Why Istanbul’s new surface caught Pirelli by surprise, and what it means for the race

Before practice started at Istanbul Park, most drivers talked up the challenge the track would present, particularly the dauntingly fast turn eight.

Several of them laughed off suggestions they might need extra padding around their cockpits to support their necks around the ultra-quick, quadruple left-hander. It turned out they were right – though not for the reasons they expected.

A few other drivers remarked on Thursday that the track surface was fresh and oily. Dirt had also accumulated on its surface, and when field took to the track on Friday, they found an alarming lack of grip. Even down the straights the cars were twitching.

Pirelli has brought its hardest tyre selection for this race. On the face of it this seemed a sensible move at the time – the track is known to be hard on tyres. But following the resurfacing lap times remain over three second shy of the 2011 pole position time, which current F1 cars were expected to easily beat.

Pirelli’s head of motor sport and F1 Mario Isola admitted they would be better off with a softer tyre selection. He said they hadn’t been aware of the resurfacing until it was too late to change the tyre selection, despite Pirelli having a factory around half an hour’s drive from the track.

“I believe it was quite a late decision from the circuit,” he said in response to a question from RaceFans. “We are well connected with the FIA in normal situations and at tracks where we’re used to going, we have information in advance.

“This year it was a bit more difficult: New local promoters and maybe the information was not so clear. But the result is that I got the information that the plan was to have a new Tarmac I believe four weeks ago, just before the start of the work at the track.”

In an ordinary season, in line with F1’s regulations, Pirelli declares its tyre compound choices nine week in advance for races held in Europe, and 15 weeks ahead for other rounds.

“Four weeks were not enough for us to change the allocation,” said Isola, pointing out that their F1 tyre production takes place not in Turkey but Romania. “We already produced the tyre and the tyres were travelling to Turkey.”

Pirelli’s presence near the circuit did allow them to inspect the near surface, which they discovered was very different to the old one.

“Our colleagues from our Turkish factory helped us to measure the Tarmac as soon as they finished resurfacing the circuit and it appeared that we had Tarmac that was very smooth,” said Isola.

“We measured it again yesterday and got slightly different numbers. But again, not a grained or aggressive asphalt like we used to have in Istanbul.”

It became clear the track no longer required the hardest rubber in Pirelli’s range. “Our decision on the allocation was based on the circuit layout and the severity of turn eight and also on the type of Tarmac and how the Tarmac is aggressive.

“So it is clear that the selection is a bit too hard for this circuit. In any case, everybody has the same tyres same allocations and number of sets so I don’t think there is a disadvantage for anybody.”

Drivers are likely to avoid the hard tyre in the race, which proved very hard to warm up on Friday. Graining appears to be a problem on the softer rubber, which may end up forcing teams to consider an approach other than the usual one-stopper.

“In our previous simulation we were assuming a one-stop strategy for the majority. Depending on the level of graining now, if we have graining also during the race on Sunday on the soft it’s possible that we have a two-stop strategy quicker than a one-stop strategy.

“The hard, I am not sure if it’s going to be a compound they will choose for the race. If they focus on medium and soft it is possible that we have a two-stop race.”

Obviously there was little which could be inferred from the lap times which were run. Interestingly, Red Bull were able to tackle turn eight flat-out, according to team principal Christian Horner. “They were flat,” he said. “Actually Alex was the first one to do it then closely followed by Max.”

They expect Mercedes will assert their usual supremacy on Saturday, and extend their unbeaten run in qualifying. But with track conditions this unpredictable nothing can be taken for granted about the race weekend ahead.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Combined practice times

Pos	Driver	Car	FP1	FP2	Total laps
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda	1’35.077	1’28.330	65
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1’35.507	1’28.731	70
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1’37.629	1’28.905	64
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’40.225	1’29.180	50
5	Alexander Albon	Red Bull-Honda	1’35.318	1’29.363	68
6	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri-Honda	1’36.738	1’29.689	69
7	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	1’35.543	1’29.944	68
8	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1’35.620	1’30.022	70
9	Lance Stroll	Racing Point-Mercedes	1’39.484	1’30.297	58
10	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault	1’37.216	1’30.907	60
11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point-Mercedes	1’38.612	1’31.104	59
12	Esteban Ocon	Renault	1’38.428	1’31.380	58
13	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’37.503	1’31.493	59
14	Carlos Sainz Jnr	McLaren-Renault	1’46.462	1’31.498	52
15	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1’45.156	1’31.660	54
16	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’41.035	1’31.932	65
17	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	1’49.256	1’32.302	55
18	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1’40.025	1’32.570	57
19	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1’41.854	1’32.807	57
20	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	1’38.508	1’33.488	57

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Sector times

Car number	Driver	Car	Best lap	Laps	Sector 1	Sector 2	Sector 3
33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda	88.33	37	32.743	31.116	24.471
16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	88.731	45	32.776	31.244	24.668
77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	88.905	42	33.03	31.323	24.552
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	89.18	39	32.976	31.416	24.548
23	Alexander Albon	Red Bull-Honda	89.363	42	33.117	31.379	24.867
26	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri-Honda	89.689	43	33.232	31.568	24.889
10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	89.944	43	33.378	31.579	24.987
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	90.022	41	33.238	31.616	25.002
18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point-Mercedes	90.297	38	33.382	31.903	25.012
4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault	90.907	39	33.408	31.538	24.865
11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point-Mercedes	91.104	38	33.822	32.092	25.19
31	Esteban Ocon	Renault	91.38	36	33.7	32.214	25.225
99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	91.493	39	34.039	32.42	25.034
55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	McLaren-Renault	91.498	40	33.938	32.003	25.257
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	91.66	35	34.126	32.39	25.036
7	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	91.932	43	34.119	32.076	25.242
63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	92.302	39	34.247	32.393	25.662
8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	92.57	33	34.297	32.513	25.365
20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	92.807	37	34.333	32.757	25.615
6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	93.488	40	34.919	32.839	25.57

Speed trap

	#	Driver	Car	Engine	Max speed (kph)	Gap
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	329.2
2	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point	Mercedes	328.2	1
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	Honda	325.9	3.3
4	23	Alexander Albon	Red Bull	Honda	324.7	4.5
5	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point	Mercedes	323.6	5.6
6	26	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri	Honda	322.5	6.7
7	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	322	7.2
8	4	Lando Norris	McLaren	Renault	321.6	7.6
9	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	Ferrari	321.4	7.8
10	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	320.7	8.5
11	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	Mercedes	319.1	10.1
12	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	317.8	11.4
13	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	McLaren	Renault	317.5	11.7
14	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	Honda	317.1	12.1
15	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	316.9	12.3
16	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	316.9	12.3
17	63	George Russell	Williams	Mercedes	316.7	12.5
18	31	Esteban Ocon	Renault	Renault	316.7	12.5
19	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	Renault	315.2	14
20	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	313.9	15.3

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2020 Turkish Grand Prix

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