Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has gone for a different tyre strategy from Kimi Raikkonen and also the Mercedes drivers for the Formula 1’s US Grand Prix.
Vettel has opted for eight sets of ultrasoft compound to seven for Raikkonen and Mercedes pair for the US GP at the Circuit of the Americas during October 19-21 weekend. Both the Renault and Haas drivers have gone for eight sets of ultrasoft compounds as well.
Vettel will have three sets of supersoft and two each of soft along with Carlos Sainz and Kevin Magnussen, while Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean will have three sets of soft and two each of supersoft compound.
The Toro Rosso drivers will also have seven sets of ultrasoft compound together with Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. For the remaining compounds, Raikkonen and the Mercedes drivers will have three sets each of soft and supersoft.
At the same time, the Toro Rosso drivers will be heavy on supersoft compound with Pierre Gasly opting for five to Brendon Hartley’s four. The Frenchman will only have one set of soft while the Kiwi will have two sets each.
The Racing Point Force India, Sauber and Williams drivers’ will have the maximum number of the ultrasoft tyre at nine. Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Marcus Ericsson will have two each of soft and supersoft.
Whereas Charles Leclerc and Sergey Sirotkin will have three sets of supersoft and one of soft. McLaren has once again decided to go for the harder compounds as they will have the least number of the ultrasoft tyre with only five sets.
Interestingly, the Red Bull Racing drivers have also gone for a different strategy with only six sets of the ultrasoft compound. Fernando Alonso will be heavy with the soft tyre with the maximum of six sets.
The Spaniard will have two sets of supersoft with teammate Stoffel Vandoorne going for five sets of soft and two of supersoft. Both Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen have opted for four sets of supersoft and three sets of soft.
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.