Perez and Sainz fed up with soft tyre in Melbourne: 'Too soft'
F1 News
Formula 1 drivers are not particularly pleased with the soft tyre in Australia. Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz give their findings on qualifying. Drivers Perez and Sainz feel the tyre is too soft for the Albert Park Street Circuit. Verstappen's times improved because of the evolution of the track, he explains.
Verstappen, who starts on pole position at the Australian Grand Prix, talks about the track getting faster. "The track was also a bit warmer compared to FP3. So naturally, the track is also a bit slower to start with. Probably also with all the other categories driving, it takes a few laps before our rubber is put down again fully. And that then gives you a bit more grip, I guess."
Sainz and Perez not happy with soft tyre
Perez gives his findings on the soft tyres. "The Soft tyre is quite tricky. I think it's really soft for this track. So I think when you are on the Medium, you feel more comfortable. You can push pretty much throughout the lap. And on the Soft, it always feels like a bit of survival mode, a bit of tyre management. If you take too much out of the tyre in a corner, then it can easily make you lose a lot of lap time for the next corner," the Mexican explained.
Sainz couldn't agree more, and might have preferred to drive the entire qualifying session on the yellow tyre. "if you would have given me four sets of Mediums for quali, maybe I would have taken them. But yeah, come quali with a higher track temp, as Max said, You can do a lap time in the low speed with a Soft and then in the high speed survive with not a lot of confidence, but survive."