George Russell has urged the FIA not to resort to forcing all drivers to make three pit stops in tomorrow’s Qatar Grand Prix.
The sport’s governing body is considering the move in response to the tyre problems which emerged during the only scheduled practice session at the Losail International Circuit on Friday.The FIA has already adjusted the track limits at two corners on the circuit in order to prevent drivers from running onto the kerbs which F1’s official tyre supplier believes are chiefly responsible for the damage they observed. It arranged an extra 10 minutes of practice to allow drivers time to acclimatise to the new track perimeter.
However as no drivers have run any stints of comparable length to what they could reach in Sunday’s 57-lap grand prix, the FIA indicated it may impose a maximum stint length or require all drivers to change tyres at least three times.
Russell does not believe the latter step is necessary. He said having to work with limited tyre data is a feature of F1’s sprint race format at a track where the series has only raced once before and which has been refurbished since.
“It’s kind of part and parcel of a sprint race weekend,” said the Mercedes driver. “If we go to a track like Barcelona, you did the practice, you know in the race after all of the information gathered, it has to be a two or three-stop. If you try a one-stop, it’s just not going to work.
“This weekend, we had no data. Had we had the three sessions we’d have learnt that the tyre’s wearing and you got to do a two or three-stop.
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“So, I think what the FIA did with the small modification to the track was good. I was a bit sceptical but I thought it was a good step. But I don’t think they need to intervene to say it needs to be a mandatory three-stop.
“I think give us the data, see how much wear there was on the soft, the medium and we should all be smart enough to make a decision based on that.”
Pirelli hoped to gain more useful information from today’s 19-lap sprint race. However the safety car was deployed on three separate occasions which reduced the amount of full speed running which took place.
Nonetheless Russell, who will start the grand prix from second on the grid, believes “you should be able to see even with the 10 laps we did, how much wear there is, how it would have progressed had there been a 19-lap race, and how that’s going to be into tomorrow.”
“It’s just part and parcel of not having much running,” he added.
Sergio Perez is also hopeful no further changes will be needed after the revised track limits were put in place for qualifying. “Today I think Pirelli will have more information on if they think it’s all safe to go then there shouldn’t be any changes,” he said.
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His Red Bull team mate Max Verstappen said the situation was “never a good look for the sport” but that safety had to be the top priority.
“Tomorrow it’s important, of course, that safety is foremost and that we don’t get any punctures or, even worse, accidents,” he said. “So let’s see what happens tonight.”
“Let’s first wait and see what they come up with, with the analysis after the sprint race, what their findings are,” he added. “For sure even in the sprint race you could see that there was a lot of deg on the front tyre, especially front-left, it was wearing a lot. It’s very tough around here.”
Verstappen also said the speed with which changes had been made to the circuit showed that previous requests from drivers which were not heeded could have been acted on.
“Of course they already changed the two corners in the high-speed corners, which I find quite interesting how quickly these things can be changed but when we speak about we want to have track limits changed here and there with the white line or whatever, it’s all very hard. So I think that’s also something for the future that we need to speak about because I think we need to be heard a bit more.”
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2023 Qatar Grand Prix
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Craig
7th October 2023, 22:27
Rather then forcing 3 mandatory pit stops, leave the rules as they are and advise the teams to make 3 stops instead. If they have issues then they at least can’t say they weren’t warned.
Doggy
7th October 2023, 22:39
+1. Democracy shall prevail.
Yellow Baron
7th October 2023, 22:58
It’s isn’t about the amount of stops though, it’s the max stint length. A driver could make a stop in 3 safety cars but doesn’t actually meet the safety check. I say impose impose the max stint length as said which will require 3 pitstops, at least it’ll be something different for once and people could definitely get caught out with safety cars. Itll probably make it Atleast a bit more interesting because they’ll actually be pushing for once in a blue moon instead of saving tyres to avoid making too many stops. bring it.
Jordi Casademunt (@casjo)
7th October 2023, 23:18
He’s got the wrong tyres for a 3-stop.
Leaving it to the teams when it’s a safety issue is not an option. The director of the GPDA should know it.
slowmo (@slowmo)
8th October 2023, 0:29
If the tyres aren’t safe then don’t race and say its because of the tyres. The precedent has been set by Indianapolis 2005. Let the teams manage the risk or retire their cars.
PeterG
8th October 2023, 2:01
From a pure racing perspective mandatory stops via mandated stint lengths never do anything but limit strategy options and make the racing worse.
From a sporting perspective it highlights the downside of the show over sport approach in terms of the silly sprint format and limiting practice time. In an effort to spice things up by giving them less data your doing the same to the tire supplier who need more data rather than lee in order to make tires that arenot only safe but also usable.
Imagine if this was the 2 day format Liberty have in the past mentioned wanting. We’d be going into the GP after 1 practice session & a qualifying session with virtually no long run data. That would not only be a safety issue but it’s also unfair to Pirelli who would no doubt get the brunt of the bad publicity should the concerns prove founded.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th October 2023, 5:51
I agree. A maximum stint length per compound or something like this should be enough to mitigate risks.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
8th October 2023, 8:22
Just out of interest, what penalty would we apply to someone who does 2 laps more that the maximum stint length? If the team can prove the tyre was sound and the lap times comparible to earlier in the stint, unlikely but hypothetically, why should a team be penalised for mitigating a risk by driving well or below the required speed? If they can make a 2 stop happen and breach the rule twice is that 2 drive throughs? Is it an instant DSQ? Is it 2 5 seconds? We need to be really careful here about putting rules in on the fly.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th October 2023, 6:07
@rbalonso Because proving it requires a specialist microscope that nobody has on site.
The only option if anyone went over the stint limit would be disqualification, as this is a breach of the technical conformity of the car.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th October 2023, 6:09
(Pirelli are flying out the tyres to their own labs, where the nearest specialist microscope in F1’s compass is, and it’s needing 8-12 hours to get the data as a result. Unless you want to wait half a day to know if a result would be kept (Liberty Media certainly doesn’t…))
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
8th October 2023, 8:12
I’m against mandatory put stops in general, never mind a high number.
Maximum stint length doesn’t work either. There are too many variables – fuel load, traffic, downforce level, suspension setting, track temperature, driving style. Its wrong to tell a driver who has a car with a tyre wear advantage to stop because of hypothetical failures.
At Indy 2005, we had a banking where the year before Ralf had a huge crash, broke his back and was out for several races. In practice he then had another huge crash and then so did Zonta. The rules also prohibited in race tyre changes. At least here we had real world examples.
So, these are similar events but not identical. A closer comparison would be the British GP 2013, but just a few races before Alonso and Ferrari were lauded for a genius 4 stop. I think the teams need to manage their own destiny, they’re far enough into the season to know how their car performs and had a dress rehearsal last night.
What I don’t want to see is an arbitrary number placed on tyre life. If the tyre fails before that number, the sport is back in controversy central with Pirelli. If a safety car comes out when you’re approaching a pit window then you could effectively end up with the ‘pits closed’ farce of the late 2000s where drivers lost out on great strategies by a lap due to a quirk of the rules.
F1 needs to stop legislating it’s way in and out of problems.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th October 2023, 6:11
Would you prefer cancellation?