Australian GP: Pirelli GP Review
By Courtesy of Pirelli
March 15 2015
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Pirelli Australian GP
Review |
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Reigning
champion Lewis Hamilton made a perfect start to his title defence by beating
his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg to record his second win in Australia
and the 34th of his career. Both Mercedes drivers stopped once, starting on
the soft tyre and then switching to the medium tyres on laps 25 and 26
respectively.
Hamilton started from pole position, having now converted his last seven
pole positions into race victories, while Sebastian Vettel scored a podium
on his Ferrari debut – also stopping once on lap 24 after starting on the
soft tyre. The performance gains seen in Australia confirmed expectations
for the 2015 season, for which Pirelli has developed a new rear tyre
construction.
With wear and degradation extremely contained on the smooth Melbourne
circuit, despite lap times that were in the region of two seconds faster
than last year, most drivers adopted a one-stop strategy. This was prompted
by an early safety car period that extended the length of the first stint,
by minimising the energy going through the tyres, when the cars are at their
heaviest.
Some drivers attempted a two-stop strategy, with the highest-placed
two-stopper being Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, who claimed eighth place in the
closing stages. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was running close to the front on a
two-stop strategy (which is theoretically about four seconds faster than a
one-stop) before retiring from the race close to the finish.
Temperatures were cool (in the region of 20 degrees centigrade) with
overcast conditions for the Australian Grand Prix, further extending tyre
life and allowing the leaders to run within two seconds of each other for
the majority of the race.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “As expected Australia was
a tough race for the teams, but the tyres delivered everything that was
asked. The cool conditions and early safety car period meant that the faster
two-stop strategy turned into a one-stop for most of the competitors. As
well as a top performance from the established frontrunners, we saw some
extremely accomplished drives from the rookies this year, who have clearly
got on top of the 2015 tyres and strategy options in a very short space of
time.
Truth-O-Meter
We predicted a two-stopper as being the fastest strategy for the 58-lap
race, but the early safety car period meant that most drivers converted to a
one-stopper. We predicted the optimal time to change from soft to medium in
this case as being lap 34. Hamilton made his sole pit stop on lap 24, able
to benefit from the extra durability of the medium without compromising
performance. |
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Fastest times of the day by compound:
Medium Soft Intermediate Wet
First HAM 1:30.945 RAI 1:31.426
Second ROS 1:31.092 ERI 1:31.560
Third VET 1:31.457 HAM 1:31.940
Longest stint of the race:
Medium Sergio Perez (38 laps)
Soft Jenson Button (27 laps)
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