Pirelli has revealed the tyre allocations for the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix with a variety of different approaches taken by a number of Formula 1 teams.
After not featuring in Baku last weekend, the ultra-soft compound returns at the Red Bull Ring, a circuit split between the long straights in the first sector and the technical second and third sectors which contain a number of medium-speed sweeping bends.
The number of official corners is the lowest on the calendar with just nine and lap-times could be well below 1m05s with a best of 1m06.228s posted in Q2 last year by Lewis Hamilton before rain led to a drying track in Q3.
The increased downforce of the 2017 cars is likely to be very evident in the second half of the lap meaning higher loads pass through into the tyres, particularly through Turn’s 5, 6 and 8 which are tyre-limited. The greater durability of this year’s rubber means, however, the 71-lap Grand Prix will likely be another one-stop race unless the weather intervenes.
Of the top teams, Ferrari has taken the most conservative route with just seven sets of the purple-marked ultra-soft of the 13 permitted, with Haas and Sauber, the other two teams powered by Maranello’s engines, also choosing the same number.
Sebastian Vettel has opted for an additional set of the super-soft compound with five compared to four for Kimi Raikkonen, with the Finn deciding to take two sets of the soft tyre.
Mercedes has an extra set of ultra-soft rubber with eight for both drivers but again there is a slight difference with the other two compounds. Lewis Hamilton only has three sets of super-soft allocated compared to Valtteri Bottas’ four with two sets of soft to the Finn’s one.
The home team Red Bull are the most aggressive of the expected top three teams with Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen bringing nine sets of ultra-soft to the Styrian hills along with two of the super-soft and soft.
They are not the most aggressive though, as Force India and McLaren will have 10 sets of ultra-soft at their disposal with two super-soft and just the one soft.
The other allocations can be seen below:
