Red Bull, Renault and Williams have selected the maximum number of hyper-soft tyres available for next week’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Pirelli is bringing its new softest tyre compound for this first time this year.
All the teams have chosen at least nine sets of the new tyre, which is identified by pink markings. World championship leaders Mercedes are among them.
Drivers’ tyre selections for Monaco
Driver | Team | Tyres |
---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | |
Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | |
Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | |
Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | |
Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | |
Max Verstappen | Red Bull | |
Sergio Perez | Force India | |
Esteban Ocon | Force India | |
Lance Stroll | Williams | |
Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | |
Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | |
Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | |
Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | |
Romain Grosjean | Haas | |
Kevin Magnussen | Haas | |
Fernando Alonso | McLaren | |
Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | |
Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | |
Charles Leclerc | Sauber | |
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Bleu (@bleu)
15th May 2018, 15:11
While Monaco is easy track for tyres I’m bit surprised on Red Bull (+Williams and Renault) selection since that means they have to go certain tyres for the first time during the race (or qualifying if planning to get through Q2 on middle rubber)
1-2-10 for other and 2-1-10 for other would have made most sense like Sauber has done. Use early part of FP2 to compare two harder compounds with the fuel loads expected when around the tyre stop during the race.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th May 2018, 15:23
@bleu I agree with you to a certain extent, but then, on the other hand, there’s a good amount of variation in the number of tyre sets per compound between teams and drivers.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
15th May 2018, 15:26
Just a thought, but in that table, would it be possible to indicate (maybe via separate columns) which are the “mandatory” tyres for various sessions? I know the rules, and can infer most of the tyres from that, but it would be good to have it laid out here (i.e. dumbed down to my level!)
graigchq (@graigchq)
15th May 2018, 17:27
the only rules (as far as I can remember) are that one of the softest compound are for Q3 only, and have to be given back (i.e. can’t be used in the race) and one are given in one of the practice sessions and have to be given back.
Other than that, they only need to run two different compounds in the race, their choice of which, i.e,. starting tyre, and one other.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
15th May 2018, 18:18
I believe they hand in one set after 40 minutes of FP1, and another set at the end of FP2. Then there’s the qualifying set you mention.
Joe (@joetoml1n)
18th May 2018, 12:56
Two sets after P1 (one of which will be the P1-40min set), Two sets after P2 and 2 sets after P3, per car. If you get through to Q3 and use your mandatory one, that is also returned. If you do not, you can keep it for the race.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
16th May 2018, 7:57
@keithcollantine – Keith, here’s a quick mock-up of one way of distinguishing the Pirelli-mandated compounds from the actual selections made by the drivers/teams.
Note: I’ve used tyre shapes just for the sake of presentation, but it would be more meaningful to continue using squares with the abbreviation in it, the way you already do.
Paul Heppler (@paulheppler)
16th May 2018, 23:28
I like your mock-up, and it would be nice to have a report on the usage after each session and before the race to know the amount of available.new and scrubbed tires each driver has .
Sumedh
15th May 2018, 16:39
So will the top teams do Q2 on US and the race on US-SS? or Q2 on HS and race on HS-SS/HS-US?
nase
15th May 2018, 17:11
I think they’re expecting the HS to hold up so well that it becomes the preferred tyre for all purposes, so they will probably try and run at least half of the race on it, then switch to US for the rest. The race strategy for the front-runners will probably just consist in staying out as long as possible and waiting for the others to pit first, as the undercut tends not to work at all due to the fact that the tyres need several laps before getting up to temperature.
I don’t think there’s any point in starting on US. Harder just means slower in Monaco, and getting a set of tyres to last for most of, if not the entire race, no matter how soft it is, has rarely been an issue.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
15th May 2018, 17:46
If the weather is as bad as it was this weekend during the Monaco historic races, then this select will be largely irrelevant. Wets or Inters?
FlatSix (@)
16th May 2018, 6:24
@eurobrun You mean SC or red flag?
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
16th May 2018, 7:26
Lol
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
15th May 2018, 21:15
I wonder if anyone will try doing 77 laps on hypers.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
16th May 2018, 5:59
Considering the trend is harder tires usually works much better than expected or even better than the softest compound lately it’s pretty amazing some teams puts their eggs in one basket. Mercedes, Haas, and Sauber seems to plan on splitting their drivers to evaluate the SS at some point in practice and McLaren plays it safe. I think US going to be preferable compound to race with.
FlatSix (@)
16th May 2018, 6:27
Really wonder if the wear on this tyre will be good enough for teams to go in early or late for the US and create some position changes.
Nitzo (@webtel)
16th May 2018, 9:03
Seems to be a somewhat conservative selection from Mercedes, especially Bottas. But considering the fact that there are still many unknowns surrounding the Hypers, and overtaking being difficult, having a new SS for the race could come in handy.
Garns (@)
16th May 2018, 15:16
Not sure why but I think Max or Dan might take this win. Front row is obviously important but just have a feeling of a Red Bull winner.
F1 #33
17th May 2018, 16:09
I hope Max takes this one. It could help him and get him back on track. If he starts on front row, he will win because he’s an aggressive driver. personally, I think thats a good thing.