Bahrain Grand Prix 2014: Strategy Summary

The tire strategy was central to one of the closest Grand Prix battles in recent history, with a breathtaking finale provided by the safety car when there were only 10 laps left to go.

After the restart, Lewis Hamilton led on medium tires ahead of his teammate, Nico Rosberg, who was on a different two-stop strategy to finish the race with the faster soft tire. Despite having a theoretically slower tire, Hamilton was able to hold off Rosberg – who set the fastest lap – to secure his second consecutive victory. Similar battles took place in the top 10, with drivers on the fastest compounds fighting against those ahead with slower tires, depending on the chosen strategy.

However, a gap of more than one second between the medium tire and the soft tire during the heat of the day was significantly reduced in the cooler evening conditions, as temperatures dropped by 3 degrees over the 57 laps.

The top 6 drivers all adopted a two-stop strategy (some aided by the safety car) with the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel using a different tactic to finish 4th and 6th from the 13th and 10th positions on the grid, respectively. Vettel was one of only two drivers to start the race on medium tires.

Starting Tuesday, the teams will take part in the first in-season test of the year. With the 2014 regulations, each team can dedicate one of its test days to tire testing with Pirelli. On Tuesday, Caterham will test for Pirelli, followed by Mercedes and Williams on Wednesday.

Paul Hembery, Motorsport Director at Pirelli: We had a wheel-to-wheel race in Bahrain, in which tire strategy and pace management played a significant role. With track temperatures dropping, some teams altered their strategy from 3 to 2 stops. When you have a safety car near the end of the race and drivers on a wide variety of different tires, it always guarantees an exciting finish. Now, we will begin to prepare for the first test of the season. Having the opportunity to test for the future with the current generation of cars is something we welcome, and we look forward to seeing what we can achieve.

The tire strategies of the drivers at the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

Article produced from the press release sent by Pirelli after the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix race