Tyres set to dominate Indian GP strategy calls

India is likely to be the most challenging race for Pirelli this far this year, given the lack of available data.

That’s why the company chose some time ago to take its soft and hard tyres, to allow for a high degree of flexibility. The soft will be the prime, which allows drivers to have an extra set on Friday.

Indeed the soft is likely to be the tyre of choice for most of the race, given the likely difference in lap times, so as in Germany we could see some very late pit stops.

“We’ve opted for a deliberately conservative nomination in selecting the hard tyre alongside the soft, simply because on a brand new circuit you are never quite sure of the exact race conditions you will encounter,” said Paul Hembery in a Pirelli preview today.

“But we’ve structured the allocation in such a way that we think the teams will run more on the softer tyres, particularly because we are bringing an extra set of soft compound tyres for Friday.

“This will help us to make some decisions about our strategy for next year, particularly after we saw the excellent durability of the softer compounds. It’s too early to talk about the number of pit stops we expect this weekend, but we anticipate a reasonably significant lap time difference between the two compounds.”

Narain Karthikeyan makes some interesting observations about the track.

“The texture of the tarmac is exceptionally smooth compared to most circuits on the calendar, so I think that’s a plus,” said Karthikeyan. “The lap time difference between the hard and soft tyres is going to be huge, maybe in excess of two seconds a lap.

“I’d expect the teams to use the hard as less as possible – maybe just a short final stint in the race as the benefits in lap time produced by the soft tyre should outweigh its shorter life as the track surface isn’t abrasive at all, and track temperatures I think should be under 40 degrees during the weekend.

“The long pit lane (600m) will play a part in strategy as well with teams trying to get through the race with as few stops as possible. The layout itself is going to put tremendous energy through the tyres – especially the banked Turn 10, which is a long, multiple-apex right-hander, somewhat similar to Turn 8 in Turkey.

“The front-left will definitely experience a lot of load through there – and there are a couple of slow speed corners that will challenge the rears on exit. So overall it will be a great challenge for the tyres and it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out.”