Izola: The tires showed the expected level of degradation

The Singapore Grand Prix ended with the first victory of the season for Carlos Sainz and the Ferrari team. The head of the Pirelli racing division, Mario Isola, summarized the results of the fifteenth stage.

Mario Isola: “Today’s Singapore Grand Prix was a great advertisement for Formula 1. I think everyone on the track and in front of the TV held their breath as the top four battled in the closing laps to see who would put an end to the dominance of Red Bull this season. Great performance, not just from these four, but from everyone else. I’m not just talking about the drivers, but also about the team strategists who helped put on a great show with very intense tactical battles.

As far as the tires are concerned, ‘control’ was the best word to describe the day. Throughout much of the race we saw the riders manage their pace to ensure they were in the best possible shape to not only achieve their goals but also be ready to take advantage of opportunities should they find themselves later occur.

For example, Charles Leclerc’s decision to start on Soft allowed him to immediately overtake George Russell and create a gap between the Mercedes driver and the leading Carlos Sainz. Or Mercedes kept an optional Medium kit for their drivers, allowing them to get the most out of the virtual safety car and then attack all the way to the finish, battling Sainz for the win.

From a technical point of view, all three tire compounds showed the expected level of degradation. The one-stop strategy was the fastest, while the two-stop strategy only worked when the safety car was on track.

Hard and Medium tires appeared to be the most used, which was also expected, while Soft was mainly a compound for qualifying, but still played a role in the first stint.”