2017 British Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

2017 British Grand Prix

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Did Ferrari’s early pit stop for Sebastian Vettel leave him at risk of the puncture which ruined his race?

Vettel made his only pit stop of the race on lap 18. This came after several attempts to overtake Max Verstappen on the track had failed.

His early change to a fresh set of soft tyres succeeded in getting him ahead of Verstappen. But it also meant he began to lose tyre performance earlier in his final stint than his rivals: A predicament not helped by a heavy lock-up while fighting with Valtteri Bottas.

Eventually Vettel’s front-left tyre let go. This came shortly after his team mate had also suffered a tyre failure. However while Vettel’s appeared to be directly connected to the length of his stint, Raikkonen’s seemed to be a different kind of problem.

Apart from the emergency late-race pit stops these failures provoked, the British Grand Prix was another race where most drivers only needed one pit stop.

2017 British Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4
Lewis HamiltonSuper soft (25)Soft (26)
Valtteri BottasSoft (32)Super soft (19)
Kimi RaikkonenSuper soft (24)Soft (25)Super soft (2)
Max VerstappenSuper soft (19)Soft (30)Super soft (2)
Daniel RicciardoSuper soft (32)Soft (19)
Nico HulkenbergSuper soft (24)Soft (27)
Sebastian VettelSuper soft (18)Soft (32)Super soft (1)
Esteban OconSuper soft (20)Soft (30)
Sergio PerezSuper soft (23)Soft (27)
Felipe MassaSoft (25)Super soft (25)
Stoffel VandoorneSuper soft (26)Soft (24)
Kevin MagnussenSoft (37)Super soft (13)
Romain GrosjeanSuper soft (23)Soft (20)Super soft (7)
Marcus EricssonSoft (28)Super soft (22)
Daniil KvyatSuper soft (1)Soft (26)Super soft (23)
Lance StrollSoft (22)Super soft (20)Super soft (8)
Pascal WehrleinSoft (2)Medium (1)Soft (28)Super soft (19)
Fernando AlonsoSuper soft (20)Soft (12)

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2017 British Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Felipe MassaWilliams27.58325
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes27.7330.15025
3Valtteri BottasMercedes27.8580.27532
4Daniel RicciardoRed Bull27.9100.32732
5Max VerstappenRed Bull28.0560.47349
6Kevin MagnussenHaas28.0990.51637
7Fernando AlonsoMcLaren28.2690.68620
8Lance StrollWilliams28.3350.75242
9Romain GrosjeanHaas28.3610.77823
10Sebastian VettelFerrari28.3630.78018
11Kimi RaikkonenFerrari28.4760.89324
12Daniil KvyatToro Rosso28.6301.04727
13Marcus EricssonSauber28.8251.24228
14Sergio PerezForce India28.9421.35923
15Romain GrosjeanHaas28.9981.41543
16Kimi RaikkonenFerrari29.0571.47449
17Max VerstappenRed Bull29.1471.56419
18Esteban OconForce India29.1941.61120
19Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren29.3371.75426
20Lance StrollWilliams29.8492.26622
21Pascal WehrleinSauber29.8612.2782
22Pascal WehrleinSauber29.9412.3583
23Nico HulkenbergRenault30.8413.25824
24Pascal WehrleinSauber31.2503.66731
25Sebastian VettelFerrari35.2047.62150
26Daniil KvyatToro Rosso45.53817.9551

2017 British Grand Prix

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Author information

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 “2017 British Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops”

  1. Still strange. Bottas ran 32 laps on the soft, and heavier fuel load (albeit a couple of laps behind the safety car). Magnussen even 37 laps, and Ricciardo did 32 on the super soft.

    I can’t believe that the single lock-up when fighting with Bottas should have been sufficient to cause these problems; didn’t look that massive.

  2. Tyre unpredictability is now substituting for “Bernies sprinklers”, just for fun, while the race is fresh in your mind imagine it with tyres that can run the race from start to finish without massive degradation and failure. Would Vet have passed Ver ?, Would Bottas have passed Rai ? How long would those top 6 battles have lasted without them being separated by pit stop strategy ? Just saying.

  3. Matti Ripattila
    17th July 2017, 11:49

    Tires blowing up in the end hid the fact that Ferrari once again (tried to) sacrificed Kimi in favor of Seb. Kimi was only 5 sec behind Ham at lap 18 when Seb pitted. Seb was 12 sec behind Kimi. At that lap Kimis tyres started to go, but they did not pit him. They started to calculate how to get them change positions. They kept him out till lap 24. Kimi was then 12 sec behind Ham, and when he returned to track, Seb was only 5 sec behind him. They say they are trying to win constructions, but with that kind of thinking it will never happen. If they had pitted Kimi around when Seb did, he would have been quite close to Ham in the end too, and within on little mistake from Ham to challenge for the win. Now he was only few secs in front of Bot two laps before the end. Merc and Bottas say: “never give up” Ferrari says “give up if it’s not Seb closer of winning”.

    Haven’t read anything about this obvious observation, wonder what race the si called experts were watching…

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