“We prepare Silverstone as a 405km race interrupted by a red flag after 100”. It is the pragmatism of the Formula 1 engineers, capable of transferring in numbers (to be fed to complex simulation systems) all the aspects related to racing on the track.
The topic addressed with Inaki Rueda, head of strategy and sporting director of Ferrari, is the Sprint Qualifying (SQ), the subject that animates the eve of the Silverstone weekend in which the new format will make its debut.
The 100-kilometer race scheduled for Saturday, and whose order of arrival will determine the starting grid for the Grand Prix, has changed the format of the weekend, impacting many technical and sporting aspects.
We presented the guidelines for the weekend a few days ago, but with the approach of the English weekend, other aspects have emerged as discussed between the representatives of the teams and the FIA in order to define the course of the weekend in detail.
Tires
On weekends with the Sprint Qualifying format, the supply of tires goes from the traditional 13 sets (divided into 2 hard, 3 medium, and 8 soft) to 12 sets (2,4,6). Over the weekend, a greater number of long-runs are expected, an aspect that led to the decision to increase the number of sets of medium tires available, from 3 to 4. At Silverstone in qualifying the teams will be able to use only soft tires, and there will no longer be any link between the compound used to pass the cut of the Q2 session and the set of tires to be fitted at the start of Sunday’s race, while keeping at least one medium and one hard train for the Grand Prix.
In the first free practice session at Silverstone it is likely that some teams will be able to complete a first fastest lap simulation if it is not deemed necessary to use all six soft compound trains for qualifying. In the first part of the FP1 session, the use of a set of mediums (or hards) is foreseen for the work on the setup. In FP2, on the other hand, only long-runs with medium and high fuel loads are most likely, in order to assess tire wear and degradation in view of the Grand Prix and Sprint Qualifying.
In this session the choice of tires will probably be differentiated from team to team, based on the type of tire with which a team plans to start both the Sprint Qualifying and the race on Sunday. On the other hand, there are no restrictions on the choice of compound to be fitted at the start of both races. As for wet tires, Pirelli’s supply includes 4 sets of intermediate and 3 extreme sets for each single-seater. If the FP1 session is held in the wet, an extra set of intermediates will be provided, and an additional second set will be guaranteed should qualifying also take place in the rain.
Technical penalties
The problems related to any penalties inflicted by the Stewards during the Sprint Qualifying have been the subject of long discussions between the teams and the FIA. We started from the technical front, also touching on the sports one, with the aim of not distorting the approach introduced by the rules currently in force.
The idea of the Sprint Qualifying was immediately identified as an opportunity to serve a penalty resulting from the change of components of the power unit, having a greater chance of recovering positions over the weekend. To block this possibility, it was decided that in case of replacement of the gearbox (before the six races allowed by the regulation) or of one or more components of the Power Unit (which exceed those granted by the regulation) the resulting penalty will be discounted on the starting grid of the Grand Prix on Sunday, and not of the Sprint Qualifying on Saturday.
If, for example, a car breaks the gearbox in qualifying, it will serve the penalty on Sunday and not in Saturday’s race. Should a chassis change be necessary (which involves starting from the pit lane), the penalty will take place on Sunday, even if the replacement occurs before the Sprint Qualifying.
Sporting penalties
The same philosophy is also at the basis of the decision linked to any infringements committed by a driver on the track during the Sprint Qualifying. A time penalty imposed during the course of a race (an example of this came in the last Austrian Grand Prix in the cases of Lando Norris and Sergio Perez) is normally served at the time of the pit stop (if the sanctioned driver has to still do it) or adding the time to the final classification.
If a driver runs into a penalty during Sprint Qualifying, since there are no pit stops, the penalty will be served at the time of the first stop made in Sunday’s race. In the event of a particularly serious infringement (sanctioned with a drive-through) the driver will have to serve the penalty when the team receives the communication from the Stewards, therefore during the Sprint Qualifying. Should a driver find himself sanctioned after the checkered flag (as happened for Kimi Raikkonen in the Austrian Grand Prix) the penalty will be added to his overall Sprint Qualifying time.
Race against time in FP1
The sixty minutes of the first free practice session will be the engineers’ nightmare. A large part of the activity that takes place in the three free practice sessions on a traditional weekend must be concentrated in a very short period of time, since at the beginning of qualifying (scheduled for 2 and a half hours after the end of FP1) cars will enter the parc fermé regime, therefore no longer modifiable in the setup adjustments.
“We will start with the basic set-up defined in the simulator – underlined Inaki Rueda – having two other set-up alternatives available. If they do not give positive feedback, it will quickly return to the basic set-up “.
The very limited time available will not allow to carry out comparison tests between new and old technical packages (i.e. the comparison tests that the teams carry out when they bring updates to the car on the track) therefore the teams that intend to use upgrades (such as in the case of Mercedes at Silverstone) will need to have maximum confidence in their performance because it will be impossible to return to the original configuration.
As for the drivers who are usually engaged in the teams’ headquarters on Friday for tests on the simulator, only a little more than an hour will be spent between FP1 and qualifying, but only in case of great need.
Wear material
At Silverstone the cars will cover a total of 150 kilometers more than usual under the parc fermé regime. This led to the request (accepted by the FIA) by McLaren, Aston Martin and Alpine to be able to replace the clutch after the sprint race, having been designed based on the traditional regulation which provided for a distance of no more than 350 kilometers between qualifying and the race. Ferrari, on the other hand, has been able to replace brake discs and pads without limits.
Sprint Qualifying: long distance strategy?
Long simulator sessions have led the computers to predict what race strategies we will see on Saturday afternoon in the 100-kilometer race.
From the analysis of the data it emerged that with this format the potential of the cars and drivers will emerge more clearly, while increasing the risk of accidents. Statistics say that on average the withdrawals that occur due to accidents and contacts during the first lap of the race are on average 1.5, and that with the inclusion of the Sprint Qualifying this number will reach 2.5.
An increase in overtaking is also expected, which should go from the current 44 to 68, mostly concentrated in the starting phases and during the first lap, since the Sprint Qualifying does not offer the possibility of undercut and overcut. But there is one question that the simulators cannot answer, and it is the one relating to the approach that the drivers will have.
The calculations say that in the Sprint Qualifying, the potential benefits may not outweigh the risks, that is, exposing yourself to the risk of gaining a position is not a good choice, but … “We cannot predict what the instinct will tell the driver if he sees the possibility of gaining a position – concluded Inaki Rueda – so we will get a first idea about it based on what we will see at the Silverstone weekend ”.
At least on this aspect, fortunately, computers still have limitations.
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