China – Race: Summary of Strategies

Fernando Alonso secured his first victory of the season in China, thanks to a three-stop strategy. The Ferrari driver started from third position on the grid, equipped with a set of P Zero Yellow soft tires, before completing three stints with the P Zero White medium compound. He won the race with a 10-second margin over Kimi Räikkönen’s Lotus.

The race time of Alonso, at 1h36m26.945s, is almost identical to last year’s victory: Nico Rosberg had then won in 1h36m26.929s! However, the fastest lap in the race was much quicker than last year: in 1m36.808s on soft tires at the end of the race, Sebastian Vettel was indeed three seconds faster than Kamui Kobayashi in 2012 (1m39.960s), highlighting the pure performance of the 2013 Pirelli tires.

The drivers started the race on different strategies, with many teams mixing up the strategy between their two drivers. Jenson Button (McLaren), Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Nico Hülkenberg (Sauber), Paul di Resta (Force India), Sergio Perez (McLaren), Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso), and Valtteri Bottas (Williams) all started on soft tires. The top four followed a three-stop strategy, with Jenson Button’s McLaren being the best-positioned car on a two-stop strategy. The Briton was credited with the longest stint on mediums (23 laps with his starting tires).

Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport Director: Strategy played a key role in the race, with the medium tires proving particularly effective at the start of the Grand Prix with full tanks. This initially helped the drivers who started on medium tires and allowed those who started on softs to complete a short stint and switch to mediums as quickly as possible.

Therefore, we have seen a lot of overtaking, many strategies relying on the need for drivers to overtake as many cars as possible on track before the next stops. It is the degradation (time), more than wear (texture), that dictated the strategy, but we still saw consistent lap times with the medium compound, even after stints of 15 laps or more.

Once again, the strategic range was very broad, with Button and Vettel choosing to switch to soft tires at the end of the race. This made for an exciting finish, with a battle for the last spot on the podium between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel up to the checkered flag. The winner is the third different one in three Grand Prix. Five World Champions occupy the top five places today.

The best times of the day by compound:

– Tendres: Vettel en 1:36.808 devant Button en 1:38.058 et Bottas en 1:38.200

– Mediums: Alonso en 1:39.506 devant Räikkönen en 1:39.955 et Hamilton en 1:39.981

Longest race stint:

– Tendres: 7 tours par Button (McLaren), Chilton (Marussia), Grosjean (Lotus), Hülkenberg (Sauber), Maldonado (Williams), Massa (Ferrari) et Pérez (McLaren)

– Mediums: 26 tours par Button (McLaren)

[From the official press release published by Pirelli]

To better understand this graph, you can use our summary of the pit stops below, as well as the lap-by-lap chart from the FIA by clicking here.

Summary of the Pit Stops at the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix: