On-track overtaking in Monaco is a uncommon commodity – drivers had been complaining in regards to the narrowness of the streets when Tazio Nuvolari was in his pomp.
Certainly, we reckon the final time the world’s biggest drivers graced the principality with a real cross for the lead on something apart from the primary lap was in 1985, when Michele Alboreto elbowed his well past Alain Prost at Sainte Commit at first of lap 24. Pit technique and incidents account for many adjustments of place right here.
Final yr, a pink flag after a three-car shunt on the opening tour enabled all the discipline to carry out the required change from one tyre compound to a different in the course of the hiatus. The outcome was a processional tyre-management plod by which the points-paying positions labored out in grid order.
“I feel at one level we had been going slower than System 2,” mentioned Oscar Piastri, who completed second to Charles Leclerc.
No one wished to pit once more and lose monitor place so, although the sphere was circulating at a lowered tempo, there was little or no overtaking tried as a result of tyre administration took precedence. In February, the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council rubber-stamped a proposal from F1’s stakeholders to require all drivers to make use of no less than three units of tyres within the Monaco race, successfully making it a two-stopper at minimal.
This can be a sticking-plaster answer at greatest, and never one which shall be utilized to different races because the chances are high that groups would merely converge across the identical pitstop timing. For there to be strategic selection, a lot of totally different choices with potential upsides must be on the desk – and that’s the reason Pirelli has such excessive hopes for the brand new C6 tyre, created with avenue circuits like Monaco in thoughts however deployed for the primary time at Imola final weekend.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photograph by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Photographs by way of Getty Photographs
In the meanwhile, the collection of three totally different dry-weather compounds Pirelli brings to every occasion is drawn from adjoining members of what was, till final weekend, a five-compound household. If the C6 will be rolled out at extra grand prix weekends than initially meant, it opens the potential for ‘skipping’ compounds so there’s a larger efficiency differential between them.
“Groups all the time discover a method to apply a technique on one cease,” mentioned Pirelli motorsport boss Mario Isola final weekend. “We are attempting to push them to have a two-stop technique as a result of it is higher, it is extra motion, extra unpredictability, and higher races.
“However, with the three compounds which might be so shut, they all the time attempt to use the onerous and the medium to maneuver to a one-stop.”
Compounds being too comparable is a matter that has cropped up earlier than, however has grow to be extra of an element this yr after Pirelli made changes to make them extra resilient – as a result of drivers demanded to have tyres they may push on for longer. This has led to fewer races with offset methods the place drivers on brisker tyres on the finish of a race chase down those that have opted to stay it out on older ones.
For the reason that compounds are homologated and can’t be modified in-season, the one choice is to seek out different methods to make use of those that exist already. Pirelli plans to run recent simulations for the approaching races primarily based on knowledge gathered on the newest rubber in the course of the opening rounds.
This, reckons Isola, will allow Pirelli to “see if there’s any answer, like, to skip one stage, to have a tough that’s more durable – so if you wish to use the onerous you’re penalised by the lap time. You’ll be able to push but it surely’s slower.
Mario Isola, Racing Supervisor, Pirelli Motorsport, on the grid
Photograph by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Photographs
“And we have to perceive if, with this technique, we encourage a few of them to maneuver to a soft-medium alternative for the race – that could be a two-stop race on this case, and if you wish to keep on one-stop medium-hard your tempo is decrease than the opposite.”
The place the C6 is available in, and why Pirelli wished to attempt it at Imola as effectively, is to facilitate that unfold of efficiency. When the brand new compound was first mooted as an excellent softer choice than the present C6, it was anticipated for use solely in Monaco and maybe Las Vegas – a sooner avenue circuit however one with decrease ambient temperatures because the race takes place at night time. Now, Pirelli is bringing it to Canada and speaking about Baku, Singapore and even Mexico.
However first it wanted to be examined in race situations at a venue apart from Monaco, for causes Pirelli chief engineer Simone Berra defined final weekend.
“Amassing the data for the C6 in Monaco was probably not vital,” he mentioned. “Monaco is a specific circuit, you may have graining simply due to the graceful Tarmac and low-speed corners and all these sorts of conditions.
“For us it is actually vital to gather knowledge right here [Imola] for the C6, additionally for the choice for the second a part of the season.”
Imola was a proof of idea to see if the C6 might deal with corners that put extra vitality by means of the tyre. The important thing lesson thus far appears to be that it has a pointy efficiency peak so, at a circuit like Imola with quick, flowing corners, thermal stresses construct up rapidly and it could slip out of its optimum efficiency ‘window’, even over the course of 1 lap.
Sergio Perez, Crimson Bull Racing RB20, Max Verstappen, Crimson Bull Racing RB20, within the queue to go away the pits
Photograph by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Photographs
The medium-compound tyre then turned theoretically the higher qualifying alternative, however utilizing it required earmarking units for the race. Whereas this can be a strategic component that probably provides curiosity, it is understood that the stakeholders’ most popular route is to have differentiation between compounds and potential race tempo moderately than this type of ‘jeopardy’.
“Wanting on the outcome right here [Imola],” mentioned Berra, “we are able to, to illustrate, consider higher if it is too dangerous or probably not. For instance, for Singapore we’re eager about bringing the C6, and likewise beginning to leap compounds.
“So for instance, bringing C2, C4, C6 at some circuits to attempt one thing totally different, or C3, C4 and C6, to attempt to differentiate strategic approaches.”
For this, the C6 must be on the very least a great qualifying tyre. However no less than it’s been extra profitable already than a earlier try so as to add a softer step to the tyre portfolio.
Again in 2018, below a distinct naming regime, Pirelli launched a ‘hypersoft’ tyre in Monaco, and the unintended consequence was a largely processional race by which drivers tiptoed spherical throughout their stint on the brand new compound. Having a minimal of two stops will no less than imply this yr’s race received’t pan out precisely the identical manner.
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