(Pirelli Motorsport Media)
Pirelli head into the Italian Grand Prix fully expecting team to make just the one pit - stop over the course of what they have described as a 'sprint race'. The Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo di Monza Italia takes place over 53 laps and it is a circuit that produces very low levels of tyre degradation.
The Italian company expect the fastest strategy for a dry race on Sunday is to start on the Medium compound tyre before switching to the Hard tyre on lap 23 for a 30 lap stint.
In Q3 the top ten all used brand new sets of the Pirelli Medium compound tyre. Speaking following the session Pirelli Motorsport director Paul Hembery commented:
'We’re looking forward to an exciting sprint race on our home territory tomorrow – the grand prix should theoretically last less than an hour and twenty minutes – with Monza living up to its reputation as the ‘temple of speed’.
We’ve seen top speeds in excess of 350kph during qualifying, which means that the structure of the tyre is the aspect that is most challenged here: wear and degradation is going to be very low on both compounds while the surface is not at all abrasive, which means that we’re looking at a one stop race tomorrow. From a tyre point of view, it should be a reasonably straightforward race. The timing of that pit stop is going to be a key factor in the race strategy: we expect the drivers to go as long as possible on the medium tyre, but the stint length will be affected in inverse proportion to track temperature.'
© Ben Johnston 2014
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