Mario Isola: Tire performance was as expected

As expected by the tire manufacturers, harder rubber compounds played a key role during the Jeddah race…

Mario Isol: “In terms of strategy and tire performance, the third-ever Saudi Arabian Grand Prix went largely as we had hoped. 80% of drivers started on Medium, allowing maximum flexibility in case the safety car appeared – and he took off after Lance Stroll stopped, when some had already pitted, and others took this opportunity to change tires .

The difference in speed and degradation between formulations was also in line with expectations. The Medium and Hard tires had hardly any wear and the Soft tires had little wear – Charles Leclerc was the only one to spend a significant part of the race with this compound.

The low wear allowed even riders who switched to Hard before the safety car – such as Kevin Magnussen and Oscar Piastri, who completed them for 42 and 49 laps respectively – to cross the finish line and make spectacular overtakes in the closing laps. The Medium tires also showed stability, helping Lewis Hamilton to stay ahead of Carlos Sainz with their outperformance over the Hard tires shortly after the restart.”