Formula 1’s Alternative Tyre Allocation split opinion amongst the top three qualifiers at the Italian Grand Prix.
The ATA is being used for the second time this season at Monza following its debut in July’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Under the regulations drivers are given fewer sets of tyres and much use specified compounds in each phase of qualifying: hards in Q1, mediums in Q2 and softs in Q3.The FIA is trialling the rule to assess whether F1 can bring two fewer sets of tyres per car each weekend. Under the ATA each driver has 11 sets available instead of the usual 13, and if the format was used at every race in 2024 F1 would require 3,840 fewer tyres.
Pole winner Carlos Sainz Jnr said the format has advantages and disadvantages compared to the usual arrangement.
“I think in FP1, FP2 and FP3 it’s maybe a bit more of a pain just not being able to put on as many tyres and learn from the car,” said Sainz.
“In qualifying, I like it. I like hard, medium, soft, having to adapt, having to find the grip. It becomes a bit more improvisation and feeling how much grip you’re going to find in Q2 and Q3.”
But the two drivers who qualified closest to Sainz did not agree. His team mate Charles Leclerc said he’s “not a big fan of it.”
“Q1, Q2, Q3 is okay, but free practice is not great. I don’t like it.”
Max Verstappen, who qualified second, sees little need for the rule. “It’s not necessary,” he said. “It doesn’t really change anything. The quickest cars anyway [are] at the front.
“And normally, also, the quickest cars on the harder compounds are even better. So it probably makes it even worse for the teams at the back.”
Pierre Gasly said he likes the “unpredictability” the format brings. However Sergio Perez pointed out the ATA made his weekend more difficult after a technical problem prevented him running at the end of final practice.
The Red Bull driver suffered a power unit fault which meant he could not run the soft tyre at the end of that session. “It’s quite tricky” said Perez, after qualifying fifth. “Especially if you have an issue like I did, you go completely blind and the first time you run the soft tyres is in Q3. Then you are always a step behind.”
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Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
3rd September 2023, 9:35
Given how many times Perez has failed to make Q3 this season, I think he has more important concerns!
F1 frog (@f1frog)
3rd September 2023, 9:40
I don’t really understand the pre-empted hatred of this format from so many. Maybe there are fewer laps in practice but I don’t think it made a huge amount of difference. In qualifying it makes almost no difference at all, but does cause the drivers to have to adapt which is interesting (in Hungary it was particularly exciting). And it reduces the number of tyres by two for every car so is more sustainable. I think that is worth it for the slightly lower amount of practice laps.
It is a shame the same attitude couldn’t be applied to the ban on tyre warmers which similarly would have cut emissions, while adding more driver skill to the first laps out of the pits.
MichaelN
3rd September 2023, 11:59
The headline is a bit questionable. The quotes from the drivers actually show:
1) They generally like it for qualifying;
2) They see it as a bit of an added challenge;
3) They want to do more testing in FP;
4) Verstappen for whatever reason thinks it’s meant to mix up the grid.
So it’s quite positive. And that’s good, because F1’s tyre use is ridiculous. It has to change, and it will. But the compounds also need to be changed to match that new approach. In the meantime, this format is the best they can do with the compounds they have.
falken (@falken)
3rd September 2023, 13:27
F1Fanatic in click bait headline shocker
Kris Lord
3rd September 2023, 9:45
I’m not overly bothered about practice – they sit in the garage and wait until others have cleaned the track at the best of times.
For qualifying I quite like the format. We see each cars genuine pace per session without slower cars swapping to a softer tire and then that snowballing into pretty much everyone using softs.
It also improves Q3 as teams should have enough tires for two runs.
Mark Tucker
3rd September 2023, 10:20
Every race it feels like they have new rules. Its hard to follow. Confusing tbh. One weekend its sprint racing, one weekend different tires, one weekend normal… like wtf?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
3rd September 2023, 10:33
I actually like that, variety is the spice of life, hungary was a very exciting qualifying session with the alternative tyre allocation, with a very strong alfa romeo in q1 and q2.
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd September 2023, 11:41
Unsurprisingly since they always tend to find arguments against certain aspects, including the planned blanket ban before, & many others.
S
3rd September 2023, 12:05
It seems to me (based on the selected quotes above) that both Ferrari drivers agree with each other even though the article states otherwise. Verstappen disagrees with (sorry, ‘rejects’ – to use the most common expression here) just about every change in regulations, Gasly seems OK with it despite doing poorly here as he clearly understands that it wasn’t the tyre rules fault, while Perez simply seems like he regrets not taking advantage of the available tyres on Friday instead.
Dan G (@dang)
3rd September 2023, 12:11
I like it. It was interesting to see the tyre offsets through Q1/2/3 and it makes little difference to the practice session. It’s good not to make and cart around the world so many tyres.
(I’m still disappointed that getting rid of tyre blankets has been delayed. That’s going to make for some epic racing with cars sliding around coming out of the pits!)
MichaelN
3rd September 2023, 13:58
Indeed, and it’s just another example of how the drivers are very present-focused. Which is good for an athlete, but not so much for making regulations.
It is not a secret that the current compounds would have significant issues without warmers, and would take quite a while to bring into a good window. The drivers know this, because they work with these tyres every other week. So when asked about banning warmers, they were against it.
But when Pirelli explained they would bring new compounds for use without the warmers, and that these would be in their window before the end of the outlap, the drivers didn’t know this, so they just kept repeating their earlier complaints.
The claim that F1 is wildly unlike any other racing series is clearly not true, and F1 would be just fine without warmers. But they would need new compounds, and so that’s exactly what Pirelli was going to bring. It was a big non-issue.
DaveW (@dmw)
4th September 2023, 12:22
Not a fan. Practice sessions and the development of set up and strategies through the weekend is part of the sport. I know it’’s a part a lot of people especially casually fans don’t watch and don’t care about. It requires you to study charts and graphs which is not DTS-friendly. And for qualifying the dynamic of different teams using different tires to advance while trying to save sets is also interesting. Let back markers go for glory on softs and put pressure on top teams. That said we should overalll go to two tire compounds per weekend. It’s odd to say we want to reduce waste but then bring a compound no one uses from fp1 if at all. I think this could overall reduce sets shipped but retain some benefits if letting teams experiment more freely.