Pirelli outlines Italian Grand Prix tyre strategy options. Pirelli outlines Italian Grand Prix tyre strategy options.

Formula One’s sole tyre manufacturer Pirelli recommends a one-stop strategy for today’s Italian Grand Prix based on the long run simulation completed during Friday’s second practice session.

While the weather is still unsettled in Monza with the sun and the clouds battling hard against each other, Pirelli thinks that the one-stop strategy is the best way to complete today’s 53-lap Italian Grand Prix.

Mario Isola admitted that the changing conditions on Friday made things rather complicated for teams and drivers in terms of finding the best setup for the qualifying and the race.

“We experienced very different conditions today compared to what we saw yesterday, and the predictions are that the weather could change again tomorrow, making it a difficult weekend to manage from an engineering and tyre point of view, with the teams having to lock themselves into a dry or a wet set-up in advance.

The Italian conceded that Pirelli’s three different compounds brought to Monza should enable drivers to go flat-out without taking extensive care of the tyres.

Whether or not the teams go for the anticipated one-stopper depends largely on the weather. In particular, if it rains, the strategy will only be decided as the race unfolds. Whatever happens, our tyre selection here should enable drivers to push to the maximum throughout each stint. Congratulations to Charles Leclerc for his second pole position in two weeks,” he said.

Minimizing the number of stops
According to Pirelli’s analysis, the optimal strategy for the 53-lap Italian Grand Prix is a one-stopper. Among the different one-stop strategies, the fastest one is to start on the soft and change to the medium on lap 22. That’s what the top 10 here is banking on.

Very close is another one stop strategy: start on the soft, then change for the hard after 19 laps. Slightly slower than that is another one-stopper: start on the medium and change onto the hard after 24 laps.

A two-stopper is distinctly slower, so only to be considered if wear and degradation on the soft is higher than expected. If that is the case for anyone, then the best two-stopper is to start on the soft, soft again on lap 16, then medium around lap 32.