Today concludes one of the most adrenaline-filled weekends of the Formula 1 World Championship. While Sunday in Monte Carlo is a showcase for the cars, Saturday is the “all or nothing” day. With qualifying over, teams are preparing race strategies, also considering the Pirelli compound to start the Monaco Grand Prix.
The Monaco weekend is nearing its end, but the race remains, where anything can happen. The 78 laps of the race are experienced by drivers and spectators with extreme concentration and “anxiety,” as any minor mistake can be costly. Safety Cars or red flags can shuffle the teams’ cards, inevitably affecting race strategies. In a race like Monte Carlo, race strategies are less influential but give an idea of the program teams might follow.
Pirelli, for the Monaco Grand Prix, has chosen to reuse the compounds seen at Imola, namely C3, C4, and C5, the softest in the range. Here, the degradation, as seen in the qualifying simulations on Friday and Saturday morning, is very limited. In fact, the drivers managed to improve their lap times lap after lap, with Charles Leclerc improving on his fourth attempt on the same set of tires.
Since this is a circuit where the effort is primarily longitudinal, the tires can have a fairly extended life. However, it is crucial to choose the starting compound well, as it could positively or negatively decide the outcome of the race. Pirelli offers three solutions, each with a different compound, which could open up to defensive or aggressive strategies.
Yellow-white for the first proposal, a strategy aimed at creating a gap after the first phases of the race. Much more conservative and with a longer-term vision is the Hard-Medium strategy. A choice that could prove extremely advantageous for those who want to recover or maybe extend their stint awaiting a Safety Car in the second half of the race. The last one involves a Soft-Hard strategy, decidedly more aggressive and which could be a great weapon for the leading teams. By using the softest compound in the initial stages, those starting from the second row could get a better start and challenge the top two.
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Team orders are not to be excluded, which could foresee starting on different compounds. A strategy that could create an advantage, especially if managed perfectly compared to others. Among those who could play this card are the two Ferrari drivers, with Carlos Sainz on Soft to immediately challenge Oscar Piastri and protect Charles Leclerc. A strategy that could be quite feasible, as the Spaniard admitted post-qualifying that “we will do everything to make Charles win.”
Source: f1ingenerale
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