By Carlo Platella
The new season opens with a highly tire-focused Grand Prix. Tires have already been at the center of qualifying, with the set of new softs making the difference in the fight between Verstappen and Leclerc for pole position. As per tradition, however, the race promises to be high degradation and with two stops, with a high strategic component. Simone Berra, Pirelli Chief Engineer, illustrates the race scenarios a few hours after the traffic lights went out.
Engineer Berra, what is the outlook for the Grand Prix?
“We don't expect anything particularly different compared to what we saw last year, with which there is a certain continuity. The cars are the same and so are the tyres, with the exception of the change in structure at Silverstone, which however did not change the performance or the way the compounds work in any way. We therefore still expect a two-stop race. Thermal degradation is the main source of performance loss here in Bahrain, we know this well. Wear is not a big problem: the performance life of the rubber is more limiting than the wear life.”
“We expect almost everyone to start on the soft at the start, as it provides significantly more grip than the medium and hard. However, someone who starts further back could start on the hard, sacrificing the start, and then take advantage of the C1 with a lot of fuel. However, I don't see this as realistic in the top positions. At the moment we don't see the medium as a racing tyre, having similar performance to the hard, but without a big advantage in terms of degradation over the soft. However, it tends to degrade and need to be managed. We saw it last year, in this year's tests and also in free practice, when the teams used as much C2 as possible to take them out of the allocation. In the last days of testing the average performed well on some cars, but when the track was very cold and heavily rubberised. We are not in these conditions, which is why it could be a tire for the last stint, in which however I believe the teams will focus more on either the soft or the medium”.
What are the most plausible strategies?
“The fastest strategies on paper are those that include two trains of soft and one of hard. You could therefore start with the soft ones, move on to the hard ones and end again with the soft ones. An alternative is to complete the first two stints on the soft tires and finish on the hard ones. More than half the grid has two sets of new soft tires and above all Red Bull did not keep the two sets of hards. Furthermore, last year they were the only ones to try a soft-soft-hard strategy, so we expect them to go with this strategy again in this edition. We believe that the other teams will instead focus on the soft at the start, switching to the hard in the central and final stages.”
“The three-stop strategy is slower at the moment. In the event of a Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car at the end, perhaps some team could take a gamble, come back and fit another set of softs to carry out a more aggressive stint. However, we don't see single parking as feasible. It is at least 8 seconds slower and requires a lot of tire management. In Bahrain it doesn't make much sense and hardly anyone will try it. Overall, the race will be played out a lot on the soft. Whoever manages to go fast while limiting the degradation of the soft rear will then be able to dictate the pace. Those who will suffer more from thermal degradation will have to either stop before they lift their foot.”
Could early parking be a variable?
“The undercut is very powerful. Given the high thermal degradation, stopping one lap early can save up to 2-3 seconds, if the pit stop is done well. It can also be a card to play: if you manage to stay ahead of those in front, you can anticipate the stop and attempt the undercut.”
Bahrain has some of the most abrasive asphalt of the year. How does this affect the deterioration of the rubber?
“In some circuits, the abrasiveness of the asphalt influences the wear of the rubber, deteriorating the surface part. However, this happens on those tracks where there is the risk of encountering graining and therefore the tire suffers more, because it works a lot laterally. However, the energies at play in Bahrain are not basically high, we are in the medium-low category. It is a more demanding track in traction. Wear is not critical, also because we select the hardest compounds in the range”.
“The abrasiveness of the circuit, however, influences the hysteresis of the tire, i.e. how much deformation energy is expended in completing one lap of the track. It is therefore not an energy due to lateral accelerations, but rather associated with deformations of the rubber due to a high grain size of the asphalt. All this deforms the tyre, generating heat and inducing degradation.”
At the end of Q3 Leclerc explained how not having two sets of new soft tires prevented him from testing the grip of the circuit. What is his reading of what happened?
“This weekend we had relatively low temperatures. The preparation lap has a great influence on making the most of the tire grip. In these two days it was more complicated to have the two axles balanced, because the rear gets to temperature quite easily, while the rear has a little more difficulty. Some riders suffered a little more to immediately find the performance on the first attempt. Having two new sets of tires allows you to have another chance in case of a mistake.”
“In Bahrain the performance recovery is poor: with a used tyre, it is very difficult to extract the peak grip again for the following lap. We did an analysis and estimated that 2-3 tenths are lost with used tyres. For this reason, once the tire has been used, if you have not done your best, you are forced to use another one. This is what happened with Leclerc in Q1 and prevented him from keeping two new trains for Q3. In any case, the preparation lap was crucial for many, even for the traffic. In order not to hinder those who are on their fast lap, those who are still preparing have to leave the road and for this reason they do not follow the tire warm-up plan perfectly. For this reason, perhaps you risk arriving at a flying lap with the front not yet ready for Turn 1″.
Mario Isola explained how the overall downforce has increased by 10% compared to 2023. Is it in line with forecasts and is it manageable during the season?
“Yes, it's in line with what the teams had simulated at the end of last year. It's hard to say if this will be the trend for the rest of the season, but we're not worried. However, we have the means of being able to raise tire pressures to accommodate the increasing load levels of the cars. Basically we will have an increase in pressure compared to the previous year, especially on the front.”
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