F1 Fanatic

I’ve approached Pirelli about this a few times but they can’t publish the information before the race. Last time I was told:

Of course we have that kind of information but as you rightly point out it will allow to work out the race strategies, so unfortunately we cannot publish this information before the race.

It looks like the teams don’t want it getting out because it could hand a competitive advantage to their rivals.

However, some teams have members of staff monitoring what tyres their rivals have used to gather this information for themselves. So in all likelihood the top teams at least all have this information available already.

In which case, there probably isn’t much for them to lose by allowing Pirelli to publish it. I’m with @raymondu999 – I think they should release the information after qualifying.

Especially given that the teams’ argument against qualifying tyres is that it enhances the strategic options available to them before the race. That being so, and given the criticism of how little running some drivers do in qualifying, it would make sense for them to make the information available so we can understand what their strategic options are pre-race.

As you say, it’s analogous to when the starting fuel weights of cars weren’t being published after Q3, something they eventually changed (and then went one better and got rid of in-race refuelling and race-fuel qualifying, hooray!)

This idea occurred to me as soon as the Pirelli tyres were brought in. I remember writing a comment on a BBC Sport article saying that it can’t be right to lose the fuel weights and not gain the corresponding information on tyre choices and degradation. I’d like to see them published, because, as @keithcollantine says, the teams all monitor each others’ tyres to try and second-guess their strategies anyway, so the teams won’t be losing out, while the fans will be gaining. Or at least, the hardcore fans will. Most people won’t care, but that’s fine – it’s not hurting anyone :)

To be honest – whether or not you have new tyres doesn’t change the strategies you can do. It can only do that if some strategies are marginal (if, for example, a 2-stop could complete all but 3 of the race laps). Otherwise, really, it just changes the speed of your car while you’re doing the strategy.

In 2009 most teams just about pitted when they ran out (why pit any earlier?) It was an exact Science. In 2011/2012, that’s different – it just shows you who *might* have an advantage.
For example: (O/P = option/prime; U/N = used/new)

Rosberg had OU, ON, OU, PN, PN, PU in China. He still only used a 2 stop despite having 3 new sets of tyres.
Vettel had OU, OU, OU, PN, PU, PU in Bahrain. He still did 3 stops despite only having 1 new set.

The strategies will still be decided by the tyre management qualities of the car+driver package on the track, and the pace differential of each tyre.

Degradation is very difficult to measure without breaking a car apart. Wear is decidedly easier to measure. We don’t need data on that IMO – but at least they could tell us the range of tyres each driver has.

A driver with 6 new sets of old tyres, vs one who has 6 sets of new tyres, can both do the same strategy anyways. Back in

I’d also like to know in qualifying whether drivers are on used or new options. In some cases, it’s obvious, for instance for front runners who get everything right: 1 set of primes for Q1, 1 set of options for Q2, and 1 or 2 sets of options for Q3, depending on whether you want to save a set. Now though, with some front runners having to run the option in Q1, I would like to know if they re-use their tyres for a run in Q2, or Q3 even. Now, we have to rely on pit reporters who inevitably get it wrong sometimes.

If I recall correctly it was Ted Kravitz last year at the Japanese Grand Prix who claimed that Lewis Hamilton had gone out on used options for his first (and what later turned out to be only time-setting) run in Q3, so much was made of the fact that he started the race on tyres that had already done 5 laps, when in fact they hadn’t.

@raymondu, I hadn’t really thought about that, but if the information would at least be accessible to journalists, then they could report that information timely and accurately.