The Formula 1 Emilia Romagna GP was marked by the first Sprint weekend of the 2022 championship which means teams and drivers had to work with a different schedule during the first two days of running at the Imola circuit. With just a few hours until the main event at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, we take a look at the options available to the teams at Imola.
What is the quickest tyre strategy for Emilia Romagna GP?
Pirelli confirmed that a one-stop is clearly the fastest option in case there will be no Safety Car which could lead to different solutions for the teams depending on the moment. A one stop is expected even more so than at many other venues when teams tend to prefer making as few stops as possible, because here the pit lane loss time is one of the biggest of the season, given the fact that it takes almost 30 seconds to come in, perform the tyre change and return to the circuit.
Despite the fact that DRS was very important in the Sprit race on Saturday, it was clear that passing is to easy at Imola when cars are closely-matched in terms of performance, so teams will be looking to want to minimize the opportunities to lose track position in the pits. As a result, most teams will start the race with the medium compound tyre, opening up two main possibilities.
The first – and most likely – will see a first stint of around 30 laps (yet the pit window is a fairly wide one) on the mediums before switching to hard tyres for the remainder of the Emilia Romagna GP. By starting the Imola event on the medium tyres, there is also the possibility for teams to use the soft if that opening stint can be extended to the lap-40 mark, maybe helped by a Safety Car when the tyres can be preserved for some laps.
Is a different option for the top ten possible?
If any of the front runners want to try something else at the start of the race to offset their strategy, then the soft compound has potential. That’s because it can provide a grip advantage off the line and enough of a performance gain to maintain position early on.
The difficulty will be dealing with graining as seen on Saturday – especially if it rains overnight and reduces the grip level – although the lower working range of the soft tyre will suit the expected cooler temperatures a little more if it stays dry. The opening stint is likely to be around 18 laps on full tanks of fuel before drivers will start suffering from degradation and need to make a stop, but the hard compound tyre should be able to be managed from that point to the end of the race as the fuel load burns off. However, this will involve giving up track position earlier than those starting on mediums.
Rain also isn’t a bad thing for the softs, as they are the best slick compound to be on if there are a few spots that impact track conditions but don’t require a switch to intermediates. With a 60% chance of thunderstorms, that could be a consideration for teams.
What’s the weather like?
It hasn’t been the warmest weekend in Imola, with heavy rain on Thursday and Friday and cool temperatures making things tricky. Saturday was much improved, but even so the temperature barely climbed above 20C and Sunday isn’t expected to be as warm.
As highlighted above, the chance of heavy showers and thunderstorms is currently anywhere between 40% and 60% as can be seen from the most recent reports. But the data describes it as “unsettled” and with only limited accuracy at this point of the weekend.
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The possibility of rain currently increases around three hours before the race and remains throughout the afternoon into the evening, with temperatures at best reaching 21C but likely to be a few degrees lower. That means teams have to factor in tyre warm-up and graining phases, with the hard set to be particularly tricky out of the pits and requiring a lot of work on the front tyres in particular to generate the required temperature to get performance out of them. They will also need to be ready to react to what could be potentially heavy showers, although they do have data on the crossover points from Friday’s qualifying that saw the intermediates used in a session that started dry enough for slicks.
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