2014 Australian GP tyre strategies and pit stops

2014 Australian Grand Prix

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Tyre strategy took a back seat in the first race of the season as engines and reliability became the centre of interest.

The new qualifying rules regarding tyres didn’t even have a significant bearing on the race, due to the rain which fell on Saturday.

Last year most drivers made three pits stops but Kimi Raikkonen claimed victory by only coming in twice. This time two-stop strategies were the norm as expected.

However most drivers made their stops early to coincide with the Safety Car. Jenson Button played a blinder at this point, reacting immediately to the first sight of the Safety Car board and getting in a lap before his rivals, making up some time.

He picked up more places at has last pit stop, coming in early to undercut Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg, He managed this despite Alonso enjoyed the second-fastest pit stop of the race at this point.

Ferrari set the two quickest pit stop times of the race, having a more successful day in the pits then they did on the track.

Adrian Sutil was the only driver who made a single stop as Sauber once again seem to have a car which treats its tyres more delicately than his rivals. It didn’t help him into the points, however.

Australian Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4
Nico RosbergSoft (12)Soft (26)Medium (19)
Kevin MagnussenSoft (12)Soft (25)Medium (20)
Jenson ButtonSoft (11)Soft (21)Medium (25)
Fernando AlonsoSoft (12)Soft (23)Medium (22)
Valtteri BottasSoft (10)Soft (26)Medium (21)
Nico HulkenbergSoft (12)Soft (21)Medium (24)
Kimi RaikkonenSoft (12)Soft (24)Medium (21)
Jean-Eric VergneSoft (12)Soft (21)Medium (24)
Daniil KvyatSoft (12)Medium (24)Soft (21)
Sergio PerezSoft (1)Medium (10)Soft (21)Soft (25)
Adrian SutilSoft (35)Medium (21)
Esteban GutierrezMedium (1)Soft (29)Soft (26)
Max ChiltonSoft (24)Soft (17)Medium (14)
Jules BianchiSoft (20)Soft (15)Medium (14)
Romain GrosjeanSoft (28)Soft (15)
Pastor MaldonadoSoft (29)Soft (0)
Marcus EricssonSoft (23)Soft (4)
Sebastian VettelMedium (3)
Lewis HamiltonSoft (1)
Felipe MassaSoft
Kamui KobayashiSoft
Daniel RicciardoSoft (12)Soft (24)Medium (21)

Australian Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Kimi RaikkonenFerrari21.82536
2Fernando AlonsoFerrari21.9780.15335
3Romain GrosjeanLotus22.2640.43928
4Kevin MagnussenMcLaren22.2730.44837
5Jenson ButtonMcLaren22.3990.57432
6Jenson ButtonMcLaren22.4110.58611
7Daniel RicciardoRed Bull22.4270.60236
8Sergio PerezForce India22.4970.67211
9Sergio PerezForce India22.5260.70132
10Nico HulkenbergForce India22.6150.79012
11Jules BianchiMarussia22.6560.83135
12Pastor MaldonadoLotus22.8471.02229
13Fernando AlonsoFerrari22.8871.06212
14Nico HulkenbergForce India22.9331.10833
15Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso22.9781.15333
16Daniel RicciardoRed Bull22.9941.16912
17Valtteri BottasWilliams23.1171.29236
18Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso23.1241.29912
19Kevin MagnussenMcLaren23.1501.32512
20Marcus EricssonCaterham23.2381.41323
21Max ChiltonMarussia23.4931.66841
22Nico RosbergMercedes23.6731.84838
23Esteban GutierrezSauber23.7971.97230
24Jules BianchiMarussia23.8211.99620
25Daniil KvyatToro Rosso23.9202.09536
26Max ChiltonMarussia24.2092.38424
27Adrian SutilSauber24.3052.48035
28Nico RosbergMercedes24.3312.50612
29Sergio PerezForce India25.5413.7161
30Kimi RaikkonenFerrari25.5433.71812
31Daniil KvyatToro Rosso30.5148.68912
32Esteban GutierrezSauber32.65710.8321
33Valtteri BottasWilliams34.92113.09610

2014 Australian Grand Prix

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    Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei

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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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    3 comments on “2014 Australian GP tyre strategies and pit stops”

    1. Wow! Hats off to Williams for replacing the broken wheel rim of Bottas in about 12 seconds!

      1. Yes, and for keeping him ahead of Raikkonen at his second stop, despite Ferrari’s amazing work (2.2sec, according to the TV) and having to steer around the Toro Rosso crew on the way out.

    2. This is very promising for the season regarding the tyres. A two stop race is a good level. The softs had good life but also did show clear degradation without the random sudden cliff to fall off. This means the strategy is not so clear cut between the two tyre specs nor which laps to change them on. There was reasonable overlap available.
      They did have to manage their tyres, but not to the point of crawling around the circuit.
      I think the mix of fuel and tyres strategy is very promising

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