Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc expresses concerns over the potential “jeopardy” that Formula 1’s Alternative Tyre Allocation (ATA) rule could introduce to the race weekend, a notion he believes may not be ideal for the sport.
Formula 1 will implement the ATA rule for the first time during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend at the Hungaroring racing track in Budapest, as part of two scheduled trials for the 2023 Formula One championship. The new format, developed in collaboration with Pirelli to support sustainability efforts, reduces the number of available tire sets per driver from the usual 13 to 11.
The drivers will have three sets of Hards, four sets of Mediums, and four sets of Softs for the entire Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. However, during Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session at the Hungaroring, they will be required to use Hards in Q1, Mediums in Q2, and Softs in Q3.
The Ferrari man points out that managing this situation could be “tricky,” not only during the qualifying session in Budapest but throughout the entire race weekend, as explained by Charles Leclerc on Thursday in an interview for the media:
“It’s going to be very tricky because also the free practice preparations are quite a lot mixed,” the Monegasque driver replied, when asked about the introduction of the Alternative Tyre Allocation (ATA) rule for this weekend.
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“I feel like we are going to see many different programs in FP1, FP2, FP3 along the grid because there are so many different options you can choose now with this new format. So we’ll see. It can be an opportunity, obviously, [or] if you take the wrong decisions then you can have a bad way for your weekend. But it’s part of the game.” – Charles Leclerc added ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver anticipates an added layer of difficulty in qualifying with the use of hard rubber in Q1: “I think Q1 and Q2 will be tricky also with different compounds,” he added. “It’s something that we are not really used to push on a hard tyre in a qualifying mode. So I think that will be quite new for everyone and this might be a surprise for a few people.” – he continued.
In general, the driver from Monaco is concerned that the ATA will introduce an element of unpredictability that could be challenging, at least until everyone becomes familiar with the new format: “I don’t think, at least, that the jeopardy should be a part of the sport. I think the best one should win. It might be a bit of an unknown for now, the more we do these formats I think more people will know how to expect and more things will come back into the right order. Maybe after qualifying we’ll know more about it. But it’s going to be very tricky with the amount of tyres we have. You obviously need to run those tyres at one point, maybe during free practice or not by choice. But this is why it makes things very unpredictable for now.” – the Ferrari driver pointed out during his press conference.
Formula 1 will return to its regular tyre allocation format at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamp next weekend for the Belgian Grand Prix, but the Alternative Tyre Allocation will come back for a second test, which is scheduled to take place at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.
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