How overheating rear tyres could play a key part in F1’s Austrian GP

In recent weeks, much of the tyre talk in Formula 1 has surrounded the C6 compound and how it has not had the sort of impact Pirelli might have been hoping for as it looked to develop its softer range of options – but that will be irrelevant in Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix.

In the searing Styrian sun, a team’s performance will depend more on how well they can make the hard and medium options work during the race, with the soft C5 likely to only come into play if there is a late-race safety car.

Pirelli’s head of motorsport, Mario Isola, has indicated a two-stop strategy appears the way to go, with drivers needing to look after the rear of their cars - but he did not rule out teams further down the grid potentially looking at stopping just once, with the different number of fresh sets available to rival squads also adding extra intrigue.

“Here it's all about rear overheating. In reality, some teams and drivers were complaining about overheating in general, not just from the rear, but it means that if they want to use the soft during the race they have to manage carefully the tyre in a stint that cannot be long,” he said.

“Some teams reported that they struggled a little bit with the balance. I believe mainly because they were trying to protect the rear. Because if you want a good race pace you need to protect the rear and keep a good traction for a long stint.

“The quickest strategy on paper is still with the two stops considering the tyres they have for tomorrow, it’s medium, hard, medium again or medium, medium, hard as they want. We have only one team with two sets of hard. That is Haas. And one set of medium.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team

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“While we have Aston Martin, Racing Bull and Alpine that decided to use a medium today [Saturday]. And so they have only one set of hard and one set of medium. For them, I cannot exclude they will try a one-stop strategy for tomorrow. Starting on the medium and moving to the hard. Or the opposite.”

If a driver does opt to only stop once, there are plenty of pitfalls into which the team might stumble – especially with the mercury expected to top out much higher during the race than when teams completed their respective long runs during cooler practice sessions.

“If they start from the back they have to manage quite a lot. Because also the long runs that are available from Friday are in a much cooler temperature and in any case, they are not runs of 30-35 laps,” explained Isola.

“So there is still a possibility to have an increase of degradation after 10, 12, 15 laps - and this is why I believe that one stop, looking at our simulation tool, is still around seven seconds slower than a two-stop. But maybe someone could try medium, hard. And if they need an extra set for the end of the race - in any case, they have a set of soft that is available.

“That's why medium, hard, medium is probably the most popular. Especially because the top teams have medium, hard, medium - and these are the possibilities for Sunday.”

Despite suggesting running the grand prix without using the soft tyre would be the best approach, Isola did offer up some scenarios where it could actually prove to be an advantage, even if not a lasting one.

“It depends how much you manage the soft. As always, because it's not a matter of wear. It's more a matter of degradation. So probably 10, 12, 15 laps are still possible considering that in any case you have degradation, while the hard is very consistent and the medium is performing well.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

“It is true that the soft, looking at the pure performance is around half a second quicker than the medium and between medium and hard they are very close. So during the race with the pace management we will probably struggle to see any performance difference between the medium and the hard. Because they are close.

“So if you manage the pace, you put them together, while at the beginning you still have a slight advantage on the soft. Then with the degradation obviously you cross the other two and it becomes not an advantage. But if we have a safety car at lap 60, then it makes sense to put the soft.”