Pirelli has revealed the tyre choices of the drivers for the 2018 Formula 1 German GP (July 20-22) with Mercedes and Ferrari among the teams having gone for the least number of ultrasoft tyres.
Interestingly, both Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have the same choice of tyres with seven sets each of ultrasoft along with four of soft and two medium compound for German GP. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and Haas’ Romain Grosjean have the same choice.
At the same time, Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen have the same choice with seven sets of ultrasofts, five sets of soft and one of medium. Haas’ Kevin Magnussen has the same choice as well.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo has eight sets of ultrasoft compound with three sets of soft and two of medium. Ricciardo’s choices has been matched by the Force India, Toro Rosso and McLaren drivers along with Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson.
His teammate Charles Leclerc has the eight sets of ultrasoft compound, but he has opted for three sets of medium and two soft. Williams’ Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin have gone for nine sets each of ultrasoft compound.
However, they have different choices for the remaining two types of tyres with Stroll going for two each for either of the compounds, while Sirotkin has opted for three sets of soft and one of medium.
Considering Renault’s troubles with the harder tyres, both the drivers have opted for the maximum number of ultrasoft tyres at 10, but Carlos Sainz has gone for two sets of medium and one soft to Nico Hulkenberg’s two sets of medium and one medium.
The teams get 13 set of tyres for the weekend, with one set of the softest compound to be kept for use in Q3.After the completion of qualifying, the Top 10 drivers will have to return that set, while the other drivers can keep it for the race.
For the races, each driver has to keep one set each of the two harder compounds available for the weekend, while the rest 10 sets they are free to choose from the three available compounds for the particular drive.