2013 Australian GP tyre strategies and pit stops

2013 Australian Grand Prix

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Kimi Raikkonen’s two-stop strategy was key to his victory in the Australian Grand Prix.

Only four other drivers finished the race with two pit stops, including the two Force India drivers, who also finished in the points.

However Ferrari were decisively the quickest team in the pits, with Felipe Massa enjoying the two quickest stops of the race. Their consistency was even more impressive – all six of their stops were quicker than last year’s record at this race, which they also set.

In total 13 pit stops were made by Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault which were quicker than last year’s fastest time of 21.91s.

Australian Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4
Kimi RaikkonenSuper soft (9)Medium (25)Medium (24)
Fernando AlonsoSuper soft (9)Medium (11)Medium (19)Medium (19)
Sebastian VettelSuper soft (7)Medium (14)Medium (16)Medium (21)
Felipe MassaSuper soft (8)Medium (15)Medium (13)Medium (22)
Lewis HamiltonSuper soft (13)Medium (18)Medium (11)Medium (16)
Mark WebberSuper soft (5)Medium (13)Medium (20)Medium (20)
Adrian SutilMedium (21)Medium (25)Super soft (12)
Paul di RestaSuper soft (8)Medium (25)Medium (25)
Jenson ButtonSuper soft (4)Medium (16)Medium (17)Medium (21)
Romain GrosjeanSuper soft (5)Medium (14)Medium (18)Medium (21)
Sergio PerezMedium (16)Super soft (7)Medium (18)Medium (17)
Jean-Eric VergneSuper soft (9)Medium (15)Medium (20)Medium (14)
Esteban GutierrezSuper soft (5)Medium (22)Medium (30)
Valtteri BottasSuper soft (6)Medium (18)Medium (16)Medium (17)
Jules BianchiSuper soft (9)Medium (18)Medium (23)Super soft (7)
Charles PicSuper soft (8)Medium (25)Medium (23)
Max ChiltonSuper soft (6)Medium (13)Medium (15)Medium (22)
Giedo van der GardeSuper soft (7)Medium (9)Medium (18)Medium (22)
Daniel RicciardoMedium (15)Medium (15)Super soft (9)
Nico RosbergSuper soft (14)Medium (12)
Pastor MaldonadoMedium (10)Medium (14)
Nico Hulkenberg

Australian Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Felipe MassaFerrari21.50936
2Felipe MassaFerrari21.5110.00223
3Mark WebberRed Bull21.5150.00638
4Jenson ButtonMcLaren21.5380.02937
5Sebastian VettelRed Bull21.5960.08737
6Fernando AlonsoFerrari21.6060.09720
7Fernando AlonsoFerrari21.7040.19539
8Sergio PerezMcLaren21.7050.19641
9Mark WebberRed Bull21.7170.20818
10Felipe MassaFerrari21.7540.2458
11Lewis HamiltonMercedes21.7780.26942
12Fernando AlonsoFerrari21.7920.2839
13Sebastian VettelRed Bull21.8070.2987
14Sergio PerezMcLaren22.0040.49523
15Lewis HamiltonMercedes22.0150.50631
16Romain GrosjeanLotus22.1330.62419
17Lewis HamiltonMercedes22.1550.64613
18Kimi RaikkonenLotus22.1810.67234
19Romain GrosjeanLotus22.2390.7305
20Nico RosbergMercedes22.2740.76514
21Jenson ButtonMcLaren22.2820.7734
22Esteban GutierrezSauber22.3150.80627
23Esteban GutierrezSauber22.3160.8075
24Romain GrosjeanLotus22.5341.02537
25Jules BianchiMarussia22.6691.16050
26Adrian SutilForce India22.6931.18421
27Sebastian VettelRed Bull22.7041.19521
28Kimi RaikkonenLotus22.7091.2009
29Adrian SutilForce India22.7491.24046
30Max ChiltonMarussia22.9481.43934
31Paul di RestaForce India23.0101.5018
32Paul di RestaForce India23.0511.54233
33Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso23.0741.5659
34Pastor MaldonadoWilliams23.0991.59010
35Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso23.1601.65144
36Valtteri BottasWilliams23.2151.70624
37Jules BianchiMarussia23.3711.8629
38Jules BianchiMarussia23.3871.87827
39Charles PicCaterham23.3941.8858
40Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso23.4351.92615
41Charles PicCaterham23.5092.00033
42Valtteri BottasWilliams23.5282.0196
43Jenson ButtonMcLaren23.5712.06220
44Sergio PerezMcLaren23.6772.16816
45Giedo van der GardeCaterham23.8342.32516
46Giedo van der GardeCaterham23.9172.40834
47Valtteri BottasWilliams24.0602.55140
48Giedo van der GardeCaterham24.1042.5957
49Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso24.1772.66830
50Mark WebberRed Bull24.2402.7315
51Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso24.6883.17924
52Max ChiltonMarussia30.8389.32919
53Max ChiltonMarussia36.56415.0556

2013 Australian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    28 comments on “2013 Australian GP tyre strategies and pit stops”

    1. Data shows Ferrari, Red Bull, Mclaren are all fast and reliable pit stoppers.

      1. except Red Bull messed up Mark’s stop. Ferrari win this time.

      2. Even McLaren. Look at no. 43 and 44

    2. Encouraging for the Mercs with Lewis and Nico going 13 and 14 laps in on the super softs. It looked as though the plan was for 2 stops. I can’t recall during the race if Lewis reported the tyres going off in the second stint during the race. Ultimately, the 2 stop might’ve been better for Lewis. It would have been interesting to see whether Nico went the same way.

      Kimi looks pretty strong in the Lotus; it’s quick and soft on the tyres – he still had decent life in the tyres at the end, setting the fastest lap 2 or 3 from the end, and on 20 odd lap old tyres.

      Few posts saying FI made the wrong strategy calls. Not sure about that; I think they finished higher up the order than they otherwise would have based on their race pace. The poor return Sutil got on the supersofts was a bit surprising in terms of how quickly they went off.

      1. What I think would have been really interesting was if Nico would have been able to keep Alonso behind him for a while had he not retired, and wether this would have helped Lewis conserve his tyres longer in his second stint, making the planned 2 stop possible.

        I’m hoping Mercedes lack of ability to get a decent stint on the mediums was due to a lack of long run in FP2 and the strange climactic conditions, rather than an inherent tyre wear problem. Their stints on the super soft was a positive sign.

      2. Yes @timo, Hamilton commented that the tyres were not going to last the 27 laps he needed.

        1. Ah cheers, I also forgot about his major lock up in I think T13 when he was being pressed by Alonso, no doubt significant flat-spotting occurred there.

      3. @timo I think that Force India expected Sutil’s tyres to last much longer. Otherwise the logical call would have been to pit him later.

      4. sutil’s super-soft tyres didn’t go off, they grained terribly on the first few laps after his pitstop likely because of the ambient temperature. the tyres came back to him and he finished the last few laps with better pace, but he lost up to 8 seconds a lap on the first couple.

    3. If you see the tyre strategy, the key was Adrian Sutil who held Vettel and 2 Ferraris. If Fernando/ Felipe was leading this race, Kimi could not have won this race. The key was 11 laps (only ) by Alonso in his 2nd stint. But no complaints, Ferrari is fast , felipe proved that and Alonso was flying when he was catching Sutil. His 1:29.6 lap at that time was incredible, even better than Kimi’s fastest lap which he set when fuel tank was empty.:)

      1. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
        17th March 2013, 16:43

        Ferrari is fast

        @gill We don’t know what is the pace of the Lotus when the drivers don’t drive to conserve their tyres. In this race, they choosed a 2 pit strategy. If they would have choosed 3 pit strat., then they would have been more fast.

    4. The strategy(to be less aggresive with tyres) helped Raikkonen a lot(he made his own luck, to be fare), but I think in Malaysia the conservative tyres strategy won’t stand, because, there, you can overtake more easily. I think, there we will see who has the fastest car(in race and qualy of course). Plus, I think Merc. will be fast there because they have a kind of ‘adaptive suspension’ and this helps you if the track has multiple corners with big difference in height.

      1. So… Merc has something on their car that changes ride-height on the fly? Isn’t that illegal?

    5. It’s a pity Rosberg retired as he and Hamilton appeared to have a similar race pace and it would have been interesting to see if they could have got to the end on a two stopper. Apparently Hamilton flat spotted his tyres just before he converted to a 3 stop race, and if he’d managed to stay out another couple of laps I think a 2 stop strategy would have worked, and perhaps Hamilton could have finished in front of Massa.

      1. Yeah, I half heard that over the PA, apparently he ripped through his tyre so much that you could see the Canvas!

    6. good to see 2-3 stop races back again.

      1. I disagree very much. I remember listening to the commentators during the race, and all they were talking about the entire time was pit stops and tires. That’s not normal, and it’s not racing. It’s amazing how much good publicity Pirelli has accumulated from making ****** tires.

    7. Clearly Kimi is a much better and sensible drive in these conditions than Alonso, or the other guys at the top. Dude managed his tyres very well. Hamilton could have done it too but lost it in the second stint.

      1. Clearly Kimi is a much better and sensible drive in these conditions than Alonso, or the other guys at the top

        And now people are coming into conclusions after a good strategy that worked due to the fact that the guys in front were held up by Sutil
        We will see how much sensitive he is in the next race

        1. @tifoso1989

          We will see how much sensitive he is in the next race

          So here I am hanging out with the Kimi boo boys… I don’t really care what you will see, guys held up by slow cars often happen in F1, noob, what is this your first year?

          1. Murali Dharan
            17th March 2013, 22:30

            yeah, when the car in front is as fast as the car in the back then that does not constitute to holding the train.
            Sutil was committed to the 2 stopper pretty early on, so if he was banging in competitive laptimes vs the Ferraris and RBRs in new tires then it is some problem with the cars behind.

        2. Because Kimi wasn’t held up by Ferraris? Did you think about why he kept gap to cars in front to about 2 seconds unlike everybody else and did not push his tyres when he got out of the pit?

          He literally out played them, will be hard to repeat, but he will manage he is Ferrari’s last Worl Champion after all!!!!

      2. Hamilton didn’t make it because he pooped his pants when he was being passed by Alonso and locked up his tires.

    8. In total 13 pit stops were made by Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault which were quicker than last year’s fastest time of 21.91s.

      Which cars were Renault servicing?

      1. i think its meant to say Lotus, i often still call that team renault

        1. It was a little tongue in cheek ;)
          Been a while now lol.

    9. mie (@jaimeabraham36)
      18th March 2013, 2:20

      How Marussia pitstop faster than Williams? Williams crew is too fat!

    Comments are closed.