Ferrari and Red Bull will take the maximum possible number of the softest available tyres for next week’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly will each have 11 sets of the soft C5 compound tyres, which are the softest available in F1 this year.Mercedes has chosen 10 sets of the C5s for its drivers, handing an extra set of medium compound C4s to Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
Only Racing Point and Williams will have fewer than nine sets of the C5s. The latter is also the only team to select three sets of C4s.
2019 Monaco Grand Prix tyre selections
| Driver | Team | Hard (C3) | Medium (C4) | Soft (C5) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| Pierre Gasly | Red Bull | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| Daniel Riccairdo | Renault | 2 | 1 | 10 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 2 | 1 | 10 |
| Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Lando Norris | McLaren | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| Lance Stroll | Racing Point | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Alexander Albon | Toro Rosso | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| George Russell | Williams | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Robert Kubica | Williams | 1 | 3 | 9 |
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F1oSaurus (@)
14th May 2019, 18:31
So if they run these in FP, there will not be a fresh set at all for the race?
DAllein (@)
14th May 2019, 19:46
Yes.
But. The degradation is minimal in Monaco, so “not fresh” tyres are still perfectly fine for the race.
On the other hand – if they test it in FP, and kiss the wall too much and the set is ruined… what they will do in the race, where they still have to run non-softs? Take on hards?
Of course position in King in Monaco… but with hards maybe even this won’t be enough.
So, Mercedes is just playing safe, Ferrari and Red Bull – more risky without entirely clear reason for this.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
15th May 2019, 8:12
*So this is RBs best chance to win a race I would say , if Merc wasn’t racing I say 100%
Ferrari will probably make more tactical mistakes , first and foremost not letting Leclerc loose. It’ll be interesting to see how McLaren go, Haas may do OK if they can keep Magnussen and Grosjean apart.
Despite Ricciardos good record at Monaco don’t expect much from Renault, in fact it won’t be till towards the end of the yr at least before they can do much.
*Merc won in 2016 with Hamilton, been in the top place getters since. Very good chance of a front row lock out this yr and 1-2 podium with Verstappen 3rd, if Ferrari continue to hold Leclerc back.
RB13
15th May 2019, 10:07
The Mercedes was quicker than the Red Bull in the final sector at Barca which the team has admitted, has a downforce deficit compared to expectation / last years car. Mercedes should boss it.
And Ferrari’s concept just lacks overall down force as a whole, they will more than likely be 5th and 6th at the end of qually.
anon
15th May 2019, 20:54
@johnrkh, as noted earlier, in the final sector at Barcelona, which has tended to be a sign of cars with good mechanical grip, Mercedes were fairly far ahead of Red Bull. In qualifying and race trim, they were consistently 0.4-0.5s a lap faster through that sector than Red Bull, who were closer to Ferrari than they were to Mercedes (Ferrari tending to be about 0.2s down on Red Bull).
The other potential area of concern is the indication that Red Bull have been having a few problems with their transmission recently. After qualifying for the Spanish GP, they had to change the entire driveshaft assembly on both sides of the car for Gasly and Verstappen, and in the post race tests they appear to have had at least two driveshaft failures (Gasly on the first day and Ticktum on the second day) – it’s also worth remembering Gasly’s driveshaft failure in Baku, which was just one race earlier.
Whilst not mentioned in the round-up article, there were those at the track who noticed that, after Ticktum had his driveshaft fail during the second day of testing, he was deliberately steering clear of the kerbs in the final sector and sticking to quite short runs (only 2-3 laps at a time) – which might suggest the team were nervous about another possible failure. If the driveshaft is potentially prone to failing when riding the kerbs or over particularly large bumps, the bumps and kerbs in Monaco might be more of a hindrance to them.