Super-soft tyres which ‘last ten laps’ will dictate Monaco strategy

2011 Monaco Grand Prix preview

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Start, Monte-Carlo, 2010

There won’t be many races where tyres aren’t a big factor this year.

But they will be especially crucial in Monaco as Pirelli bring their super soft tyre for the first time. The red-walled tyre will be offered alongside the soft.

Pirelli say the super-soft: “has an anticipated range of fewer than ten laps: even less at the beginning of a race when the cars are full of approximately 200 litres of fuel.” Three ten-lap stints on super-softs would lead drivers needing to complete 48 laps on their remaining soft tyres.

Practice will give an indication to whether this prediction is true, but if so it will present the teams with some tough strategic choices. Could this finally be the race where someone in the lower reaches of Q3 takes a gamble on starting on the harder compound tyre and makes it work?

Front runners

Sebastian Vettel arrives at the Monaco Grand Prix as the reigning world champion, but he’s yet to win F1’s most prestigious race.

He drove a magnificent race on his F1 debut here in 2008, finishing fifth in the rain for Toro Rosso.

But he crashed out in 2009 and was beaten by team mate Mark Webber here last year.

Another win this weekend would be his fifth of the year which, along with his second place in China, would match the best ever start to a season achieved by Nigel Mansell in 1992 and Michael Schumacher in 1994.

It’s hard to see a driver in this kind of form getting beaten, but the unpredictable nature of the track combined with the changes in racing this year brought about by the new Pirelli tyres could present his rivals with an opportunity.

Ferrari anticipate that the switch to softer compound at this race will play into their hands having struggled on the hard tyres in Spain.

Fernando Alonso’s race last year was ruined when he damaged his chassis in a crash in practice. He has a great chance to make amends for that this year – he dragged the maximum out of the Ferrari in Spain and Monaco is a track that rewards a driver who can wring everything out of his car.

Another driver who had a forgettable weekend last year was Jenson Button, who retires early on after a cover had been left on one of his radiators, causing terminal overheating.

McLaren showed strong race pace in Barcelona and Button proved once again that if anyone can nurse an extra few laps out of a set of tyres, it’s him. That could serve him very well this weekend.

DRS

The Drag Reduction System is likely to be far less useful for overtaking in Monaco’s narrow confines. It will be used to give drivers a chance of overtaking into the first corner, Sainte Devote.

Following complaints from some drivers, the FIA has taken the unusual step of banning them from using it through the corner in the tunnel on safety grounds. This is the first time they have prevented drivers from using DRS outside of the normal restrictions.

Even in Spain, where DRS proved far less effective, there were several dozen passes. Whether the drivers can complete this many overtakes in Monaco without incident will depend on how co-operative they are with each other.

The safety car was deployed four times in last year’s race and it wouldn’t be a surprise if it made its first appearance of 2011 this weekend.

This doesn’t just go for the race, but qualifying as well. Despite worries from some drivers, Q1 passed without incident last year.

But that was partly because drivers knew that if one lap was spoiled their tyres would be good for another go. That will probably not be the case with Pirelli’s fragile super-softs.

That means striking the balance between qualifying well and preserving tyres will be all the more difficult at Monaco.

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2011 Monaco Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    110 comments on “Super-soft tyres which ‘last ten laps’ will dictate Monaco strategy”

    1. super soft only 10 laps? and the soft 15-17 laps? How many pitstop they will do? 5? 6? :-D

      1. The race is 78 laps I think. So the teams have 3 sets of super softs (that will last 30ish laps according to Pirelli), they’d need to cover 48 laps on the softs. Looks like 4 stops to me.

        1. I think my own calculation is out! 48 laps on 2 sets of softs, unlikely!

          5 stops it is!

          1. yup, if you get a puncture at some point and lose a set, you wont have enough tyres to finish the race! we could see a retirement due to having no wheels to put on the car !

            1. I’d go for 5 stops too.

              The 3 super-softs for ’30ish’ laps and I think 2 set of softs is going to be needed for ~48 laps. Or even all 3 making it 6 (!) stops.

            2. Another interesting point to make is the performance difference between the softs and super-softs. If it’s not that big (I doubt it is), then some would use mostly softs and one less super-softs. That way you could relatively easily make it with 4 stops. (1 set of super-softs, and 3 set of softs. Or 2-2. With 3 super-softs you should insert a 5th stop.)

            3. They’ll simply put the least used tyres back on the car. The might end up with a soft on the left and a super-soft on the right but there you go.

              The interesting thing with this is that in Monaco no matter how badly the tyres wear, qualifying is crucial. You couldn’t afford not to qualify. If you made Q3 you could consider not qualifying but that’s about it.

              If I was a team manager I would be attempting to use the same set of Super softs for at least 2 runs in Q1/Q2. There is no point putting a set of tyres on your car for only 5 or 6 laps in a race. So you might as well try and use up the entire set. Besides it doesn’t matter if the tyres fall over the cliff on your warm-down lap.

            4. @Atticus You get it wrong. There is one less stop than the number of tyres used. 6 sets of tyres means 5 stops, not 6.

              It’s likely that the drivers will need all of them… and in my opinion that’s just ridiculous.

      2. 2 mistakes Keith – I’m sure you meant Q3 when talking about qualifying on the harder (soft) tyre. And McLaren was fast in Spain, not Turkey.

        1. Fixed both, thanks.

          1. Depending on the time difference between the two tyres, teams may use 2 sets of softs and only one set of super softs. The super softs will need to be able to make up the time of the extra stops to make it viable. Less pit stops means less chance to be overtaken in the pits.

            1. Yep. A 12-lap stint on super softs and two 30-something-lap stints on softs seem possible. That’s also why Pirelli are right in saying supersofts will last 10 laps and we’ll see 2 pit stops.

              Teams should watch out for Kobayashi if he starts on softs! Could be blocking them heavily until his first stop.

        2. They weren’t THAT bad in Turkey! :)

      3. The Sri Lankan
        26th May 2011, 3:38

        i think everyones forgetting that the Sauber and the Renault is far easier on the tires than the rest. hope they get to mix it up at the front

      4. Formula 1 is no longer about racing, but pitting. A pity – this great sport has degenerated into a maze of tyres wearing out and pit strategies planned by boffins at the pit box.

        F1 – The Ultimate in Racing Technology
        F1 Tyres – The Ultimate in How Not To Make Reliable Tyres
        F1 racing – Learn chess by becoming an F1 driver. Nowhere will you learn strategies better

        This is Formula 1 at its hilarious best!

    2. The wierd thing is that Pirelli say the supersofts will do 10 laps, but in another article (I think it’s on Autosport) they say that they expect 2-stop races at Monaco.

      Somehow I doubt you’ll see Soft tyres do 34 laps.

      1. Maybe on the Sauber they will. And Renault think they are good on the tyres as well.

        1. They do, but how much of that have we really seen? They’re saying they’re kind on their tyres the whole time, but I don’t think they’re much better than anyone else. They’ve had pretty much the same number of stops as others at most races.

          1. I meant Renault here, just to be clear.

      2. Pirelli also said they were unhappy that the number of stops is so high. They apparently stated that 4 stops are too high and they are aiming for three in the average race.

        Then they proudly come along boasting that their new tyre does less than 10 laps.

        CONFUSED!

        1. Well, the Monaco track is very easy on the tyres, look at Alonso last year, so I think 20-25 laps on the soft tyre isn’t as bad as you think, they managed about 16 in Spain

        2. If the time difference between soft and supersoft is significant i think we will all be confused come sunday. Some of the races have been hard to follow this year and monaco with its short lap and traffic problems,people on new tyres trying banzai moves,and possible safety cars etc,this could be the hardest.Also traditionaly monaco rubbers in well and is easier on tyres as the race goes on.

    3. Less than 10 laps? Will they even have enough sets of tires to finish the race?

      I love the new tires but this could be too far and turn the Monaco GP into a bit of farce.

      1. Yeah, and they talk about races decided on track not in the pits. No really, tires that last only 10 laps – how stupid and artificial F1 can get?

      2. As it was last year – ending in procession drive, albeit signalled on track as if racing was commenced at the start-finish straight on last lap.

    4. Wasn’t Schumachers best start 1994, not 1993?

      1. Ahh! You’ve beat me to it Keith!

    5. Brilliant – that means high speeds – lots of pitstops and utter confusion! Just what I love (might sound sarcy but trust me it’s not!)!

      I’m really looking forward to Monaco for the first time in ages!

      5 or 6 stops! Amazing!

      1. The teams can’t do six stops, Ben – they don’t have that many sets of tyres!

        1. Intermediates.

          1. lol that would be brilliant, running out of slicks and having to use wet tyres

            1. Ok, I recall my previous comment about the Monaco GP and now am looking forward to seeing teams run on intermediates in the dry :D

            2. I suppose they only have to make it to two thirds of the distance on their available tyres and the race could be stopped – would be interesting to see the discussion, those who wrecked their tyres saying it is too dangerous, while the Saubers want to go the distance or something.

          2. Do you remember Kimi’s 2009 Malaysian GP radio “my tires are completely destroyed…. completely destroyed” :0

          3. Only, those are allowed for running only when the FIA deems the track damp, I think.

            1. I believe that when the FIA declares the track wet, you then MUST be on a wet tyre…no such declaration does not preclude you from running them in dry conditions.

              It is a safety thing to stop people taking a risk of being on dry tyres hoping for it to dry out I think.

        2. Haha – a very good point! I do apologise! I think I got slightly carried away in my excitement!

    6. This bodes well. I know a lot of people may not agree with me, but I love the Monaco Grand Prix because it is such a challenge for the drivers to even finish the race, let alone finish well. The level of concentration required to drive ‘a motorcycle around your living room’ is nothing sort of immense and while races around Monte Carlo typically do not involve a great amount of overtaking, I honestly think Monaco remains as much of a challenge, if not more of one, to today’s drivers as it did to the Sennas, the Laudas, the Hills and the Fangios of history.

      With the new super-softs, we may see another incredibly chaotic race, something that I wouldn’t mind at all. It’s not that I like watching crash-fests just for the sake of watching crashes, it’s more that having a race with a consistently high rate of attrition means that by the end of 78 laps, you know you’ve got a podium filled up with three truly commendable drives. I hope the tyres provide yet another challenge so that after Sunday I’ll be left in even greater awe of these incredible athletes than I usually am.

      1. Yes, “to even finish the race”. So far we haven’t seen the gull-winged SLS, but I fear that Monaco will bring it out (I hope that I’ll be proven wrong).

        Looks like prediction from Pirelli for two pitstops is kinda impossible, with 78 laps to complete and less than 10 laps for super softs.

      2. Very well said. And races of high attrition normally give us a surprise result! :D

    7. Have the people from Pirelli said anything about how much faster the super-soft tyres will be over the softs?

      1. Back in February Button put the gap at one second per lap:

        Button: we aborted our super-soft laps

        1. Thanks Keith. I think the 10 lap lifetime for supersofts is an underestimate by Pirelli. We’ve seen the soft tyres lasting longer than they predicted at most races so far. But a 5 stop race would be interesting, wouldn’t it?

          1. It will be interesting to see the kind of trains developed by drivers who have dropped off the cliff but remain out knowing they cant be passed.

            1. exactly, a very slow car can stick out infront, or behind! Double lap possible…

          2. At Monaco it sure would.

        2. So it’s possible that thew fastest few could even do Q1 and Q2 on the prime, saving two sets for the race? Depends on how close it is in Q2 obviously.

        3. James Allen talked to some strategists from the teams and the expected difference between the two compounds should be between 0,7 and 1 second.

    8. I am really looking forward to this. Doing 48 monaco laps on only 2 sets of softs (the harder tyre) sounds like a scenario to have some serious slipping around in the last 1/3 of the race.
      I hope we see some amazing car control again.

      1. I don’t know what to say… let’s wait and see! It surely will be chaotic!

        1. I love F1 this year!!!!!!!!!!!!

    9. Could this finally be the race where someone in the lower reaches of Q1 takes a gamble on starting on the harder compound tyre and makes it work?

      Do you mean Q3? Because I was thinking that before in the bath. Although I guess the only Q1 qualifiers we’ve seen work that strategy have been out of position so that makes sense too.

      Let’s see, 77 laps, 10 laps max on super-softs, we’re probably looking at a maximum of around 27 laps on them, that’s 50 for the softs. I think we might have a 5-stop race on our hands. But this could really be the chance for even a front-runner to qualify and start on softs, because it might actually end up saving you a stop. Or we could see everyone switch to the soft tyres at the first stop and try and save a stop that way.

      Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time Pirelli played down the durability of their tyres.

      1. Because I was thinking that before in the bath.

        You know you’re an F1fanatic when…

        1. What Steph said! :P (Now I feel like a bath!)

    10. Another win this weekend would be his fifth of the year which, along with his second place in China, would match the best ever start to a season achieved by Nigel Mansell in 1992 and Michael Schumacher in 1994.

      It’s hard to see a driver in this kind of form getting beaten

      Of course, but oddly enough Vettel might be shadowing Damon Hill’s 1996 season in another way: Hill won 4 of the first 5 races and only isn’t tied with Mansell and Schumacher because he got a 4th place at the Nurburgring. Then he came to Monaco and had an engine failure. Of course his biggest lead in the championship didn’t come until after the French Grand Prix, but my point is that that year the title went down to the last race. I’m not expecting Vettel to have as many retirements or make as many mistakes as Hill did, but Villeneuve didn’t win all of those races either.

      If McLaren can catch Red Bull (especially with the downfall of hot-blown diffusers), we may just see history repeat itself.

      1. 1996 was a Williams drivers fight for the title, Hill should have won it in plenty of time but for a few mistakes and an apparent inability to get keep the lead from pole… Its almost like his nerves made life hard for him that year. I don’t think any other team had a sniff at getting near Williams all year, although Schumacher did some great things with his pig-Ferrari.

        Webber does not look like getting near Vettel as that kid seems unflappable out front, so I can’t see this being another 96!

        1. Well obviously I’m over-looking the team aspect, I don’t follow them after all!

      2. Thank goodness SV’s season isn’t rife with controversy to the tune of 94’s Benetton issues of illegal refuelers, delays in providing computer access codes to the FIA (read illegal traction control), overly worn skidplates, and then of course the whack on DH for the ‘win’…oh, I know that didn’t all take place in the start of the season, but I’m confident the illegal refuelers and TC were there, so I don’t know how anyone can honour MS’s 94 season for anything. What a dark year that was for F1.

        1. I can honour the 1994 season, because it led to the sport having an undisputed driving god, who has smashed all records and won the WDC 7 times in a row. Love him or hate him, Schumi is the best driver ever to go out there, push himself and his car to, and over, the limit and live to tell the tale……

          1. 7 times in a row…wow, I guess I must have been asleep for a decade or so…I missed that…but I guess it is undisputed.

            1. Ok robbie we all know you dont like schumi.

          2. Not 7 times in a row! But otherwise I agree sam3110. :)

    11. You know, I can see an enterprising team/driver (say: Kovalainen, or maybe Kobayashi) qualifying on the supersofts and high up the grid, then pitting almost immediately (lap 5-8) and then running the rest of thye race on shiny new soft tyres…

      1. Sound_Of_Madness
        25th May 2011, 16:14

        Besides fun, I believe SS-S-S-S(-SS?) a nice combo for teams/drivers that can handle the soft harder compound. Enter Sauber, Buemi, Button…

    12. I am really curious how it all will play out. Will the combination of the tyres and DRS be enough to see a little more passing?

      I really love this race, and now it might have a little extra in the form of DRS, not as ‘push to pass’ button, but ‘possibility to profit from mistakes’, which is entirely fine with me.

    13. Personally I think 5 stops for a normal dry race anywhere is pretty ludicrous, but at Monaco its even more so. I’d be perfectly happy with a three-stop race with the possibility that someone may risk a two or a four or play the compounds differently. Why the hell would anyone want a grid of 24 cars forced into a completely insane number of stops? It’s idiotic.

    14. Tyres that can hardly last 10 laps ? Come on, Mister Pirelli, this is ridiculous…

      Moreover, 2 pitstops during a race is the maximum acceptable for me: if there is more, the race begins to become difficult to follow. I would like to see action on the track, not in the pits.

      1. PS: we were a lot to complain about refuelling, and we were (from my point of view), right.
        Today, even with the refuelling ban, we have more pitstops than ever ! Am I the only one to find it ridiculous ?

        1. yes, you are.

        2. No you are not.
          The original super soft tyre was only lasting 6 laps but they have re-engineered it. Still they do say less than 10 laps, do they mean 7,8,9? I agree with some other comments, in the actual race they have lasted very differently to what Pirelli have stated, normally a bit longer. This could be interesting if teams are out of super softs in 25 – 30 laps, if there is only a second in performance it’ll be best just trying to us the softs except from the mandatory run on super softs. I’m guessing this is why Pirelli are saying two stops. They really should get rid of the mandatory tyre rule.

      2. think pilrelli were told 2 produce this kind of tyres by FIA.. Too bad we have 2 focus for abt 110 pitstops for all cars…

      3. Pirelli are bringing exactly the kind of tire they were asked to.

    15. I’ll let Mark make a comment on Pirellis:
      Your China race was a sensation. It seemed that you pulled out all the stops and drove in a make-or-break fashion…
      MW: Yes, that’s what I enjoy at the moment: racing flat-out. Looking at the tyres and all that is part of the game now, but probably not an enjoyable part because we want to drive the car on the limit and push the boundaries – this is what Formula One is all about: pushing the boundaries to a complete limit for the drivers and the engineers and the car design. I hope to do a bit more racing like that in the future.

    16. As long as they do a good lap, I’d expect:
      Q1: – RedBull and McLaren: soft 1 run
      – Mercedes, Ferrari and Renualt: soft 2 runs
      Q2: – RedBull and McLaren: soft 1 run
      – Mercedes, Ferrari and Renualt: soft 1 run; supersoft 1 run
      Q3: – RedBull and McLaren: supersoft 2 runs
      – Mercedes, Ferrari and Renualt: supersoft 1 run

      Then in the race I think the best choice will be 4 stop unless the drop off on a set of tyres is big, but the softs are almost as fast as the supersofts. This is because track position is more important at Monaco, so unless you can come out in clear air from a stop, you could be screwed.

      4 stop:
      Lap 0 to 12 (12): used supersoft
      Lap 12 to 26 (14): new supersoft
      Lap 26 to 39 (13): used supersoft
      Lap 39 to 58 (19): new soft
      Lap 58 to 77 (19): used soft

      5 stop:
      Lap 0 to 10 (10): used supersoft
      Lap 10 to 22 (12): new supersoft
      Lap 22 to 30 (10): used supersoft
      Lap 30 to 46 (16): new soft
      Lap 46 to 61 (15): used soft
      Lap 61 to 77 (16): used soft

      1. Yes but I think the leader may try to limit his stops to 3, SS- S – S he can hold up all the opposition while he does this.

      2. Nice work laying this out. But you probably don’t want to put on the new SS at the first stop because you will be stuck in traffic and unable to pass without great risk. In fact, I think you hold on to those until your penultimate stint, in case you have a possiblity of over-cutting the man ahead, when the field will be spread out and thinned out. (If Hamilton did this in Spain would he have won?)

        Also, if you are RBR and possibly McLaren, I think you might want even want to start on the soft. Running long in the first stint will be vital:
        1. to ensure you don’t come out behind a Williams or worse, or some wise guy why started on the harder tire. Even if a Ferrari or Mercedes outqualifies you, they will stop a few laps earliers, and their fresh tires post-stop will be cancelled out by traffic.

        2. to protect against a leap-frog late in the race by someone who banked a 3-4 lap advantage early on–and puts on new SS for stint 3.

        3. The SLS will appear. You want to have the best option to stay out, rather than get shuffled back into a restart in which you can’t use your fresh tires and you have the risk of accident.

        I have a feeling that saftey car and the tires situation will make the race a bit of a lottery. More than usual.

    17. The race should be interesting around lap 50, when the entire track is coated in 2 inches of rubber.

    18. Sauber might be the team to watch this weekend. Unlike Renault, they actually have been consistently more gentle with their tyres. If Kobayashi or Perez can manage a SS-S-S-SS race, I think they will end up higher than they have done so far, simply because everyone else will need at least 4 stops.

    19. Surely it’s going to be tyre crazy this weekend! :D I’m used to looking out for the tyres now but i’m not going to be able to miss some nice red ones.

      It would be rather fitting if Ferrari managed to bag their first win as a result of red coloured tyres.

    20. I’m probably going to get bashed but I think that these new Pirelli tyres have ruined the season for me… every race has come down to tyre degradation and saving enough to actually have the right tyres to run during the race! Nobody pushes anymore… watching the onboard race video used to be my favorite part of the weekend but now it’s almost boring… how long will it be until teams start skipping part of quali just to save some fresh tyres for the race? Get into Q3… do one lap on the softs… start 10 and have lot’s of super softs to pass everyone while they struggle on the softs…. you win… 8)

      2 seconds a lap difference is ridiculous like in Spain… sure there’s lot’s of passing but it’s not because of skill or even the machine or driver…. it’s a matter of sitting ducks…

      I’ll still get up at 5am on a work day to watch… 8)

      1. Well, I can understand where you’re coming from. However, I absolutely loved Spain, the tyres and DRS created just enough extra overtakes and suspense to keep it exciting.

        But all those sitting Duck passes in Turkey made me sad.

        In the end, I still watch and felt rewarded after Spain.

      2. sid_prasher (@)
        25th May 2011, 18:41

        I also feel that the tyre situation is a bit out of control. As Mark said after China – there is no fun if the driver in front has no realistic chance of defending his position and far too many of the overtaking this year has been just that.

    21. What a headache for the teams!!

      What to do, do we use new tyre sets to qualify as high as possible, do we save new sets and try to do less pit stops than others?? Why keep new sets if you might get stuck behind slower cars?? Then again you are 1 sec faster with supersofts and free road ahead… ufff

      The Practice seassons will be crucial to choose between qualifying high or pitstopping less and all the wide range of possibilities in between.

      Exiting race ahead of us that will be decided by strategies and not that much by driver skills, i fear, always considering that just finishing a race in Montecarlo is only reserved for the talented…

      1. Qualifying high will be the way to go for most teams since it’ll be relatively easy for a car on worn tyres to hold back a quicker car, compared to other circuits. Making up places by stopping fewer times is not a realistic option except for Sauber and possibly Renault

    22. Any one else thinking that Sauber could be in with a chance of a big points haul here with them seeming to have the best car for tyre management.

    23. I reckon we will all get fed up of the pit action if we have the cars stopping every 10-15 laps as the camera men wont know where to look and we will most likely miss out on the majority of the action!! The prospect which excites me the most is the thought of the drives having to man handle their cars through the fast chicanes with worn out tyres.. the cars will certainly be sliding all over the place and for me watching lewis do that on the good bridgestone tyres was amazing so cant wait to see how they all handle it! will definitely become a true test of driver ability rather than machine this weekend!!

    24. It’s such a short pit-lane that I’m sure we’ll see 5 or even 6 stops in the race.

      It’s going to be crazy. Whether it will be good for F1 I’m not so sure.

      1. They can’t have 6 pitstops cause that would mean 7 sets of tires, and they don’t have that many! :) But yeah, i think we’ll see 5 stops too.

    25. since overtaking is so difficult at MOnaco, the race pace is not that important. you can keep a much faster car behind you even if your tyres are shot to bits. so qualifying will once again be very important and we might see teams using 2 sets of the super softs in Q3 (especialy if they only last 10 laps or so – not very useful in the race)

    26. I wonder if any drivers who get to Q3 will choose not to go out and do a qualifying lap and instead save an extra set of tires for the race. Or maybe even go out in Q2 on the harder of the tires hoping to start 11-14 but with several sets of tires saved for the race.

      Could this be a season where someone outside of the top ten wins Monaco without the assistance of the rain ?

    27. If its a minimum of 4 stops per car thats 96 pit stops in the race. If everyone 5 stops there’ll be 120! Could this be the first race with over 100 pit stops?

      If the supersofts last 15 laps per set, which is 150% what pirrelli say they will, thats 45 laps altogether on each drivers 3 sets, then I cant see anyone doing 33 laps on 1 set of softs, so I think everyone will at least 4 stop.

      If anyones hard on tyres then 5 stops maybe neccessary for them and maybe the front runners too will 5 stop depending on how much tyre they use building a lead and covering each others strategy.

      Plus come qualy if the tyres really do go off that quickly I think we could see most of the field only doing 1 run in q1, 2 and 3 to maximise their time on supersofts during the race.

      1. Going on the basis of last weekend’s TV coverage, when we seemed to be shown every pit stop in the race at the expense of on-track action. We’ll see the first eight laps and the last five – the rest will be pit stops!

    28. Who said it isn’t going to rain on saturday and sunday.

      1. according to this radar, there could be rain at 14:00 on sunday…
        http://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/gfse_cartes.php?&ech=102&mode=2

    29. This doesn’t just go for the race, but qualifying as well. Despite worries from some drivers, Q1 passed without incident last year.

      But that was partly because drivers knew that if one lap was spoiled their tyres would be good for another go. That will probably not be the case with Pirelli’s fragile super-softs.

      This is what I love about your site Keith. I would never have considered that had you not pointed it out – and it’s a valid point. I expect there will be more than a few drivers consulting the FIA feeling they had been impeded by another driver this weekend…

      1. True…maybe many won’t use the super-softs until Q2 and only if absolutely necessary, and then for Q3 there are only ten cars on the track maximum at once, so perhaps impeding won’t be an issue, but the potential sure is there bigtime.

        1. We haven’t had any penalties for impeding in qualifying yet this season, have we?
          Have the Stewards become more sanguine or is this a function of the slightly reduced importance of grid position?

    30. maybe 100+ pitstops this year, if all cars make at least 4 stops and at least 20 make 5 pitstops.

    31. The only problem with someone gambling on starting on softs is that as soon as everyone ahead of them pits, they will be faster because of the fresh rubber and better compound. So they’ll just get stuck behind them again.

      The virtue of using the softs first is so that you can use the super-softs at the end and rocket past people. But this is Monaco…

      1. So many variables! I’m really excited. :D

    32. nothing about who’s replacing who in practice 1?

    33. Michael Griffin
      25th May 2011, 21:26

      Three laps from the super softs, and there is no way the drivers will go more than 20 laps on the softs.

      Seven stop race a possibility? And, would that be taking the Michael a bit?

      1. Er, where are you getting three from?

      2. Well, 7 stops would be plain stupid, given they have only 6 sets of tyres per car, they would put 2 sets of tyres on for 2 stints.

      3. No because the teams will probably only do a mandatory run on super-softs. They certainly won’t use them more than once if they do anything under 7 – 8 laps. Remember there is only suppose to be a second difference in performance.
        The orignal super-soft lasted 5 – 6 laps and this version is improved.

    34. So in between all the pit stops and the safety cars are we actually going to see any racing?

      Tyres that last less than 10 laps are utterly ridiculous.

    35. This 2011 season is going from ridiculous to absurd.

      What happened to the FIA’s desire to make F1 relevant to road cars? The boss of Audi clearly does not think so (the company’s motorsport boss recently said F1 bears “no relevance to the road.” ) and now we have Pirelli tyres that last a mere 10 laps (20 miles). With the probability of 5 pit stops per car during the race, the tight, short Monaco pit lane is going to be an accident waiting to happen.

      Qualifying will be even more of a joke than it has been recently, with the chances of a clear hot lap on the super-softs being virtually non-existant. Teams will choose to save them for the race and take their chances in qualifying.

      The result of this weekend’s racing is going to have very little to do with driver skill or car performance and everything to do with tyre choice and pit stop timing.

      Not my idea of the pinnacle of motor sport at all.

    36. Soon we’ll have a scenario when no one decides to run in quali :)

    37. One thing in this race is unlike many which goes on for 305 km this race will be only 260 km which mean that at the start there will be less fuel so I expect that there many be less tyre wear in this race then many other,but I am not sure how the track surface will play.I think we may see 3-4 stops in this race.

    38. Why are people surprised that tyres will last only 10 laps? It is not the first time. In Turkey and Spain the first pit-stops came at laps 9 and 10. Those went on to be normal 4-stop races.
      And remember, this is Monaco. Even if your tyres are slower by 1-1.5 seconds, you can continue and not get overtaken on track. And tyres that will “last 10 laps” doesn’t mean you cannot use them beyond 10 laps. Just that they will be slow and slippery. Remember, Alonso did 26 laps on hard tyres at Spain, but does it mean that a 2-stop strategy was the way to go in Spain?

      And all drivers are in the same boat, so no one should be complaining. I love F1 this year. Those saying that F1 is too confusing, F1 is not about pushing to the limit are just whining. If F1 became like that (like it was in 2010) then these people would whine about too little overtaking. For them, it is whining for the sake of whining, nothing else.

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