Tyre strategy GP Hungary | Two-stopper a risk because of track position

F1 News

31 July 2022 at 10:24
Last update 31 July 2022 at 12:33
  • GPblog.com

The Hungarian Grand Prix promises to be an exciting race. George Russell will have to try and hold off the Ferrari drivers from pole position, while Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez will have to drive forward from P10 and P11. Pirelli predicts which strategy the drivers will use.

According to Pirelli, the race can be either a one- or a two-stop strategy. Due to the cooler weather, the soft tyres are also an option during the race. The one-stop will involve a soft tyre to hard tyre strategy, with stops between laps 21 and 28. Drivers can also start on the mediums, with a pit stop taking place between laps 26 and 34. The drivers then have to pay less attention to managing their tyres during the first stint.

The tyre supplier expects that most drivers will choose to stop once in order to maintain their position on the track. Overtaking is difficult on the Hungaroring. Nevertheless, the two-stop is also a good option, because in terms of total time it is very close to the one-stop. Drivers can, for example, choose to start on soft tyres and then change to medium tyres twice.

Driver tyre sets

"The weather is still uncertain, with cool conditions expected again. With the track ‘reset’ as a result of the earlier rain, we saw a lot of track evolution during qualifying, which meant that setting a fast lap at the last possible moment was key to getting a good time", Mario Isola says on the website of Pirelli.

Perez is the only driver of the top teams who has a set of new soft tyres left. Verstappen has three used softs, as does Lewis Hamilton, poleman Russell and the Ferrari drivers. Of those three teams, each driver has two sets of new mediums left and one set of hard tyres. According to the weather update, there is a chance that the race will start on a wet track, so who knows, that might also play a role in the teams' strategy.