Despite the fact that the tyre nomination for the 2018 Australian Grand Prix is the same as last year – soft, supersoft and ultrasoft – the compounds are all a step softer this season, which will contribute to the big performance increase already seen in pre-season testing. With new cars, new drivers, variable weather, and plenty of track evolution, Melbourne is always one of the most unpredictable and eagerly-anticipated races of the year.
The Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit from a tyre point of view:
– Albert Park is a semi-permanent street circuit that is not used extensively during the year, so the track can be particularly ‘green’ and slippery at the start of the grand prix weekend.
– It is generally made up of short to medium straights, and low to medium speed corners.
– Traction is key in order to get a good drive out of the many corners onto the short straights.
– Wear and degradation is on the whole quite low: most cars stopped just once last year, with the most popular strategy – used by the top three – being ultrasoft to soft. Softer compounds this year could mean different rates of wear and degradation, so more pit stops.
– There is a reasonably high chance of a safety car: the 2006 race featured four safety cars.
– Lateral forces are not particularly high: total energy going through the tyres is about average.
– Pit lane time loss is around 25 seconds; there are no major changes to the track since 2017.
Pirelli’s racing manager Mario Isola comments on what to expect at the at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit this weekend: “Barcelona testing already provided an indication of the step forward in performance taken by the 2018 cars and compounds, and we should see this carried through to the very different conditions in Australia. Exactly what those conditions could be is yet to be seen: the weather at this time of year in Melbourne can vary from cold and wet to very warm. From what we can see so far, this year’s softer compounds should open up the possibility for either one or two pit stops this year, as opposed to one for the majority of drivers last year. As usual at the first grand prix of the season, there are still a number of questions to be answered, but we hope to see an exciting race with tyre strategy playing a key role.” Mario Isola explained, ahead of the 2018 Australian Grand Prix.
Pirelli has also developed new software to help it choose race-by-race Formula 1 tyre compounds in order to encourage two pit stops per event, and give teams more strategy options. The Italian company is using simulations to find the best combination of three compounds for each race, which in some cases could mean skipping a compound step, for example nominating the medium, soft and ultrasoft, but not the supersoft.
“We have now a very good tool, software that we created this winter, to make all the combinations with three different compounds. And the software is returning the number of strategies in a certain interval of race time. We always pick up the three compounds that have the highest number of strategies. Usually of course the target is two stops, but it’s not only two stops, we are taking the combination which on paper is giving us the higher number of strategies, to try to have more action on track. Software is a tool that is making a lot of comparisons in a quick way, but you need to put in the right numbers. If we collect good numbers [from testing and the early races], we can update the software in order to have new simulations and to decide the selection.” – Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola added.
What’s new?
– There is a new start time of 16.10 (local time), with all the races this year starting at 10 minutes past the hour, in order to accommodate television schedules.
– The new Formula 1 two-seater car is scheduled to make its debut in Australia, based on an updated version of the original 1998 Tyrrell design, with Pirelli tyres.
Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit minimum starting pressures:
(Slicks)
22.0 psi (front) | 19.5 psi (rear)
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