[gmsabu]
The three leading Formula 1 teams have all picked significantly different tyre choices for next week’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Red Bull has opted for the most sets of the softest tyres available. Max Verstappen and and Alexander Albon will each have 10 sets of the soft compound tyre.
However the team has also taken two sets of the hard compound per driver, indicating they intend to test the compound in practice, and just a single set of the mediums.
Mercedes has also chosen two sets of the hard tyres but will have fewer sets of softs, selecting eight each for Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. This is because they have chosen three sets of the medium tyres to Red Bull’s one.
Ferrari have also chosen three sets of mediums but will only have the single mandatory set of hard tyres for each of its cars.
Williams has chosen the fewest soft tyres of all the teams, selecting seven sets for George Russell and Robert Kubica.
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2019 Singapore Grand Prix tyre selections
| Driver | Team | Hard (C3) | Medium (C4) | Soft (C5) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 2 | 1 | 10 |
| Alexander Albon | Red Bull | 2 | 1 | 10 |
| Daniel Riccairdo | Renault | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 2 | 1 | 10 |
| Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Romain Grosjean | Haas | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| Lando Norris | McLaren | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 2 | 1 | 10 |
| Lance Stroll | Racing Point | 2 | 1 | 10 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 2 | 3 | 9 |
| George Russell | Williams | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| Robert Kubica | Williams | 1 | 5 | 7 |
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Chaitanya
10th September 2019, 11:37
Again no confidence in Hards from Ferrari and Singapore is notoriously hot(except when it rains).
MEGATRON M12 (@megatron)
10th September 2019, 18:16
Singapore is never hot because it’s always a night race. Tracks aren’t very hot when the sun isn’t shining on them.
GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
10th September 2019, 20:59
It sounds like you have never visited the island. At the time of writing, it is 03:00am in Singapore and cloudy; the temperature is 27 degrees – as a north European, I call that hot.
MEGATRON M12 (@megatron)
10th September 2019, 22:39
The tires don’t really care about air temp, they care about track temp, please pay attention to what this article and conversation is about.
GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
11th September 2019, 1:01
Did I rattle your cage and make you angry; sorry that was not my intention.
Have you never come across heat transfer equations?
F1 tyres run at a hundred degrees or so.
Tyres are in contact with the track but they are NOT in thermodynamic equilibrium with the track – the tyres are usually quite a bit hotter and subject to temperature flows in and out. The 2nd law of thermodynamics may be expressed as: “heat flows spontaneously from a hot to a cold body”. It follows that heat flows from one hundred degree tyres into a thirty degree track and NOT the other way about. Brakes running at a thousand degrees or more will dump heat into the wheels and onwards into the tyres.
The track temperature will impact the RATE at which tyres cool but it is impossible for the track to heat the tyre to a higher temperature than the track’s surface.
Therefore tyre heat, on an F1 car in action, does not arise from a sun heated track – spinning up the wheels, friction and soak from the brakes [which are VERY much hotter than the track] play important parts.
Nitzo (@webtel)
11th September 2019, 7:03
@gnosticbrian
Thanks mate. That was informative.
MEGATRON M12 (@megatron)
10th September 2019, 22:40
@gnosticbrian
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
10th September 2019, 12:13
What are Red Bull playing at? If the Hards turn out to be a bad tire in the race (too hard, for instance) then you have an unknown or worn medium as only alternative.
Dom (@3dom)
10th September 2019, 13:26
Bit puzzled here myself @hahostolze you’d think they’d want to maybe split the strategy between the drivers so that one of them has 2 sets of mediums and can get some data for the team on them
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
10th September 2019, 18:01
@hahostolze RB really want pole, I guess they believe they can’t be overtaken. They’ll qualify on softs then take mediums.
Merc super safe, Ferrari sacrificed the hard to have an extra soft, makes more sense to sacrifice a medium for a soft.
Adub Smallblock
10th September 2019, 14:21
Hope this leads to some different strategies by the teams.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
10th September 2019, 18:03
Why does Gasly get to take an extra set?
Peter Waters (@)
11th September 2019, 11:37
Has to be a typo I think