GP Europe: Summary of Strategies

For the first time this season, Pirelli brought its new medium tire compound to Valencia. The least that can be said is that it was relatively shunned by the drivers, who most of the time waited until the last 15 laps before using them.

Only three drivers had fitted these tires on the starting grid: Perez, on a one-stop strategy, Petrov, and Maldonado. The early stop by the Venezuelan, on the 10th lap, likely dampened the enthusiasm of drivers and teams even more, while Sergio Perez admitted after the Grand Prix that it had been difficult with the hard tires.

Sebastian Vettel built his victory largely thanks to his ability to extend his stints. Indeed, apart from the first stint, which was identical to Alonso’s, the German completed one more lap than Alonso on the following two stints, opting for the medium tires among the last, on the 47th lap while Jenson Button and Felipe Massa were the latest to switch, on the 48th lap, where Alonso and Webber did respectively 2 and 5 more laps on medium tires. The Spaniard, in fact, secured his second place thanks to the three additional laps he did on soft tires while the Australian had just switched to mediums.

Paul Hembery’s Eye

« It was certainly not a benchmark race like we’ve seen in Canada, Monaco, or China this year, for example. Once again, we saw an interesting mix of strategies, although it was clear that three stops were the ideal strategy, with the fastest cars able, in these conditions, to maximize the performance advantage of the soft, yellow-walled tires. Next, at Silverstone, we will return to a high-speed permanent circuit and should see lots of action at the front of the pack once again. »