Pirelli shares statistics from the 2024 F1 season with regards to tyre usage along with overtakes and strategies.
The Pirelli tyres used over the course of the 24 Grand Prix in this longest ever Formula 1 season, covered a distance that could almost see you getting from the Earth to the Moon on an imaginary road linking our planet to its only natural satellite. The tyres completed 334,942.175 kilometres, over 65.534 laps from the first free practice session in Bahrain, to the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi, which is 94% of the distance separating us from the moon’s perigee, its nearest point to earth during the 27 day orbit of our planet.
The actual distance has increased compared to 2023, thanks to the addition to the calendar of the Emilia-Romagna and Chinese Grands Prix which accounted for a further 27,016.375 kilometres. The percentage of kilometres completed on the slick tyres has remained pretty much unchanged at 93.59%, while there was an increase in use of the Cinturato Intermediate from 5.67% to 5.84% for a total of 19,566.862 km. The Cinturato Extreme Wet was used a bit less, going from 0.64% to 0.57%. Of the slicks, the lion’s share inevitably was down to the C3, as this compound was selected for every event, although in percentage terms it dropped from 36.57% to 32.06% compared to last year.
Yet again, the C4 was the second most used compound (23.47%) while for third place, at 16.84% the C5 overtook the C2 (14.97%) and the C1 was once again the least used in 2024 at 5.56%. Some of these changes in the data are down to the fact that, for the races in Melbourne and Interlagos, the decision was taken to go with a softer trio of compounds than the previous year, going from C2-C3-C4 to C3-C4-C5. Not included in the above numbers is the data relating to prototype tyres. They were used for 2,306.944 kilometres, fewer than the previous year because in 2024 they were only used for the in-competition test at Mexico City, while last year they were used in Friday free practice in three events – Barcelona, Suzuka and, as this year, Mexico City.
The prize for the longest stint on a single set of tyres goes to Pierre Gasly, who completed 300.150 kilometres (50 laps) in his Alpine in Baku on a set of C3s, designated as the Hard at this Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc takes the honours for the longest distance travelled on a set of C2, completing 43 laps of the Jeddah track, equivalent to 265.525 kilometres. George Russell travelled furthest on a set of C4 (256.949 km, 77 laps) in Monaco, while Nico Hulkenberg completed 242.763 km, 57 laps, at Zandvoort. Yuki Tsunoda did 28 laps of the Singapore track, equivalent to 141.820 kilometres and Racing Bulls’ Japanese driver also takes the award for the longest stint on a set of intermediates (191.844 km) in Montreal, while his team-mate for the final six races of the season, Liam Lawson, went further than anyone (81.871 km) on one set of Extreme Wets.
Pirelli supplied the teams with a total of 8,016 sets of tyres. Of these, 2,718 were never used. The extreme wet and intermediate tyres were subject to a “strip-and-fit” policy which meant that tyres fitted to rims but never used, could be stripped and refitted for use at other rounds. In 2024, this meant that around 3500 fewer tyres needed to be produced. 935 sets of slicks, equivalent to 11.66% of those produced, were fitted to rims but never saw the track. In addition, a further 948 sets (11.82%) completed between one and three laps: for the most part, these are sets used in qualifying or in flying lap simulations, but the issue of more efficient tyre usage during the race weekend remains on the table.
Of all the 2024 races, the Japanese Grand Prix saw the most tyre changes: there were 46 pit stops in Suzuka. While at the other end of the scale, there were only 19 pit stops in Jeddah. Actually, the quietest Sunday in terms of action in pit lane was in Monaco, where thanks to a red flag on the opening lap, all the drivers were able to make the obligatory change of compound during the interruption, so that after that, there were only a further seven pit stops.
If there was a prize for the hottest race of the year, at least in terms of air temperature, it would go to Interlagos, with 35.6 °C recorded during Sunday’s race. In contrast, Silverstone’s temperatures ranged from 10.9 °C, rising to 13.9 °C in the race. As for track temperatures, there were some old favourites and some newcomers compared to 2023: the prize for the hottest goes to the Hungaroring with 58.6 °C, although the race in Imola saw a surprising 52.5 °C. The coldest bit of track overall was Silverstone (12.8 °C) while during a race, Las Vegas was coldest at 16.8 °C.
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[The story is as per press release]