TYRE ANALYSIS: Mercedes emerge as tyre whisperer in strange conditions

Cold temperatures and a dusty track surface led to unusual tyre behaviour and enormous performance swings at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. F1Technical’s senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers his tyre debrief after the Nevadan F1 round.

The fourth Formula 1 race to be held in Las Vegas ended in triumph for Mercedes who secured a one-two finish courtesy of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

It also saw Max Verstappen crowned Drivers’ World Champion for a fourth consecutive time, after finishing fifth today. Having finished sixth, Lando Norris can no longer catch the Dutchman, with two rounds remaining.

Reflecting on the second-ever Las Vegas Grand Prix, Pirelli’s motorsport director Mario Isola said that Verstappen’s ability to fight when he did not have a competitive car was the most impressive for him.

“First of all, congratulations to Max Verstappen on his fourth world title, an incredible achievement for a youngster who has only recently turned 27. Well done too to Red Bull, as this is the eighth time one of their drivers has been crowned champion.

“After the start of this season seemed to be following the same pattern as last year’s, Max had a tough time of it, but fought hard race after race, even though he did not have the most competitive package, proving to be an extraordinary champion.

“Congratulations must also go to Formula 1 for having put on an amazing event here in Las Vegas, full of sights and sounds and above all, a great show on track which definitely proved popular with the crowd of over 300,000 spectators who came to the track over the weekend and the millions watching on television and on-line.

As for the tyre performance, ambient and track temperatures proved to be decisive today. After two very cold days on Thursday and Friday, temperatures were slightly higher on race day, both ambient and track, compared to the previous days at 18/17 °C.

As has become the norm for street circuits, Pirelli has selected the three softest compounds in the race, namely the C3 as Hard, the C4 as Medium and the C5 as Soft, as was the case in 2023.

On the grid, the vast majority of drivers opted to start on the Medium. There were four who chose otherwise: Fernando Alonso on Softs, Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas and Franco Colapinto, the latter starting from pit lane, on Hards.

Ahead of the weekend, Pirelli was unsure what tyre strategy would emerge as the quickest way, but the data from the practice sessions indicated that the two-stop strategy might be the favourred one for the 50-lap race.

With the entire field experiencing unexpectedly high tyre degradation, particularly on the mediums, almost all drivers made elected to stop twice for new tyres, preferring to get the most out of the tyres, especially the two sets of Hards they had kept for the race, rather than trying to manage them, especially in the first stint.

“As for tyre performance, it was not a particularly clear cut Grand Prix, starting with the strategy choices. Prior to the race, the one-stop was clearly the quickest option but in the end, almost all the drivers pitted twice, if we leave out Norris who made an additional stop to go for the point for setting the fastest race lap and Ocon, who preferred not to take any risks at the end,” noted Isola.

As is so often the case, the laurels for the longest stints went to three specialists in this discipline, Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Ocon both completing 33 laps on the Hard, while Valtteri Bottas did 18 with the Medium.

The Italian suggested that the graining that several drivers, including the two Ferrari racers, experiences was mainly down to the fact that they pushed too hard on the early laps when the tyres were still cold.

“From an initial analysis of the data, this was due mainly to the fact that several drivers chose to push hard right from the start without giving too much thought to tyre management.

“As a consequence, some of them therefore suffered more than expected with graining and were forced to make their first pit stop earlier than planned, which triggered a chain reaction which bit by bit pushed everyone towards a two-stop, especially as they knew they could count on two sets of Hard tyres, which was without a doubt the most competitive compound for the race.

“On average, the level of performance degradation was relatively low on both the Medium and the Hard, and so too was wear. Clearly some drivers suffered with degradation more than others, especially on the C4, but a one-stop was still doable if the tyres were managed carefully,” concluded Isola.