Grid, Silverstone, 2017

Ferrari take minimum number of hard tyres for British GP

2018 British Grand Prix

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Ferrari has selected the minimum number of sets of Pirelli’s hard compound for the British Grand Prix despite suffering tyre failures at last year’s race.

Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will have just one set each of the hard tyre, which is being used at a race for the first and likely only time this year.

Mercedes has selected two sets of hard tyres for one of its drivers, Valtteri Bottas, indicating they will run it in practice to assess its usefulness for the race. Both Red Bull drivers will also have two sets of hards.

The front-running teams will also have at least three sets of the medium tyre compound for their drivers, while their midfield rivals have largely picked greater quantities of the soft tyre. Renault and Toro Rosso have taken 10 sets of softs for each of their drivers.

2018 British Grand Prix tyre selections

Driver Team Tyres
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes Hard tyreHard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Sebastian Vettel Ferrari Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Hard tyreHard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Max Verstappen Red Bull Hard tyreHard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Sergio Perez Force India Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Esteban Ocon Force India Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Lance Stroll Williams Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Sergey Sirotkin Williams Hard tyreHard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Carlos Sainz Jnr Renault Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Nico Hulkenberg Renault Hard tyreHard tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Romain Grosjean Haas Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Kevin Magnussen Haas Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Fernando Alonso McLaren Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Marcus Ericsson Sauber Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre
Charles Leclerc Sauber Hard tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreMedium tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyreSoft tyre

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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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21 comments on “Ferrari take minimum number of hard tyres for British GP”

  1. Wrong color for the hard compound, LOL.

    1. Not sure if you’re saying Keith used the wrong colour or Pirelli is using the wrong colour, but the hards this year are blue. The superhards are orange now. Frankly i’m looking forward to seeing some of the cars run with blue-walled tyres, i think it’ll make for some nice pics

      1. @xenif1 I thought Keith was using the wrong color, but then I double-checked just to be entirely sure, and it seems that the color of the hard compound had been changed for this season, which I hadn’t noticed before, and that the name of the compound is now ‘ICE.’

        1. @jerejj There is hard tyres which are orange and Super Hard tyres (these) which are Ice Blue.

          1. @blackmamba You got it wrong. It’s the other way round: Hard is ice blue now while the super-hard is orange (Hard’s previous coloring).

  2. FlatSix (@)
    26th June 2018, 12:03

    We’ve seen it quite a few times now where Mercedes goes for two setups on tyres, and I believe they each more in detail test that tyre for the other side of the garage. Really a team approach to getting Hamilton to that title, Ferrari, and other teams should copy this. Or I’m reading too much into it.

    1. You aren’t really reading too much into it but maybe a bit more than you should. Mercedes has had this approach since 2016 when they brought in the 3 compounds per weekend. They’ll have one driver get one extra set of the hardest available compound whereas the other driver will get one extra set of the medium level compounds. Softest compound is always the same. Which driver gets the extra set from the hardest compound alternates between races. This race it’s Bottas, next race it’s Hamilton and they’ll always share the data so even if one driver has never driven the hardest compound before the race, if he has to use it during, he’ll know how it behaves based on data and conversations with his teammate. Really a team effort but the goal isn’t to give Hamilton the title using this method. Ferrari has done this a few times and i’m assuming they do it when they’re not certain as to how the tyres will behave (they did it in France and i think Canada too) and yes, every team should learn from this. Although admittedly not every single team on the grid has the technological and human capacity required for the Mercedes approach.

      1. FlatSix (@)
        26th June 2018, 14:27

        @xenif1 Ok, but you’re basically saying what I thought then, that they do this as a team and share the data between the two drivers. It’s a good approach, and I didn’t mean they’d share only Bottas his data to Hamilton but definitely both ways. They without a doubt realise this is a certain advantage they create for both drivers, and it without a doubt helps Hamilton over his competitors outside Mercedes. Whether they’ve been doing it since this race or for a couple of years doesn’t really matter.

        1. It’s a good approach, and I didn’t mean they’d share only Bottas his data to Hamilton but definitely both ways.

          I couldn’t understand this from your comment but yeah it definitely helps them gather data @flatsix

    2. @flatsix, I think that you are definitely reading more into that than is warranted.

      Mercedes have been alternating the tyre allocation for multiple years now – go back to, say, 2016 and you will find the same pattern of, in one race, Hamilton would have one extra set of harder tyres for his race simulation, whilst in the next race it would be Rosberg’s turn to do a longer stint on the harder tyres.

      They have done that strategy for years in the past, irrespective of whether it was Hamilton or Rosberg who was leading the World Drivers Championship, so why it would suddenly become “a team approach to getting Hamilton to that title”? In fact, if I recall well Mercedes were doing a similar thing in free practise sessions before Hamilton even joined Mercedes – with each driver alternating weekends where one would use a different tyre to the other in the race simulations in the practise sessions – which would seem to rubbish the idea that it is “a team approach to getting Hamilton to that title” and suggest that it is simply how Mercedes operate.

      In fact, when you think about it, it’s a pretty sensible decision to make – with teams being limited on the amount of time they can spend testing tyres in the practise sessions and on the number of sets of tyres they can use, you have to maximise the amount of information that you can get during a single practise session.

      With that in mind, getting one of your drivers to run a stint on the same fuel load and in the same track conditions, but with another tyre, makes clear sense – you are getting data on both compounds that can then be fed back into set up changes and race strategies, which is information that you need to get given the requirement to run two different tyre compounds during the race.

      If you look at the tyre allocation for this race, it is clear that is what Red Bull are doing this weekend – Ricciardo has an extra set of medium tyres, which is likely to be the preferred race tyre, whilst Verstappen has an extra set of soft tyres which, following qualifying, is likely to be the tyre they start the race on.

      Similarly, Renault and Williams are doing the same split with their drivers for this race as well. As for your comment about Ferrari, you seem to have forgotten that, only a few days ago in France, that is exactly what Ferrari were doing with Kimi and Vettel – so Ferrari, and other teams, are already implementing the same strategy.

      Unless you want to conclude that there must also be “a team approach to favouring Ricciardo”, or “”a team approach to favouring Sainz Jr”, given that those teams have replicated the same strategy of Mercedes, it suggests that you are reading too much into it.

      1. FlatSix (@)
        26th June 2018, 14:31

        So again, you’re saying the same as I do. It’s a clever team approach to get an advantage on tyre know-how. Nothing wrong with it…

        I should’ve known the Hamilton remark wouldn’t go down well and would be interpreted as evil on the spot.

        1. @flatsix, so why, then, did you bring it up in the first place? You could quite easily have just said “We’ve seen it quite a few times now where Mercedes goes for two setups on tyres, and I believe they each more in detail test that tyre for the other side of the garage” and, had you left it at that, you probably would have found most posters would have quite happily agreed with you.

          You could also easily have picked any other example, such as asking why Renault have done it with Sainz and Hulkenberg, or also chosen Sirotkin and Stroll or Ricciardo and Verstappen. Equally, you could also have chosen to use the example of Vettel and Raikkonen in the previous race in France, where they also employed exactly the same tactic as well – but you chose not to comment about “a team approach to getting Vettel to that title” in that instance.

          Furthermore, in your other posts you are then proceeding to double down on those comments by making such remarks about “it without a doubt helps Hamilton over his competitors outside Mercedes”, when equally you could have also said “it without a doubt helps Bottas over his competitors outside Mercedes” given that the information is exchanged in both directions.

          Alternatively, you could have also said “it without a doubt helps Ricciardo over his competitors outside Red Bull”, or similarly made the same remark about Verstappen, Sainz, Hulkenberg, Sirotkin and Stroll. You could equally have said “it without a doubt helps Vettel over his competitors outside Ferrari”, since Ferrari have also adopted that approach – in fact, you could have essentially made the remark about pretty much any driver in the entire field, since all of the teams have done that tactic at some point during this season.

          Similarly, by so blithely saying that “Whether they’ve been doing it since this race or for a couple of years doesn’t really matter.” misses a fundamental point – if it is a practise that they’ve been doing for years, then it would suggest that it is, just like any other team in the paddock, Mercedes’s way of trying to maximise their resources and available information by running counter strategies during their race simulations.

          By so narrowly focussing on the person who is currently closest in the WDC to Vettel, whom you have posted so often in favour of, it gave the impression that you really just wanted to get a cheap shot in at him. You might not have wanted to give that impression but, coupled with your passive aggressive response afterwards and continued narrow focus just on Hamilton over something that could apply to any other team and driver in the field, you’ve only continued to reinforce that impression.

    3. Really a team approach to getting Hamilton to that title

      As others have pointed out this is nothing more than your bias showing

      1. FlatSix (@)
        26th June 2018, 14:29

        As I have pointed out, this is nothing more than you seeing evil where there is none. Are you really going to argue Mercedes is as much behind Bottas as Hamilton? Everyone with a sane mind realises that if a Mercedes is crowned champion at the end of this season it’s going to be Hamilton, and considering it is this tight it only makes sense to get these little advantages over other teams.

        1. FlatSix (@flatsix)
          Yes, actually, I can argue that Mercedes are as much behind Botas as they are Lewis. Unless contractually obliged to be no. 2 driver. How, do I know this stunning fact? Well, Mercedes give both drivers the same car, with setups arrived at based on their preferences in free practice sessions, what else is there to say. Of course, the statistics say Lewis without doubt (but they can be made to say anything really, can’t they, you understand) is the better driver, and there is only one way in which Botas could change the preference (you image) Mercedes give to Lewis. Beat your team mate week in week out. Simple really.

  3. I thought hard tyres weren’t being used this year and were more of a backup?

  4. I thought hard tyres weren’t being used this year and were more of a backup?

    1. super-hard was designated as a backup tyre.
      But in reality, even medium tyre has been barely used this season.

      May be they should have called hard and super-hard as superfluous and super-superfluous tyres.

  5. Guybrush Threepwood
    26th June 2018, 13:54

    Is this one of the first races that Ricciardo and Verstappen have gone with different (slightly) the strategies?

  6. Why just mention Ferrari when Hamilton also has exact same tyre choice for British GP. Not sure how the naughty British weather is going to play out and how the race pans out.

    1. I guess because it makes it very clear that Ferrari have absolutely committed to a medium-soft strategy for the race weekend, whereas, in theory, Mercedes’s choice of having Bottas bring a set of the harder tyres does give them the opportunity to run that tyre during the practise sessions and see if it is potentially viable as a race tyre, giving them a bit more strategic variety.

      For that reason, I would have said that Red Bull’s tyre choice – both drivers bringing two sets of the hard tyres – is interesting as it hints at them looking at that option as well. We’ve seen a few races this season where some teams have gambled quite heavily on the softer compound tyres, only for that decision to backfire when the harder compound tyres proved to be a better race tyre, and the high cornering loads around Silverstone might make the hard tyres a more competitive choice this time around.

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