Bernie Collins on team tactics in Melbourne

Bernie Collins was recently Aston Martin’s chief strategist, and now she’s mastered another profession – making her first appearance on Sky Sports over the weekend in Jeddah, and commenting on the teams’ tactics in Melbourne after the Australian Grand Prix on the official championship website.

The 2023 Australian Grand Prix was marked by safety car and red flag appearances – how did the teams react to this and why? Who has been able to win something on this and who has missed their chance?

For the weekend in Melbourne, the tactic of one pit stop was considered optimal: a start on Medium tires and a second segment on hard tyres. However, due to the rain that accompanied the second practice, the teams did not get the chance to properly handle the rubber work.

When Alex Albon crashed the car in turn 7 on lap 7, the teams had to make big decisions. Is it time to take a pit stop and switch to Hard? Then it would be possible to reach the finish line and omit the next visit to the pits.

During the period when the safety car is on track, the loss of pit stop time is reduced by approximately 6 seconds compared to a scheduled tire change, as the cars that remain on track move slowly.

Leclerc’s crash on lap 1 had already caused a safety car to appear on track for three laps. Therefore, when the safety car came out again on lap 7, the teams only had information about the behavior of the rubber, gathered in just three “normal” laps. And on this basis it was necessary to make this or that decision.

On lap 7, three cars pitted in this situation, with the result that their drivers were in an unfavorable position as the battle on track was soon interrupted by red flags. During the stoppage of the race, all participants can change tires in the pit lane, and this will not affect their positions in any way. But what happened to those three who had already pitted?

George Russell

Mercedes cars took the lead in the race and this gave them several advantages, but there was also a downside. First, the difficulty is that leaders have the least amount of time to make decisions. The safety car came onto the track 31 seconds before Russell reached the pit lane entrance.

Second, neither he nor Hamilton saw the accident happen and didn’t pass by this spot, so they had no idea how serious it was or whether there was any potential for red flags. However, in fact none of the riders who remained on the track spoke about this.

Because the Mercedes cars shared an interval of just one second, the team could only invite one person to the pits, so they preferred to call whoever was in front, believing such a tactic to be preferable.

Immediately after the pit stop, when the red flags hadn’t come up yet, Russell said over the radio: “A bold decision, I like it.” But with the red flags already flying, he had to add, “Guys, this isn’t your fault, the decision was the right one…”

At that point, as the safety car came onto the track and Russell turned into the pits, Hamilton, who remained on the track, complained over the radio: “This puts me at a very disadvantageous position.”

His engineer replied, ‘We don’t think so. Verstappen also stayed on track.”

Carlo Sainz

The Ferrari team was in a slightly different situation. Since Charles Leclerc had already retired, they did not have to think about the interests of both riders and resort to separate tactics. The Scuderia followed Mercedes’ example, but they had to take into account another factor, whose name is Sergio Perez.

Perez started from the pit lane on hard tyres, and when the safety car first came onto the track, he visited the pits twice – first fitted with a set of Medium tires and then reverted back to Hard. This meant that he never had to stop again.

When the safety car took off, Sainz asked if Perez was going to the pits. Carlos was told that Sergio was running at the very back of the pack on hard tires and that he no longer needed a pit stop. This suggests that the Spaniard and Ferrari strategists followed Perez’s actions.

Even before the start, Sainz asked the team: “Let me know on which circles Perez can pit, taking into account the chance of a safety car.”

So much attention to Perez’s tactics speaks of plans to pit during the second safety car exit: less time lost in the pits ultimately allowed Sainz to stay ahead of the Mexican. After that, both were on tires that allowed them to reach the finish.

Kevin Magnussen

As with Mercedes, both drivers in Haas were initially on the same tactic, so the American team preferred to break it up as early as the Grand Prix. But they decided to pit Magnussen, who drove behind his partner – this probably indicates that Haas did not prefer such tactics.

But whoever they invited to pit, this driver would still be the last to return to the track. That’s why it made sense for Haas to call Kevin, since he was losing less ground.

Those who stayed on the job

All other drivers still had to make a mandatory pit stop because they stayed on track, either because it was too early to stop and change tires or because they didn’t want to risk losing too many positions because the pack was very tight .

There is no doubt that on the “captain’s bridges” of all teams there were heated discussions about the likelihood of the appearance of red flags, they want it and did not enter the radio traffic. But now many are diving into a detailed analysis of Sunday’s events as they try to see if it was possible to make a more accurate prediction for the race, taking into account the red flags that mixed up the cards for everyone.