Qatar Grand Prix: Preview – Pirelli

Components 1’s last fortnight of the season sees the circus head again to the Center East.

Whereas the Drivers’ title is now carried out and dusted with Max Verstappen topped for a fourth consecutive yr, for the three groups nonetheless in with an opportunity of claiming the Constructors’ title, McLaren main Ferrari and Crimson Bull, there may be nonetheless every little thing to play for with 103 factors on the desk.

The final back-to-back of this the longest ever Components 1 season, will get underway in Qatar, the sixth Grand Prix weekend to be run to the Dash format this yr. 13,000 kilometres because the crow flies and an eleven hour time distinction separate Doha from Las Vegas. They’re each evening races, held on the sting of enormous deserts, however that is the place the similarities finish. In Nevada, drivers needed to cope with a avenue circuit that includes medium to low pace corners with air and observe temperatures solely simply above the ten °C mark. In Qatar then again, the Grand Prix is held on a everlasting circuit with medium-high pace corners and ambient temperatures across the 25 °C mark.

On the subject of the tyres for use, solely the C3 is carried over from Vegas. Actually, on the Lusail observe, the tyres are subjected to vitality ranges akin to these at Suzuka and Silverstone and so the toughest trio of compounds within the 2024 vary can be used, with the aforementioned C3 as Gentle, the C2 as Medium and the C1 as Arduous.

That is the third version of the Qatar Grand Prix, the 2 earlier occasions having been held in 2021 and 2023. Final yr the weekend was affected by a call taken by the FIA, imposing a most of 18 on the variety of laps that one set of tyres may full within the race, which led to all of the drivers making three pit stops. The Race Director’s determination was deemed crucial after a notification from the Pirelli engineers. Following the same old evaluation of the tyres returned to them by the groups after the primary and second day of observe exercise, they identified the potential of micro-lacerations within the sidewalls between the tread compound and the carcass cords, brought on by impression generated from repeatedly driving over the kerbs at some corners.

Over the previous few months, the FIA and Pirelli have labored collectively to organize for this Grand Prix to make sure that what occurred in 2023 is not going to be repeated. The pyramid-shaped kerbs have had their ideas rounded off at seven of the observe’s 16 corners: the primary two after the beginning, turns 4 and 10 and the three from 12 to 14, the part that had most careworn the perimeters of the tyres. Engineers within the Pirelli Motorsport R&D division have carried out in depth and prolonged exams on the dynamic take a look at beds in Milan, utilizing a pattern of the brand new kerbs equipped by the FIA. Moreover, the engineers additionally analysed tyres from exams carried out by some Components 1 groups in current weeks on the Lusail circuit, working pre-2024 automobiles. Though the tyres have been clearly not an identical to these from the 2024 vary, the acquired knowledge has nonetheless been helpful to verify the outcomes of simulations and the indications from the take a look at mattress. It must also be famous that the FIA has ensured {that a} gravel strip is added to the surface of some kerbs to dissuade drivers from overstepping the mark so as to go faster.

One other characteristic of final yr’s race was the very excessive humidity stage on Sunday which, mixed with the fairly excessive temperatures of a Qatari October, made life very bodily demanding for the drivers, a lot in order that a few of them felt unwell due to the warmth within the cockpit and one driver even needed to retire from the race. This yr the state of affairs needs to be higher on this respect because the race is going down over one month later. Nevertheless, the circumstances final yr led to a current determination from the FIA World Council to authorise using a standardised cooling system within the cockpit on the hottest Grands Prix, as from subsequent yr.

Nevertheless, it is exhausting to keep away from the excessive temperatures emanating from the Lusail observe which was resurfaced in time for final yr’s Grand Prix, to the extent that graining may very well be a characteristic, because it was in Las Vegas, albeit for reverse causes: in Nevada it was brought on by the chilly and the dearth of grip resulting in the tyres sliding on the asphalt, inflicting abrasion of the tyre floor. This might have a major impression on race technique with the tyres presumably affected by important thermal degradation. Moreover, there are so few precedents to those circumstances that for now it’s unattainable to make predictions. Leaving apart the occasions of 2023, it needs to be remembered that, in 2021, some drivers solely made one pit cease and others, like Hamilton and Verstappen who completed first and second, fought for the win working a two-stop technique. Whereas preserving in thoughts that 2021 featured automobiles from the earlier technology, due to this fact with very completely different tyre compounds, there have been many alternative selections made when it comes to compounds used, as certainly was the case in final yr’s Dash when 12 drivers began on the Medium and eight on the Gentle.

Within the two editions of this occasion to this point, the spoils of victory and pole positions have been shared equally between Hamilton and Verstappen, the one methods to separate them being that the Dutchman has the benefit, having recorded the race quickest lap on each events, in addition to ending second in 2021. The opposite podium finishers are Alonso, who was third for Alpine in 2021, and Piastri and Norris, respectively second and third final yr.

The Qatar Grand Prix weekend can be the penultimate spherical of two sequence that often run along with Components 1, particularly Components 2 and the F1 Academy, each having Pirelli as their sole tyre provider.