Time for everyone’s favorite tire column. For those viewers who think Formula 1 is all about the cars and the drivers, you would be mistaken. The tyres often play the biggest part in an F1 race. Pit crews screw up getting the tires on and off. Pirelli often makes an inferior tires that shreds mid race. Or one driver rams another, leading to a puncture (read:flat tire). So you really need to pay attention to the tire column before each race.
I often think about how the great football minds of our generation would get their edge in F1. A guy like Ben McAdoo would just out think you with this tire choices. But back to motor sport.
We really only care about 4 teams, which is nice since they have split their strategy for tire compounds. Red Bull and McLaren have each chosen 9 sets of the softest tire. Not sure how I feel about Red Bull being in the same sentence as McLaren, but I always enjoy a nice soft tire out there, so having 9 sounds good.
Ferrari and Mercedes have each chosen to bring 6 sets of the softest tire, loading up on the soft compound instead. Maybe they know something we don’t? I don’t think so.
I guess Ferrari and Mercedes plan to run longer on these harder tires, sounds like they are afraid to race head to head with Ricciardo and Max.
Tough to say which strategy will be best, but it should lead to some drama from pit lane and some angry drivers complaining about both oversteer and understeer…