Pirelli is waiting for one pit stop

Pirelli considers the one-stop strategy optimal for Sunday’s race…

Mario IsolaPirelli: “As always during the weekend with the Saturday sprint, Saturday turned out to be intense. The sprint allowed us to evaluate the behavior of Medium tires over a long distance. Based on what we saw, yesterday’s data – very little wear and granularity – was confirmed. In the sprint we only saw one rider complete the entire distance on the Soft, so it is difficult to draw conclusions.

In qualifying we saw that the improvement in track conditions diminished and stabilized in the second half of the session. More important was the influence of the wind, the strength of which gradually decreased. The relatively low temperature of the air and track – around 20°C – forced the drivers to approach the lap differently. Some used the classic schedule with one fast lap, others warmed up in an extra lap, and still others, for example Verstappen in the final, alternated fast and slow laps.

It is worth highlighting that compared to last year, the results improved by 3.258 seconds with the same tires and technical regulations, but the cars were faster compared to 2021, when they weighed almost fifty kilograms less.

The one-stop strategy seems to be preferred. It is true that we saw some cars reach their tire wear limits in the sprint, but this did not lead to a significant drop in performance. Furthermore, the lack of serious braking points will make overtaking quite difficult, especially if the cars end up in the DRS train, as we saw on Saturday in Formula 1 and Formula 2.

Medium should be preferred at the start and a pit stop can be made between laps 16 and 24 to switch to Hard. Those starting at the back can use these connections in reverse, and those considering a two-stop option can make the most of the Soft’s best features early on and then continue the race on two hard sets, or perhaps one hard and one medium. .