Mercedes have chosen a harder mix of tyres for next week’s Mexican Grand Prix than their closest competitors.
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will have just five sets of the super-soft tyres for the race weekend compared to six for the Ferrari and Red Bull drivers.
The hardest available compound is the medium tyre, which Rosberg will have four sets of, two more than Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
Toro Rosso has staked its fortunes on the super-soft tyre which it will bring eight sets of for the Mexican Grand Prix weekend.
The Mercedes drivers finished one-two in last year’s race after running two-stop strategies which involved one stint on softs and two on mediums. However Hamilton described his second stop for medium tyres as a “wrong call” and Sergio Perez was able to complete the race with a single pit stop.
Driver | Team | Tyres |
---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | |
Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | |
Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | |
Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | |
Felipe Massa | Williams | |
Valtteri Bottas | Williams | |
Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | |
Max Verstappen | Red Bull | |
Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | |
Sergio Perez | Force India | |
Kevin Magnussen | Renault | |
Jolyon Palmer | Renault | |
Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | |
Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | |
Felipe Nasr | Sauber | |
Fernando Alonso | McLaren | |
Jenson Button | McLaren | |
Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | |
Esteban Ocon | Manor | |
Romain Grosjean | Haas | |
Esteban Gutierrez | Haas |
BasCB (@bascb)
18th October 2016, 13:01
I might be wrong here, but while Hamilton claimed that putting on the Medium had been a mistake, from the outside it looked like the right choice but just him not being able to do anything about not losing to Rosberg.
nase
18th October 2016, 13:28
That annoying story about Hamilton last year again?
It was crystal clear that Mercedes merely changed the strategy to two stops to minimise the risk of tyre failure, not because it was the faster strategy. Hamilton’s complaints may have been somewhat understandable during the race, because there was no obvious need for a second pit stop. But since Rosberg had already pitted, assuming that the order applied to both drivers (otherwise he wouldn’t have had any reason to pit, either), leaving Hamilton on the track would’ve been tantamount to screwing Rosberg over. In that sense, Lewis’s complaints were aimed at Mercedes’s unwillingness to let him exploit asymmetrical information.
If he still presents the facts that way, ignoring the fact that there was no need to pit Rosberg, either, then I can’t think of anything nice to say about that.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
19th October 2016, 2:11
It’s unbelievable that every single story about Mercedes and strategy always somehow gets spun in favour of Hamilton and against Rosberg (this is not a shot against Keith specifically).
When Mercedes pitted both drivers at Mexico last year, it was seen as them screwing Hamilton over by not letting him exploit an unfair strategy advantage (Nico would NOT have pit if he knew that Lewis was not planning to pit). Then in Brazil, Rosberg was saving his tyres under the impression that they were going on the 2-stop strategy, while Hamilton bolted on his first set of mediums and caught up to Rosberg, pressuring him for several laps while Nico was clearly saving his tyres. Then Rosberg also switched to a 3 stop, and Lewis never got close to him again in the race. The reaction from the fans was that Lewis was quicker, but not given the benefit of an alternate strategy. As per usual, this was nonsense.
mystic one (@mysticus)
29th October 2016, 22:51
But you also fail to see when at times Lewis, mid race, he ups the game or finds the moto, and goes to win he drives superbly, and pressures opponents to make mistake which we have seen many times… so what makes you think it wouldnt work even with alternate strategy given to his team mate? When they are allowed to compete eachother, Lewis has come on top countless times, or Ros just crashed into him when he didnt like…
mystic one (@mysticus)
29th October 2016, 22:53
So what are the tyres left for tomorrow after the fps and Qs? any info on this?