Barcelona Preview: The secrets of tyre management

Ever since Michael Schumacher attacked the Pirelli rubber in the wake of the Bahrain Grand Prix, tyres have been the hottest of Formula 1 topics. While not exactly a new phenomenon - ever since Pirelli came in at the start of 2011, tyre management has been one of the keys to success - the seven-times world champion's claim that drivers have had to "cruise around like we have a safety car" has become a major talking point.

So, in the context of what we will see in this weekend's Spanish Grand, does Schumacher's position hold water? The premise of his argument is that the tyres are the ultimate limiting factor that dictates pretty much everything.

"The main thing I feel unhappy about is that everyone has to drive well below a driver's, and in particular, the car's limits to maintain the tyres," said Schumacher after the Bahrain GP. "I just question whether the tyres should play such a big importance, or whether they should last a bit longer."

So far this season, races have mostly been a choice of either two or three stops. As Pirelli has repeatedly stated over the past two years, this is exactly what the sport asked the Italian company to deliver. But the whys and wherefores of how F1 got into this situation is irrelevant. What really matters is whether, as some claim, it has turned grand prix racing into a lottery.

Pirelli tester Lucas di Grassi knows more than most about the current tyres and he is at pains to emphasise that car characteristics and driving style play a key role in who is getting the tyres to work well. It's no coincidence that this is a very similar line to that regularly peddled by Hirohide Hamashima when he was in charge of Bridgestone's F1 rubber programme.

"In my opinion, car characteristics are the main factor for tyre usage and performance," says di Grassi. "But you can definitely see between team-mates a considerable gap. To drive very smoothly is not always positive, especially in low temperatures or with hard compounds, which need high energy to heat up and perform well."

It stands to reason that the way the tyres are used reflect car characteristics. But the point that di Grassi makes about the difference between team-mates is a valid one. Take the case of Schumacher and Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in China. You can put the half-a-second difference in qualifying down to the dramatic change of temperature that occurred during Q3, but that time gap continued during the first stint of the race. After 10 laps, Schumacher was 5.259s behind his team-mate. On the same tyres, on the same track and in the same car with very similar setups, Schumacher had lost half-a-second a lap. That deficit can only be down to the driver. Oh, and in case you're wondering, Rosberg went a lap longer in his first stint.

Spain will be a fascinating test case. Pirelli has allocated its soft and hard compounds. The weather forecasts suggests that the track temperature will be middling, which should make it a very good test of which teams and drivers are most adept at making different tyres work in different circumstances. As always, the fastest driver/car combinations will still be the fastest, even though the closeness of the field in terms of overall pace means that it only takes a small loss to turn a pacesetting car into a middling one.

As for Schumacher, it's vital to put his words into the right context. F1 drivers have always taken every opportunity to use their media platform to lobby for the kinds of tyres they would like. Clearly, Schumacher would like the tyres that perform well for longer, just as he wanted Bridgestones with relatively stronger front end grip in 2000. He's far from the only one to criticise tyres over the years.

In fact, attacking the tyres has long been a favourite tactic of all sorts of drivers. Tyre warm-up and degradation has always been an issue and there will always be complaints in any category that has a control supplier. In Spain this weekend, the team and driver combination that does the best job in terms of speed, consistency, setup, strategy and tyre management will win. That's not how lotteries work.

The great thing is that, for many reasons that stretch far beyond just the tyres, we don't have a clear idea heading into the weekend who that will be.

Strategy

As the above suggests, tyres will once again be key. For the first time this season Pirelli is not bringing tyres that are next to each other in the compound range, instead opting for soft and hard compounds in a bid to highlight performance differences and create a new challenge for teams.

As a result, we can expect to see strategies fluctuate between three and four stops. Much will depend on how well drivers can hang onto their rubber, especially in the long turn three - and that in turn will be determined by how well the aerodynamics of each car work.

Weather

Key Stats

• Mark Webber, polesitter in the last two editions of the race, has an unpleasant record: after dominating in 2010, last year he became the first driver after ten years to take pole position but not victory at Barcelona.

• Lewis Hamilton has never won at Barcelona, even in his GP2 days. In F1 he has climbed the podium three times: he was second in his debut year and in 2011, and third in 2008. In qualifying he was the best non-Red Bull driver in the last two years, but this is one of the few tracks where he has never started from the front row. The others are at Suzuka and Buddh, although in the latter he actually qualified second but was demoted by a post-session penalty.

• Fernando Alonso has won only once his home race, taking victory from pole position in 2006. His results at Barcelona are noteworthy though: five podiums, eight points finishes and a 9-1 qualifying score against his team-mates (he was beaten only by Trulli in 2004).

• Barcelona has proved one of the best tracks for Michael Schumacher: seven poles, six wins, 12 podiums, and a 16-2 score in qualifying against his team-mates. He never qualified outside the top-10 here and 20 years ago this was the track in which he recorded his first front row start.

• Charles Pic was the winner of the GP2 feature race both last year and two years ago.

• All eyes are on Red Bull, as it was the benchmark here in the last two seasons, both times scoring pole and the victory. Its qualifying margin is particularly impressive: 0.980s last year and 0.834s two years ago.

• McLaren has won the Spanish Grand Prix eight times, but its last victory came in 2005. Last year it was able to put both cars on the podium.

• Ferrari in contrast has won the Spanish Grand Prix 11 times, its last victory coming via Kimi Raikkonen in 2008. Since then however its performance has dropped. Last year Alonso finished the race lapped and after the race technical director Aldo Costa resigned.

• Both Saubers finished in the points last year, despite a puncture on the opening lap for Kamui Kobayashi.

• Barcelona has been a cursed track for Toro Rosso: it has finished the race only three times out of 14 and scored only one point, with Jaime Alguersuari two years ago.

Famous Five

2011
Sebastian Vettel resisted huge pressure from Lewis Hamilton to claim victory in last year's Spanish Grand Prix. In a mirror of China, two rounds previously, the race boiled down to a straight fight between the two men, with Hamilton closing in as the race neared its conclusion. There were some very tense moments, but despite heavy pressure and an intermittent KERS system Vettel hung on to claim the win by just 0.6s.

Only two other drivers - Jenson Button and Mark Webber - finished on the lead lap, in what had been an extremely close race in the early stages as the field bunched up behind Fernando Alonso's Ferrari. Vettel slipped by during the second cycle of stops, while a longer second stint allowed Hamilton to do likewise just five laps later. As Webber struggled on behind Alonso, Button - who made a virtue of a three-stop plan - jumped both in quick succession to seal third.

2001
The record books show that Michael Schumacher left Barcelona with pole position, fastest lap and race victory in 2001, but in truth his win was the product of last-lap misfortune for Mika Hakkinen, who retired just yards from the finish.

Schumacher had led Hakkinen at the start, and maintained his advantage through the first round of stops after the Finn suffered a slight delay with the fuel nozzle. Schumacher again pitted earlier than Hakkinen in the second cycle, but the Finn managed to build up enough of an advantage to emerge ahead and turn the race on its head. He was just under 40s ahead of Schumacher, and seemingly destined for victory, when his engine blew on the final lap. Schumacher came back and claimed the win, with Hakkinen coasting to an eventual ninth.

1996
Michael Schumacher was the star again in 1996, as he took his first win for Ferrari with a stunning wet drive. A poor getaway - the German had started third but lost several places away from the line - simply provided the platform for a fantastic recovery drive, Schumacher often lapping more than two seconds faster than the rest of the field.

By lap four he had passed poleman Damon Hill, who endured a torrid race, spinning three times before retiring with damage - the result of the third - on lap 12. Jean Alesi and Jacques Villeneuve were next up for Schumacher, and on the ninth lap he was by the Frenchman and into second. Three laps later and he repeated the move on Villeneuve, moving into a lead he would stretch further and further as the race progressed. His eventual margin stood at over 45s from Alesi, with Villeneuve - the last man on the lead lap - a further three seconds down in third.

1994
Just four weeks after Imola, Damon Hill took a cathartic win for a Williams team still shell-shocked by Ayrton Senna's death. Michael Schumacher meanwhile dragged his Benetton to an impressive second despite being stuck in fifth gear for much of the race.

Schumacher had led from the start, but his developing gear selection woes were highlighted when Hill's Williams stable-mate David Coulthard managed to unlap himself, the Scot having earlier stalled three times in his first stop. Mika Hakkinen was the first man to wrest the lead from Schumacher, but by lap 32 Hill had moved to the head to the field. Despite being stuck in fifth Schumacher was still able to pit and keep Hill in check, eventually finishing 24s down in second.

Hakkinen meanwhile retired from third with a blown engine, promoting Tyrrell's Mark Blundell into his third and final Formula 1 podium.

1991
The first grand prix to be held at the Circuit de Catalunya produced a great battle between title protagonists Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell. The Brazilian came into Spain, the prepenultimate round of the season, with a healthy championship lead, but he was in no mood to cede ground to the Briton as the pair squabbled for second early on.

The pair famously went side-by-side down the main straight, with Mansell gaining the advantage, only for the order to reverse during the first round of pitstops. On lap 14 Senna spun coming onto the home straight however and dropped back behind Mansell, Schumacher and Prost to fifth. Mansell's path to victory was sealed when Gerhard Berger retired in the pits, his faint championship hopes kept alive as Senna could only finish fifth.

From the forum

My view is that you cannot have racing which is both 'pure' and non-processional unless/until the movers and shakers take it upon themselves to control/regulate the turbulent wake produced by F1 cars. As long as we have cars which understeer within 1.5 seconds of a car in front, we have a problem. Processional races were not good for the sport and the 'artificial' elements introduced by the Pirelli tyres and DRS are not a sustainable solution either. Tyres are just the symptom.
Dunder

Anyway I think McLaren will be incredibly strong this weekend. Lewis was really confident during the winter tests here. He could easily take the third corner flat-out which could be achieved only by the Bulls in the last two years. Even if this year proved to be unpredictable I have the feeling that Lewis can finally get his first win and take it over to Monaco where he looked very strong in the last two seasons, but something always happened to him.
FerrariAlonso

People are saying that some drivers adapt better to the tyres, which is not true. Their cars are better adapted (constructed) to the tyres, drivers can't do anyting for tyres to work better. Their cars give them the opportunity to race tyres in the optimum window. If this is not the case, the driver is powerless to get tyres in the optimum window. As Pirelli say this is a challenge for the drivers and engineers, just that it is more of a challenge for the engineers. Some cars are much more suited to work with tyres, thus widening the tyre window. But, we can't say that this driver adapted better.
ivand911

*Key stats supplied by FORIX collaborator Michele Merlino.

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