest compound available for this race. The McLaren and Sauber drivers have done the same.

Force India has diverged significantly from its rivals by selecting three sets of the medium compound tyre. Every other team has chosen just one set of the mandatory compound.

DriverTeamTyres
Lewis HamiltonMercedes
Nico RosbergMercedes
Sebastian VettelFerrari
Kimi RaikkonenFerrari
Felipe MassaWilliams
Valtteri BottasWilliams
Daniel RicciardoRed Bull
Max VerstappenRed Bull
Nico HulkenbergForce India
Sergio PerezForce India
Kevin MagnussenRenault
Jolyon PalmerRenault
Daniil KvyatToro Rosso
Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso
Marcus EricssonSauber
Felipe NasrSauber
Fernando AlonsoMcLaren
Jenson ButtonMcLaren
Pascal WehrleinManor
Rio HaryantoManor
Romain GrosjeanHaas
Esteban GutierrezHaas

2016 German Grand Prix

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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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    15 comments on “Ferrari go softer on tyres again for Germany”

    1. Hope Ferrari understands that it has many SS options and not go with the used meds for the race.

    2. ColdFly F1 (@)
      19th July 2016, 11:06

      Every other team has chosen just one set of the mandatory compound.

      checking: is Medium the only mandatory compound for Germany?

      1. ColdFly F1 (@)
        19th July 2016, 11:11

        already found it, 2 different mandatory compounds Medium and Soft. (inconsequential beyond the space it occupies in the garage)

      2. Matthew Bees
        19th July 2016, 11:11

        They will have to use another compound for the race, i.e.

        race Start : Super-soft
        Stop 1 : Super-soft
        Stop 2 : Soft / Medium

        But not all 3 in one race

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          19th July 2016, 14:52

          I gave up trying to understand this a while ago. I can honestly say it’s made no difference – if anything, it makes it more exciting as I can’t figure out what is going to happen until it does!

    3. I still like the three tyre lay out for the weekend but they should get rid of all the mandatory stuff that surrounds it. Why the obligation to use two tyres, why a mandatory one and a optional one,…

      If the teams were just given the choice like above and then were free to run we might actually see different strategies. Would love to see a race between Perez going on the medium for the entire race vs. a Ferrari that would go soft/soft vs. a crazy Manor that has nothing to lose and wants to try ss/ss/ss.

      1. @xtwl That wouldn’t be a race unless all three cars were evenly matched.

      2. I agree that there shouldn’t be a mandatory tyre to run, but I do like the ‘must run at least two compounds in the race’ rule that exists. It guarantees we have different tyres on track at once, which leads to more action and the cars have different pace to one another during the race.

        1. I don’t agree with you @sato113. DTM and GP2 suffered from this rule, especially when one tyre was significantly faster than the other.

          Also I would like to say them racing for position not a battle of the strategies. Of course a strategic aspect is welcome but not to an extent when on-track action is chaotic and overtaking are rather pointless. This is a time trial.

      3. petebaldwin (@)
        19th July 2016, 16:20

        I think the problem with not mandating the use of 2 different compounds is that most teams would settle on the same tyre as being the optimal one and we’d see no variation.

        They’d run it through a computer and design their car around what they need – if the computer says that hardest tyre is the best, they’d design a car that is good at heating up tyres. If they decided the softest compound is best, they’d design a car that is easy on it’s tyres. At the moment, they have to design a car that works with hard and soft compounds meaning we get variation depending on their strengths and weaknesses.

        They should definitely get rid of this seemingly pointless rule that they have to run 1 of the compounds – does anyone understand why this rule exists?

        1. Isn’t it to force a minimum of 1 pit stop?

    4. Ironically Ferrari, a team which plagued with set up problems, choses to order the least tyre milage of the lot.

      Also the term “aggressive” is rapidly becoming F1’s new buzz-word, often mistakenly interpreted as something positive. Most often, all it suggest is a team out of control, taking a high risk high reward approach, and failing because of it.

    5. Forget their tire choices. Ferrari has much bigger problems: James Allison is on his way out!

      http://blog.axisofoversteer.com/2016/07/ferrari-crisis-james-allison-to-leave.html

      1. Not confirmed.

    6. That gives Ferrari more “options” for the racestrategy (pun intended).

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