Pirelli is unsure about what the best strategy will be for the Las Vegas Grand Prix after a wet Formula 1 qualifying session that offered little valuable data.
Drivers were dealt with low-grip conditions in the cold Vegas night, while on a combination of intermediate or full-wet tyres, and many claimed it was the worst they had faced since joining F1.
The issue is that the forecast predicts a dry race, meaning little was learnt from an unrepresentative qualifying and teams cannot even use much of the data they gathered in practice either.
That’s because FP1 and FP3 started three-and-a-half hours before the grand prix is scheduled to do so, while second practice was disrupted by two red flags which prevented teams from attempting many long-run programmes.
F1 tyre supplier Pirelli therefore thinks teams must be open in their strategic options and that a lot of it depends on how much the compounds – C3, C4 and C5 – suffer from graining.
“The one-stop and two-stop are very close, so I don’t have a clear idea if they are planning a one-stop or two-stop,” said Pirelli’s motorsport boss Mario Isola.
Red Flag, Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
Photo by: James Sutton / LAT Images via Getty Images
“For sure with the very little data that are available they need to be flexible, because we know that the track is green. We know that with the green track yesterday they had graining.
“If at the start of the race they have to push, because they are fighting for the position and they initiate graining, then it’s difficult to clean it.
“In that case a two-stop could be an advantage because if you start losing, if you start having degradation because of the graining, that is not manageable.
“You simply have degradation and probably here a lot of understeer, because the graining is more on the front, then you have an advantage to stop twice and fit fresh tyres and use the advantage of a fresh tyre and maybe undercut those.”
It is not even known which side of the grid offers the most grip, however Isola does know that maintaining good graining levels in the opening laps is key and that may enable a one-stopper.
“The quickest strategy for us is starting on the medium and then moving to the hard, one stop, with a window between lap 20 and 26,” he added.
Mario Isola, Racing Manager, Pirelli Motorsport, in the team principals Press Conference
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“We know that the majority of the teams decided to keep both sets of hard available for tomorrow and that’s a good indication, because yesterday we had some graining on the medium and then also on the soft.
“Yesterday we saw more graining on the medium, mainly because they used the medium on high-fuel runs and so it was more representative. But the medium and the soft are both developing some graining, so you have to manage both compounds.”
The challenge of overtaking around the Vegas street track makes Isola think teams may prefer the one-stop, but that doesn’t mean there is a huge disadvantage in pitting again either.
“If for any reason they start on the medium, they have to anticipate the first stop between lap 12 and 18, then they can move to the hard and then they have another set of hard to finish the race,” said Isola.
“This second option, medium-hard-hard, on paper is very close in terms of total race time to the one-stop. We know that one-stop is the favourite because of the track position, they don’t want to take any risk for an additional stop and so on, but the medium-hard-hard, you don’t have a disadvantage.
“The same for a medium-hard-medium, but we know that very few drivers have two sets of medium.
“If anyone wants to use the soft, there is a possibility to do a soft-medium-soft or another combination of two-stop strategies, but with the soft I believe that you need to consider a two-stop strategy. This is what we have learned.”
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