The top three F1 teams in the current 2019 standings have gone for different tyre strategy for the upcoming Spanish GP on May 10-12 weekend.
As revealed earlier, Pirelli is bringing the C1 (hard), C2 (medium) and C3 (soft) compounds for the Spanish GP at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing have all gone for different number of soft compounds, with Ferrari taking the most at nine, followed by Mercedes at eight and Red Bull with seven.
Joining Ferrari will be Renault and Alfa Romeo Racing drivers with nine being the maximum number across all teams for the soft compound. Among them, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen will have three sets of medium and one of hard.
At the same time, Charles Leclerc, Nico Hulkenberg and Antonio Giovinazzi have opted for two each of medium and hard compounds. Meanwhile, joining Mercedes with eight sets of soft will be Haas, McLaren, Racing Point and Toro Rosso.
Among them, Lewis Hamilton, Romain Grosjean, Alexander Albon and the Racing Point drivers have gone for three sets of medium compound with two of hard, whereas Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat will have four sets of medium and one hard.
In a totally different game, the McLaren drivers have opted for three sets of hard and two medium. Finally, joining Red Bull with seven sets of soft will be Williams with Robert Kubica and the Red Bull drivers going for four sets of medium and two hard.
Interestingly, George Russell will have five sets of medium and two hard – the only driver to have five of the medium compound. As the rule states, the teams get 13 set of tyres for the whole Chinese GP weekend, with one set of the softest compound to be kept by the Top 10 drivers to 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 driver.
