Qatar GP 2024, race technique – After securing pole place at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, George Russell as soon as once more begins on the entrance of the grid. In actuality, the quickest time was set by Max Verstappen, however a penalty promoted Mercedes’ W15 automotive quantity 63, confirming the staff’s sturdy type seen in the US. Within the second row, the 2 McLaren drivers are positioned, sensing that the Constructors’ Championship is turning into extra inside attain, partly attributable to Ferrari not being at their finest however nonetheless hoping to get well with race tempo proven through the Dash Race.
The end result of the race is unsure, contemplating each the qualifying outcomes and, extra importantly, the Dash Race, which ended with a McLaren one-two end (Piastri forward of Norris, editor’s notice). Nevertheless, they have been unable to ascertain a big hole over the competitors, which stayed shut all through the race. Given this, and the difficult tire administration on a monitor that locations a whole lot of stress on the compounds, the race is predicted to be unpredictable in its remaining final result.
Earlier than diving into the small print of strategic predictions, let’s check out the tire selections made by Pirelli for the twenty third spherical of the 2024 World Championship. In contrast to Las Vegas, the place the softer compounds have been launched, Pirelli has introduced the toughest tires of their vary: C1 onerous, C2 medium, and C3 tender. Let’s instantly take a look at the tire units obtainable to the drivers.
Qatar GP 2024 – Technique: Single Cease Anticipated to Be Useful
It needs to be famous that predicting staff methods this 12 months has been significantly troublesome. Tires have usually been a puzzle, resulting in ways that diverged from what was anticipated on paper.
For the Losail Grand Prix, it is very important contemplate the resurfacing of the curbs, that are decrease than final 12 months when many tire points arose as a result of sharp edges of the curbs positioned on the outdoors of the corners, resulting in tires getting lower. This prompted a multi-stop technique final 12 months.
This 12 months, the difficulty has been resolved, and Pirelli’s engineers count on that one of the best tactic will probably be a single cease, beginning with the medium tire, which ought to final between 19 and 25 laps, adopted by a swap to the onerous tire to complete the race.
Except for the curbs, Pirelli’s chief engineer Simone Berra highlighted that the general grip stage this 12 months is greater than final 12 months, stopping lateral sliding and untimely tire put on. The anticipated graining was lower than anticipated. This, mixed with decrease degradation, suggests {that a} single-stop technique would be the most advantageous.
After all, there may be little information on the onerous tire, a compound not used through the Dash Race and solely seen briefly throughout Friday’s sole observe session. The efficiency of this compound would be the deciding issue: if it performs nicely, a single cease will probably be viable; in any other case, different methods similar to a two-stop plan with two onerous tire stints after an preliminary medium stint could also be used.
There may be little expectation of using the tender C3 tire, a compound that might result in extreme put on and speedy efficiency degradation. Whereas a number of drivers have a number of units of this compound (Nico Hulkenberg, Franco Colapinto, and Esteban Ocon every have three obtainable), it’s unlikely that anybody will use it, particularly since overtaking at Losail is troublesome, and having to get well positions could be very disadvantageous.
The race will probably be held underneath the climate situations noticed within the previous days, with temperatures not too excessive however winds that would trigger points, with gusts anticipated at as much as 40 kilometers per hour. The drivers might want to handle these situations, particularly by medium- to high-speed corners.
Moreover, the wind tends to carry desert sand onto the monitor, which doesn’t assist keep ultimate asphalt situations. This presents one other small problem, a further variable to think about within the troublesome equation that’s the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix.
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