F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Tyres: Toro Rosso and Williams get hyper for Abu Dhabi

Toro Rosso and Williams have both requested ten sets of hypersoft tyres for their drivers to use in next weekend's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll back this up with two sets of ultrasofts and just one of the supersofts, while their respective team mates Brendon Hartley and Sergey Sirotkin flip the numbers round in their selection.

Each driver on the grid gets 13 sets of tyres in total for the race weekend, with one set of each of the three available Pirelli compounds included by default. After that they're free to choose how to use their allocations.

Bulking up on the hypersoft tyre would be an 'aggressive' strategy for a driver, one that prioritises speed over durability.

Bottas hopes Pirelli improves its tyres in 2019

At the other end of the spectrum, the team choosing the least number of hypersoft tyres is Renault. Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz will have just seven sets of the pink-walled compound available to them for the season finale.

Hulkenberg takes the rest of his allocation as ultras, save for the one mandatory set of supersofts. Sainz prefers to double up on the latter which means that he will have four sets of the purple ultra on hand.

The majority of teams - including all of the drivers in the Big Three teams - are almost as conservative in their choice. Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, Haas and Sauber have all requested eight sets of ultras.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas make identical selections with three sets of ultras and two supersofts, which is the same choice of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.

Just to be contrary, Ferrari do it the other way around: Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen take three sets of supersofts (and two of the ultra) suggesting a slightly more cautious approach by the Scuderia compared to their closest rivals.

That leaves two teams selecting nine sets of hypersofts for Abu Dhabi. Force India's Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon round out the numbers with a couple of sets each of the remaining compounds.

That's the same approach taken by McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, in what is the last drive in Formula 1 for both drivers, at least for the time being.

It's also the final time the current naming system for tyres will be used. In future the three compounds brought to the event by Pirelli will simply called hard, medium and soft regardless of the actual compound it's made from.

Last year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix saw a uniformity of tyre and pit stop strategies, with most drivers starting on ultras and switching midway through to supersofts. However, in general this year's compounds are considered to be one stop softer than their 2017 counterparts.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.