A 2005 Strategy Lesson with Pat Symonds

The main changes we saw in strategy for 2005 were solely down to the single tyre rule. This year, we were generally using harder tyres than in 2004. As such, the 'golden laps' from the tyres - the performance advantage that comes from new tyres - was only present once, in qualifying, and couldn't be exploited to strategic advantage. This meant that generally, we made one less stop at each race than in 2004.

Secondly, the shape of the races changed. Harder tyres meant lower degradation (the amount of performance a tyre loses in normal conditions), so cars were nearly as quick at the end of their stint, on low fuel, as they had been at the start with newer tyres. This meant that particularly for the first stop and even for the second, you tried to push the stops as far back as possible to gain track position. As a result, strategies were often 'rearward biased', with two long stints followed by a shorter one.