Pirelli has revealed the tyre choices of the drivers for the 2018 Formula 1 Hungarian GP (July 27-29) with Mercedes and Red Bull Racing going for the least number of ultrasoft tyres.
The two teams are the only ones to have seven sets each for the drivers for Hungarian GP while Ferrari has a split strategy between Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. Among Mercedes and Red Bull, Lewis Hamilton has a different choice to the other three drivers.
Along with the seven sets of purple-coloured ultrasoft, Hamilton has gone for five sets of yellow-coloured soft compound and one only of medium whereas teammate Valtteri Bottas and the Red Bull drivers have opted for four sets of soft and two of medium each.
Ferrari’s Raikkonen will have eight sets each of ultrasoft along with Force India, Toro Rosso, McLaren and Haas drivers. From them, it is Raikkonen along with Force India, McLaren, Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen are on same choice.
They have all gone for three sets of soft and two of medium while Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley and Haas’ Romain Grosjean have gone for four sets of soft and one medium. Meanwhile, Ferrari’s Vettel will have nine sets of ultrasoft tyres at his disposal.
It is same as for the Williams and the Sauber drivers. For the remaining sets, Vettel will be joined by Williams’ Lance Stroll and Sauber’s Charles Leclerc with three sets of soft and one of medium for the weekend.
Their teammates, Sergey Sirotkin and Marcus Ericsson have gone for two sets each of soft and medium. The Renault team will have the maximum number of ultrasoft tyres at 10 with Nico Hulkenberg going for two sets of medium and one of soft, opposite to Carlos Sainz.
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.