Izola: It is difficult to predict the ideal moment for a pit stop

Charles Leclerc won pole in Monaco for the third time in his career, and the first two rows of the starting field were occupied only by Ferrari and McLaren drivers. Pirelli summarized the day’s results from the tire manufacturers’ perspective.

They noted that the soft C5 tires, mainly used during qualifying, performed effectively and provided good grip on the narrow and winding city circuit.

Mario Isola, Director of Pirelli Motorsport: “Saturday’s events in Monaco usually generate great interest – and that was also the case this time. The 60-minute qualifying session, which decided what the starting field would look like, was an exciting battle and the uncertainty remained until the very last moment.

Congratulations to Charles Leclerc for his third pole position at his home circuit, but the other 19 drivers also deserve credit: it’s always breathtaking to see them tear through these streets and hit the barriers.

Leclerc was already the fastest on Friday and this was repeated today, but the battle was very fierce; The best times in three qualifying sessions were achieved by three riders from three different teams, while the difference in results was very small, and this is confirmed by this fact: the best 15 results in the first part of qualifying were within just four tenths.

From a technical point of view, it was also confirmed that the C5 compound works perfectly on this type of track with this type of surface. Compared to last year’s qualifying, lap times have increased noticeably and pole time has improved by over a second. It is even faster than the results that teams achieve on simulators (1:10,500).

Today was very interesting and now we can expect the race to follow a fairly predictable scenario with only one pit stop. Medium and hard rubber compounds will be used. Those who decide to start on hard tires will try to extend the first stint as much as possible in the hope that the safety car will appear, allowing them to make a pit stop with minimal loss of time.

But predicting the ideal period for pit stops is quite difficult, because it will depend on whether there will be incidents on the track that could lead to certain opportunities. But theoretically, the pit stop period could be from lap 25 to lap 35 for those who prefer to start on Medium and then go to Hard. For those who choose the Hard-Medium option, this window should be between 45 and 55 rounds.

Within 24 hours we will know to what extent these predictions come true.”