Following the 19-lap sprint race on Saturday, where Formula One teams suffered from excessive tire wear, Pirelli’s motorsport director Mario Isola has warned that the high graining on the freshly paved Shanghai International Circuit could lead teams to opt for a three-stop strategy.
The sprint race saw all cars struggle towards the end, even leading Williams’ Carlos Sainz to pit for new tires. The high graining on the new circuit meant several cars began to struggle after just 9 laps of the sprint race.
Adding to the challenge is the fact that teams have no data on how the hard compound tire will perform on this resurfaced track, as none have run it so far this weekend. The hard tire will be a sure-shot option alongside the medium for Sunday’s Grand Prix. Speaking on the graining problem, especially on the front left tire, Isola said:
“The graining on the left front tyre is still there.
“And the wear on the medium tyre is quite high for some teams. It was even towards the limit.
“Therefore, we expect that the best strategy tomorrow will be a two-stop: medium, hard and hard. Nobody has data on the hard tyre yet, but we do think that is the best approach.”
Addressing the possibility of teams adopting a three-stop strategy, he added:
“It depends on the degradation.
“If you have a higher degradation than expected, you recover the 23 seconds [for a pit stop] quite easily. Or you can also try to undercut, for example, because with high degradation it’s quite powerful.
“But if I look at the data that we have collected today on the medium, the degradation was slightly higher than one-tenth of a second per lap, that for the medium is average, or a bit more than others.
“So the medium was working as a medium, not in a very strange condition or unusual condition.”
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who secured the Chinese GP sprint race victory, his first with Ferrari, also pointed out that preserving the tires was challenging. Newsweek Sports reported:
“From Lap 1 here this weekend, I’ve been feeling on it. The engineers have done a great job, the mechanics have done a great job to really fine-tune the car, it felt great today, I got a good start, there’s so much grip on this new tarmac it’s hard to look after these new tires, and I think everyone was struggling out there the same.”
2025 Chinese Grand Prix Starting Grid
1. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
2. George Russell (Mercedes)
3. Lando Norris (McLaren)
4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
5. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
6. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
7. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
8. Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
9. Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls)
10. Alex Albon (Williams)
11. Esteban Ocon (Haas)
12. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
13. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
14. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
15. Carlos Sainz (Williams)
16. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
17. Oliver Bearman (Haas)
18. Jack Doohan (Alpine)
19. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
20. Liam Lawson (Red Bull)
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