Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Mercedes' Formula 1 rivals aggressive with Mexican Grand Prix tyres

Mercedes' Formula 1 rivals have opted for more-aggressive tyre selections for the Mexican Grand Prix, by favouring the softer compounds

Tyre supplier Pirelli added F1's super-soft tyre to the options for this year's race, with Red Bull and Ferrari choosing six sets and Williams seven.

By contrast, Mercedes has selected just five sets of the rubber - the least of any team.

There is a slight variation in selections between the Mercedes drivers, with defending winner Nico Rosberg choosing four sets of the mediums, one more than Lewis Hamilton, who has an extra set of the soft compound.

Like Mercedes, Renault has favoured the harder compounds with Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer choosing five and four sets of the mediums respectively.

Toro Rosso has picked the most sets of super-soft tyres with eight alongside two sets of mediums and three sets of softs.

Esteban Gutierrez has chosen just one set of the mediums, the fewest of any driver, with five sets of softs and seven sets of super-softs.

Pirelli has mandated one set of the medium or soft must be used during the 71-lap race on October 30.

It has also nominated one set of the super-soft tyre to be used in the final part of qualifying.

Mexican Grand Prix tyre choices

Driver Team Medium Soft Super-soft
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 3 5 5
Nico Rosberg Mercedes 4 4 5
Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 3 4 6
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 2 5 6
Felipe Massa Williams 3 3 7
Valtteri Bottas Williams 3 3 7
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 3 4 6
Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 3 4 6
Nico Hulkenberg Force India 3 3 7
Sergio Perez Force India 3 3 7
Kevin Magnussen Renault 5 2 6
Jolyon Palmer Renault 4 3 6
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 2 3 8
Carlos Sainz Jr Toro Rosso 2 3 8
Marcus Ericsson Sauber 3 3 7
Felipe Nasr Sauber 3 3 7
Fernando Alonso McLaren 3 4 6
Jenson Button McLaren 3 4 6
Pascal Wehrlein Manor 2 5 6
Esteban Ocon Manor 2 5 6
Romain Grosjean Haas 2 4 7
Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1 5 7

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Honda engine reliability tweak offers performance gain too - Button
Next article Could unorthodox Formula 1 designs return?

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe