Mercedes and Ferrari have selected relatively few soft tyres for next weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix.
While both teams have typically chosen eight or more of the softest available tyres at most races this year, both will take just seven sets for the next round of the championship at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.Instead most of the teams’ four drivers will have five sets of the medium compound tyre. Valtteri Bottas is an exception, as he will have an extra set of hards instead of one of his sets of mediums.
That will give Mercedes the option of testing the hard tyre during practice, something they did not do at Suzuka. During the race Lewis Hamilton questioned why the team didn’t use a set of hard tyres so he could try a one-stop strategy.
Last year’s winners Red Bull has made a more typical tyre selection for this weekend, opting for nine sets of the soft tyres. Like Ferrari and Haas, they have only take the one mandatory set of hard tyres per driver. The other teams have all taken at least one extra set, while Mclaren and Racing Point have two sets for both drivers.
2019 Mexican Grand Prix tyre selections
| Driver | Team | Hard (C2) | Medium (C3) | Soft (C4) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1 | 5 | 7 |
| Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1 | 5 | 7 |
| Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1 | 5 | 7 |
| Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Alexander Albon | Red Bull | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Daniel Riccairdo | Renault | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Lando Norris | McLaren | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Lance Stroll | Racing Point | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1 | 4 | 8 |
| Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 1 | 5 | 7 |
| George Russell | Williams | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Robert Kubica | Williams | 2 | 2 | 9 |
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Chaitanya
15th October 2019, 12:00
Will Mercs use that extra set from Bottas in FP2 to judge race performance?
Jere (@jerejj)
15th October 2019, 12:32
@Chaitanya Maybe.
Chaitanya
15th October 2019, 12:49
It would be really interesting if they do use that extra set of hard in Fp2 so far this season even if Mercs/Ferrari/RBR brought extra set of hard but none used it to judge how they will perform in race conditions.
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
15th October 2019, 13:22
We never know how it would have performed on a Mercedes in Japan, but might have been the key for Hamilton winning to run second stint on hard. It’s not because Haas couldn’t make it work that it was a bad choice for Mercedes…
It feels like top teams are not using everything available (and make it easier for rival).
Chaitanya
16th October 2019, 3:22
If I remember correctly Kimi was one of the driver to use hards in race in Japan and it particularly wasnt better when compared to mediums which is why Mercs didnt use it for Hamilton. Also according to pirelli life of hard wasnt any better than medium and which is why most teams avoided in Suzuka. There have been races this year where Hard was much better race tyre and top-3 teams didnt bring more than 1 set of those for the entire weekend.
GeeMac (@geemac)
15th October 2019, 16:35
An interesting call.
Given that this decision was made 14 weeks ago given Pirelli’s rules, the fallout from Japan had nothing to do with this.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
15th October 2019, 18:52
@keithcollantine
Aren’t Pirelli bringing C4, C3 & C2-tyres to the Mexican GP?
I’ve just checked their twitter and it says C4, 3 and 2.
It would be quite odd for them to bring the three hardest compounds to this track, considering they ran Hypersofts there last year.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
15th October 2019, 23:52
@srga91 thanks for the clarification, I was puzzled myself. Still strange that merc and fer have opted for so few softs
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
16th October 2019, 1:13
@peartree
I guess they fear tyre wear could be high again this year. So they opted for a more conservative approach this time.
Last year tyre wear was massive on Hypers and Ultras, just the Supersofts were consistent enough.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
16th October 2019, 6:32
Makes sense @srga91 but new construction, pirelli going a step harder on the construction and harder allocation for this years race, all put together should balance last years deg. They’ll want to go for the 1 stopper anyway, if you are merc you are so quick you don’t need so many softs. I think RB made the logical call.