Why Hamilton’s middle stint gave him cause for optimism: Race data analysed

9 comments on “Why Hamilton’s middle stint gave him cause for optimism: Race data analysed”

1. 

   AlanD
   14th April 2025, 0:07

   The tyre usage chart leaves me even more puzzled about Ferrari’s strategy. I thought they might have tried a one stop, but having decided to two stop, I wondered why they didn’t use softs for the middle set? I suppose they might have been planning to go medium medium soft, but the safety car took that option away. I also wonder though why teas never seem to try a split strategy, say one car going to another mediums and one to softs. As it happens, the safety car would probably have worked well for them if they’d had a car on soft for the middle stint.

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   1. 

      F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
      14th April 2025, 7:55

      In hindsight, they should have started on the soft tire and then do two stints on the mediums, like the McLarens. Ferrari apparently thought the soft tire would be the weak tire, so they chose to skip it, but it turned out the hard tire was the weakest tire. This miscalculation may have contributed to Leclerc losing second place at the start, and it certainly didn’t help them at the end of the race. He should have finished second.

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   2. 

      anon
      14th April 2025, 8:23

      AlanD, the strategy seems to have been to run the mediums for the first and second stints and the soft tyres for the last stint, when the track conditions would have been more favourable to using that compound.

      For a few years now, we’ve seen that teams generally don’t seem to think there’s any advantage in running the soft tyres for the middle stint – they either run it in the first stint for a better start off the line, or they run it in the final stint when the track conditions are more favourable for that tyre.

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2. 

   sumedh
   14th April 2025, 6:21

   The tyre performance was quite strange. Many drivers were able to do 25 lap stints on softs at the end of the race. However, the same softs on the same cars did barely 15 laps at the start of the race. Will tyre performance vary so much simply due to fuel weight? Or is there some other factor at play?

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   1. 

      Ivan B (@njoydesign)
      14th April 2025, 7:07

      Pretty much. Lighter car handles better, slides less and puts less stress on the tires. Plus the track gets more rubbered in during the race.

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   2. 

      F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
      14th April 2025, 8:00

      It’s probably the track condition that contributes most to this, the tires usually last longer when the track rubbers in. Plus, drivers may adapt their driving style if they know the tires have to last 25 laps. At the beginning of the race (especially the opening lap) they have to push hard to retain their position.

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   3. 

      Matthijs (@matthijs)
      14th April 2025, 8:47

      All of the above, plus pit stop strategies. I think there was some life left in the soft tyres after 15 laps, but the undercut was very powerful so people ditched their worn but not too worn red tyres to gain or keep track position.

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   4. 

      pcxmac (@pcxmac)
      15th April 2025, 13:04

      if everyone is on the same compound, competition is level, and more apt to be intense.
      if you have everyone on different strategies / tires, the disparity is much more clear, and overtaking is much more possible.

      As Russell showed last year, if you push just hard enough those tires will go the full distance, but could eventually ‘wear’ out, but would exhibit a much longer running life.

      However, Russell is also faster down the straight w/ DRS closed, than anyone else on the circuit, w/ DRS open and a draft.

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   5. 

      George.be
      16th April 2025, 14:51

      There are a few reasons why the soft was better at the end:
      -Lighter cars require less energy from the tires, so the chance on thermal deg is lower.
      -Track has more rubber, so it is less abrasive on the soft compound
      -Track temperature descends in an evening race (contrary to other circuits) This also helps the thermal deg, and might cause harder compounds to suffer more from graining.

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