Pirelli: Hembery, "a three-stop strategy is the fastest"

Lewis Hamilton e Nico Rosberg they gave Mercedes their seventh qualifying double of the season (but the tire strategy will be extremely important for tomorrow's race). Today was the most intense qualifying session of the year: Hamilton took pole position with an advantage of just seven thousandths of a second over his teammate, using the supersoft P Zero Red tyres.

During Q1, held with ambient temperatures of 28 degrees and track temperatures of 34 degrees, many drivers used both soft and supersoft tyres. However, all the riders finished the session on the supersoft tyres: an unusual situation as, generally, the top riders conclude Q1 using only the hardest of the two available compounds.
But, with a considerable difference in lap times of over two seconds between the compounds, it was also necessary for the leading drivers to use the supersofts in Q1: thus influencing the strategy for the rest of qualifying.

Normally the top 10 riders would have wanted two new sets of supersofts for Q3, to be able to do two flying laps for pole. Today, however, a number of drivers, including Hamilton, Ricciardo and the two Ferrari drivers, decided to do just one lap with the new supersofts in Q2, to make the tires last longer in Q3, where, according to the regulations of this This year, the top 10 receive an extra set of the softest compound to use in the session. All drivers completed two laps in Q3, saving a fresh set of supersofts for the second lap.

Singapore is the circuit with the highest number of corners of the entire season (23). This had the effect of accentuating the gap between the soft and supersoft tires chosen by Pirelli for this weekend, as it is in traction when exiting the slow corners, an element that characterizes the Singapore track, where most of the performance takes place.

As a result, overtaking is quite difficult and it therefore becomes vital to get a good grid position. But, with the significant gap between the two compounds, there could be many surprises on the track.

Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, was the fastest driver in the final free practice session this morning, where the single-seaters focused particularly on race pace. The Spanish rider, one of three riders who won in Singapore, set a time of 1m47.299s on the supersofts.

Pirelli Motorsport Director, Paul Hembery, commented: “We witnessed the most heated qualifying session of the season, thanks also to the two second difference between the compounds, even if the gap has decreased a little compared to yesterday's free practice. Because of this difference, strategy was crucial from the start of qualifying: all drivers had to use the supersofts in Q1 too. The battle for pole was extremely exciting, this is wonderful for the sport. For the race, we think a three-stop strategy is the fastest, although, with the gap between the two compounds slightly reduced, good management of the race pace or the entry of the safety car at the right time could make even two possible. only stops.”

The Pirelli forecast:

The three-stop strategy seems best for the 61 laps of the race. Our theoretical simulation, considering the high probability of safety car entry, especially at the beginning of the race, suggests starting with the supersofts, fitting the supersofts again on the 20th lap, a new set of supersofts on the 36th lap, and then mount the softs starting from lap 51 to complete the race.
On paper, this strategy turns out to be around 10 seconds faster than the two-stop strategy which involves a start on the supersofts, a new set of supersofts on lap 22 and finally softs on lap 44.
Indeed, there is historically a 100% chance of safety car entry in Singapore, and this will clearly have a significant effect on strategy.