New tyre regs foster aggressive strategies – Symonds

Williams technical chief Pat Symonds says new tyre regulations have encouraged F1 teams to adopt aggressive strategies and expects to see more of the same in the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix.

The revised rules state that Pirelli nominates three compounds for each race weekend, with the softest one required to be used in Q3 and at least one of two compounds nominated mandatory for the grand prix.

With teams given complete freedom to pick ten of their 13 sets, the opening two races have seen some vastly different approaches. For instance, US newcomers Haas went for a bold three stints on the supersoft tyre in Bahrain, while Williams ran a conservative, and ultimately inadequate, strategy that included two spells on the medium compound.

“Whilst in 2015 we generally saw two-stop strategies [in China], experience so far in 2016 shows that teams are pushing to more aggressive strategies due to the freedom of tyre choice,” Symonds say. “The championship is extremely close, therefore we must keep pushing to remain competitive.

“The Shanghai International Circuit has quite long straights with average corner speeds on the low side. However, Turns 7, 8 and 13 do exercise the high-speed characteristics of the car. The long duration of the corners puts a lot of energy through the tyres, therefore tyre wear is generally the limiting factor for strategy choice.”

After the medium tyre failed to deliver in Sakhir, Williams will look to make the most of their aggressive tyre choices for Shanghai. Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas have the most sets of supersofts with seven – tied with the McLaren drivers and Haas duo.

However, the Grove pairing slightly differs between their medium and soft allocation: the Brazilian will only have one set of the harder compound available, while his Finnish team-mate will get two.

PROFILE: Paddy Lowe, the pioneer