Hamilton, Rosberg differ on F1 tyre choices for Mexico

Julien Billiotte 18/10/2016 at 10:1818/10/2016 at 15:46

Pirelli has announced the tyre choices made by each team for the upcoming Mexican Grand Prix, with a small difference in compound allocations for Mercedes team-mates and title rivals Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

As part of new-for-2016 regulations, teams can now pick from three different compounds, with an allocation of 13 sets per driver.

Of those 13 sets, Pirelli will select two sets that have to be allocated for the race (of which a driver must use one set), while a set of the softest available compound may only be used in Q3. Teams are then free to choose the remaining ten sets.

F1’s official tyre supplier has nominated its medium, soft, and supersoft compound for the race at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, with nearly all teams favouring the softest, red-marked rubber.

One set of supersofts must be available for use in Q3 should a team reach it, while one set of the mediums and one set of the softs must be retained for the race, although only one of those two race sets has to be used.

While Mercedes has opted for four mediums, four softs and five supersofts on Rosberg’s car, it has gone for three mediums, five softs, and five supersofts for Hamilton. Meanwhile, the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers will receive six sets of the supersoft tyre compound apiece.

Toro Rosso has gone for the most aggressive strategy, with Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat set to get eight sets of the softest compound available

Overall, the Mexican GP tyre selection reveals a lot of variety up and down the field, but less within the teams. It’s worth noticing that Haas’ Esteban Gutierrez will only have one set of mediums for his entire home event.

All teams had to make their selections 14 weeks in advance.