COOPER: Pit And Tire Strategy Key

Formula 1

COOPER: Pit And Tire Strategy Key

One thing is for sure – it will be a fascinating qualifying session. And the race will no doubt be even better...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted March 23, 2012 Sepang (MAS)

Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and McLaren is interviewed in the pitlane during previews to the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix at the Sepang Circuit on March 22, 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Photo: Getty Images)

Thanks to its heat and humidity Sepang is always one of the biggest tests of the year for drivers, and so it is too for the tires. It was clear today that this weekend will all be about the degradation of Pirelli’s hard and medium compounds, and how drivers deal with it - and how teams manage their strategies to make the most of the two tires.

It goes without saying that whoever gets everything right on Saturday and takes pole might not be in the man who is in the best shape for the race, simply because the car that extracts a qualifying time from the tires might take too much out of them in the early laps of the race. We saw an awful lot of sliding around today.

“The teams were really trying to use that as the first proper dry running session,” said Pirelli boss Paul Hembery. “Melbourne didn’t allow it, so they spent a lot of time working on balance trying to work through what’s happening as the fuel load lightens, trying to understand properly the differences between the two compound levels, and looking at the degradation.

“It looked quite interesting from our point of view, we saw that the medium tire was degrading more rapidly than the harder tire, we saw a number of cars were struggling with oversteer, and a lot of cars were doing out and in. Despite some doing long runs there were others doing two laps and coming in and clearly trying to find adjustments to try and find a good balance. From that point of view it was very interesting.”

Hembery admitted that starting on the hard tire might be an interesting choice – which for the guys in the top 10 obviously means that they would have to qualify on it.

“We don’t have all the analysis yet, but you’re looking at a three-stop strategy as the most probable. How you compose that, maybe some teams would consider using the hard tire for a better balance when they’ve got a bigger fuel load, and last a few more laps.”

The man at the top of the times today in both sessions was Lewis Hamilton, and the McLaren driver was clearly keen to put his Melbourne disappointment behind him. He was certainly pleased with the MP4-27.

“The car’s is feeling quite good, very similar to the last race,” he said. “I made some set-up changes which I’m much happier with, and now I’m focusing on the long run pace. I didn’t get too many laps, but it definitely feels good at the moment.

“I thought it would be good here, just generally we have quite a good balance, and the overall downforce level seems to be quite consistent through low, medium and high speed corners, which is a positive. I’m massively happy to drive the car, so obviously we’ve got to keep pushing.

Lewis Hamilton turned the quickest lap in both Friday practices in Malaysia. (Photo: AFP)

“Jenson was particularly consistent on the long run, I went wide a couple of times! In the past it has been a little bit hotter, but just looking after the tires is going to be a real tough call when you are out there, just trying to stop the sliding, driving with understeer if you can, whilst keeping the lap times up. It’s just trying to find that right balance.”

Hamilton isn’t always in a chatty mood when he meets the press, which I guess is understandable given the fact that we hang on his every word and wait for him to say something controversial.
But today he was clearly in a good mood, and in fact he gave some surprisingly detailed and very interesting insights into the business of getting the most out of the car at this track.

“I put a different wing on for the last race, which I hadn’t used for a year. I thought it would be better, it gives me more in high speed corners. It was too much in the race, but in qualifying it was good. I made a step backwards this race, and made a couple of other set-up changes, roll stiffness and ride heights and all of these kinds of things you can change, and hopefully they help look after the tires, particularly in a hot place like this.

“The better aerodynamic package you have, the better you are able to look after your tires. Also the driver can make a difference, how much wheelspin they generate, and how much oversteer and understeer they create, so that’s really part of the driver’s side. But also the downforce makes a big difference, so hopefully our downforce is a little bit better than the others, so hopefully we can look after the tires better.”

He also made the point that it’s not easy to be fast over a whole lap: “It’s such a fast, flowing circuit you’ve got to make a balance of how much life you take out of the tires over the first sector, and how you divide it over the three sectors, that’s really the key.”

It’s worth noting that without the benefit of blown diffusers this year the drivers are going to punish the tires more than last year, and that may explain why the likes of Sebastian Vettel had trouble getting comfortable today.

“The car feels very similar to last year,” said Lewis. “Only when you’re off power you have less downforce than last year, so there’s a bit more movement on the entry of corners, particularly medium and low speed corners.”

The fascinating thing on Saturday will be to what extent each team and driver adjusts his thinking towards Sunday in terms of set-up and so on, at the possible cost of qualifying pace. The extreme example of course will be using hard tires in Q3.

Hamilton himself says that pole isn’t everything here, given that overtaking is not impossible.

“This track you’ve obviously got two very long straights, so overtaking is probably a little bit more possible than in the last race. Still starting from the front is a much better position to be in, so that’s what I’m going for, although obviously we don’t know how it’s going to go tomorrow. But I’m just working as hard as I can to make sure we have a good qualifying set-up as well as a good race set-up.”

One thing is for sure – it will be a fascinating qualifying session. And the race will no doubt be even better...

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED