McLaren has chosen the softest tyre selection of the teams for the Bahrain Grand Prix next week.
Fernando Alonso have Stoffel Vandoorne each have nine sets of super-soft tyres for the second round of the world championship.
The drivers from the top three teams – Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull – will each have seven sets of the super-soft tyres. Here are the drivers’ tyre selections in full.
2018 Bahrain Grand Prix information
Driver | Team | Tyres |
---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | |
Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | |
Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | |
Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | |
Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | |
Max Verstappen | Red Bull | |
Sergio Perez | Force India | |
Esteban Ocon | Force India | |
Lance Stroll | Williams | |
Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | |
Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | |
Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | |
Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | |
Romain Grosjean | Haas | |
Kevin Magnussen | Haas | |
Fernando Alonso | McLaren | |
Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | |
Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | |
Charles Leclerc | Sauber |
2018 F1 season
- McLaren staff told us we were “totally crazy” to take Honda engines in 2018 – Tost
- ‘It doesn’t matter if we start last’: How Red Bull’s junior team aided Honda’s leap forward
- Honda’s jet division helped F1 engineers solve power unit problem
- McLaren Racing losses rise after Honda split
- Ricciardo: Baku “s***show” was Red Bull’s fault
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
28th March 2018, 9:21
McLaren seems to be particularly gentle on its tyres, but I don’t know whether this is a strength or a weakness. I guess it’s a strength? Since all compounds went a step softer and Pirelli’s plans to spice races is to keep selecting softer compounds to make 2 stops a preferred strategy and 3 stops possible on certain layouts.
lee1
28th March 2018, 9:43
It is likely to be a strength in warmer races but a possible weakness if the weather is cold.
Krommenaas (@krommenaas)
28th March 2018, 16:10
In Australia they failed miserably in their goal to have 2 pit stops, and I’m expecting them to fail again if they don’t select the softest tires. Although the teams keep saying all tires are similar in duration, so perhaps it doesn’t matter which compounds they select and we’ll have another season with 1 pit stops only.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
28th March 2018, 18:42
@krommenaas Pirelli stated that they had to be conservative because the first batch had to be decided before the winter test but that the next ones will go softer. So ther’s still a good chance we will see that fortunately.
Krommenaas (@krommenaas)
28th March 2018, 19:34
Ah that’s good to hear, thanks!
NS Biker (@rekibsn)
28th March 2018, 14:59
It would be informative to get some insight into what the teams gain in terms of set-up information by running on the harder tyres. Hamilton seems to typically select as many “hards” as anyone else and he doesn’t seem to suffer over heating or blistering issues with the softer ones, to the same extent as others. Yes there’s the car element, but he usually seems to be ahead of Bottas in terms of tyre management and the benefits that result.
Even in pre-season testing, this year and last, Mercedes hardly used the softer ranges and stuck to the Mediums. Since they seem to be ahead of the game, overall, they must be onto something.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
28th March 2018, 22:44
SHame there’s no Hypersoft. Apparently SS has the lower working range but Bahrain is generally hot.
Pirelli conservative as usual, sand and high terminal velocities on the straight are always a stress on their mind. The layout is not too hard on tyres but harder than Melbourne, 1 stop is surely still going to be the target even if a 2 stop should be marginally quicker.