Mercedes pick fewest hyper-softs again for Russian GP

19 comments on “Mercedes pick fewest hyper-softs again for Russian GP”

1. 

   Joao (@johnmilk)
   18th September 2018, 17:02

   Expecting a fight NOT to be in the top 10 for the midfield teams
   1. 

      anon
      18th September 2018, 18:26

      @johnmilk, I think that the midfield teams are not going to be so concerned as they were in Singapore – whereas Singapore has a much more abrasive track surface, Sochi is a venue where tyre wear has tended to be towards the lower end of the scale and the first pit stops tend to be much later on.
   2. 

      Aaditya (@neutronstar)
      18th September 2018, 19:42

      @johnmilk Agree with anon here… remember last year when Hulk stretched the Ultrasofts he started his race on to over 75% of the race distance and was setting competitive lap times right until his pit stop? He was the last person to make a scheduled pit stop and he isn’t even known for his tyre conservation skills. Sochi has a far less abrasive track surface than Marina Bay circuit, so this is good news in a way. :)
      1. 

         Joao (@johnmilk)
         18th September 2018, 19:51

         You guys are right. I just can’t help but give little stabs at these tyres at the slightest opportunity.

         But I’m quite reasonable guy otherwise
         1. 

            anon
            18th September 2018, 22:49

            @johnmilk, whatever happens, it seems that there will be somebody taking jabs at the tyre manufacturers no matter how they perform.

            If the tyres wear out too quickly, then they are rubbish because “drivers can’t push”, but if the tyres are more durable, we then get people complaining that “the races are boring because we’re getting one stop strategies all the time”. Nobody ever thanked previous tyre manufacturers for their work, only criticised them when there were instances of their tyres not working properly, and that cycle continues now.

            Even when they work well, people still complain – I can recall that, during Bridgestone’s time in the sport, there were times when people complained that their tyres were too durable and making the races worse and worse. For example, in the 2010 Italian GP, where Vettel basically did the whole race on a set of soft tyres, there were fans who were complaining that “it was a joke” that he could do that and that Bridgestone were making the races dull by removing any element of strategy, not to mention making the races too processional because there was so little variation in performance and pace.

            In fact, there were a lot of people who were openly wishing that Pirelli’s tyres would fall apart a lot more quickly than Bridgestone’s tyres did and saying that they couldn’t wait for Bridgestone to get out of the sport. Of course, now we idealise what Bridgestone produced and criticise Pirelli – but I strongly suspect that, if F1 went back to those tyres again, they’d probably be popular for about half a season, then people would go back to the same complaints that they were making the last time around.
            1. 

               Joao (@johnmilk)
               18th September 2018, 23:13

               To each their own, I can say that I am consistent in that front. And pretty sure I only complainted about the tyres when they started to be designed to degrade. And note that I say tyres not tyres’ manufacturer
2. 

   Chaitanya
   18th September 2018, 17:14

   Again it seems like Ferraris have put themselves in a corner with not too many of hardest compound of tyres.
   1. 

      Jere (@jerejj)
      18th September 2018, 17:54

      @Chaitanya How come? The soft compound is more or less entirely useless on a circuit like this due to its rather extreme low-deg nature. The softer the compounds, i.e., fewer sets of the hardest compound available, the better on this type of track.
      1. 

         Neil
         18th September 2018, 18:49

         It doesn’t work like that
         Sometimes the harder tyre turns out to be better.
         1. 

            Ed
            18th September 2018, 19:09

            Remember Rosberg doing the entire race confortably with a set of tyres a few years back.
      2. 

         Chaitanya
         18th September 2018, 19:00

         This years Pirelli compounds have been temperamental(to say the least) and not having atleast 2 sets of hardest compounds means the driver wont be running them in FP1 or FP2 and get a good idea how the hardest compound is going to behave under race conditions. In terms of strategy team is going fo be locked in without having an option to think on the feet last minute in case something goes wrong.
         1. 

            mystic one (@mysticus)
            19th September 2018, 3:34

            @chaitanya
            “In terms of strategy team is going to be locked in without having an option to think on the feet last minute in case something goes wrong.”

            absolutely right… and ferrari as of late, has been way too overconfident of their car/performance and it bit them quite considerably… they think they will outqualify and lead the races, but when thing dont go their way, they dont have a good plan/strategy call and panic ensues, words flying “after” races… Ferrari instead of being ready for all situations, they just act untouchable…
3. 

   javier javier (@j3d89)
   18th September 2018, 17:24

   jesus, ferrari idiots!! mauricio must be fired… what a cr*ppy boss
   1. 

      Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
      18th September 2018, 18:38

      @j3d89 He’s not the person picking tire allotments…
      1. 

         David BR (@david-br)
         18th September 2018, 21:09

         @braketurnaccelerate But presumably he’s the person picking the tyre picking person. or maybe the person picking the person picking the tyre picking person.
   2. 

      GechiChan (@gechichan)
      19th September 2018, 8:37

      not sure what you mean, Ferrari seems to have picked very well IMO. The Softs on this track don’t get much use becuase the track is very low-deg and it is probably a couple of seconds slower than US. And Kimi has a couple of them, he can try one in Free Practice and assess the situation for both cars.

      Having too few hypers, like Mercedes, will be problematic for qualy or limiting one of their FP sesisons by not running the HS (like it happened in Singapore). If there is indeed a bad pick, i’d say that’s Alonso, with 3 sets of Softs and only 2 of US.
4. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   18th September 2018, 17:50

   Was the compound combination selection altered later? I recall it initially being HS/US/SS, which would indeed be better for this particular circuit since the soft is more or less entirely useless on a low-deg track like this.
5. 

   dusty (@dusty)
   18th September 2018, 17:52

   Renault is crazy. One driver tests the Soft, the other the Ultra, and that’s it. You have one set of either to run in the race. And you have one set of either to test knowing you won’t be able to use it in the race.
6. 

   Robert McKay
   18th September 2018, 21:44

   Strategically I can’t help but feel having the soft rather than the supersoft makes things less interesting, not more.

Comments are closed.