Sainz with strategic advantage over Red Bull with possible safety car

F1 News

27 March 2022 at 12:24
Last update 27 March 2022 at 13:52
2
  • GPblog.com

Pirelli's new 18-inch tires have already caused a lot of turmoil for F1 teams so far. In Bahrain, many of the drivers ended up having to make three pit stops to make it to the end of the Grand Prix due to high tire wear. In Saudi Arabia, those problems seem to be less and Pirelli expects a lot less pit stops.

Traditionally, the Italian tire supplier calculates what the fastest strategy is going to be. They think two options will be close in Jeddah. A one-stop, from the yellow C3 to the white C2 would be the fastest, followed by a two-stop where an extra stop is made for the yellow C3 tire.

Safety car not taken into account

In this calculation, Pirelli does not take into account a possible safety car, while we did see the safety car on track in Formula 2 this year and in last year's Grand Prix. There is also a good chance that the winning strategy differs from Pirelli's fastest strategy. Therefore, it is also more interesting to see which (new) tires the drivers have left for the Grand Prix.

There, the choice of tires of Carlos Sainz especially stands out, being the only one of the top four to have a fresh set of the softest tire left. In the event of a late safety car, he would therefore have an advantage over the duo at Red Bull Racing and his own teammate. Indeed, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc all have the same selection of tires left, with a single fresh set of the C2, two new C3 sets and three used sets of the softest C4 tires.