How F1 strategy “headache” opens up intriguing Japanese GP

Teams all too frequently bin off one of the choices – either because the soft is too aggressive, the medium falls into no-man’s land, or the hard is too conservative – but this weekend’s race in Japan has left what Pirelli’s head of car racing Mario Isola says is a real “headache” for strategists.

With high-degradation Suzuka making a one-stop pretty much a no-goer (unless we end up with a lengthy safety car period at the perfect point), F1 teams are going to be burning the midnight oil tonight trying to work out how best to plot their way through the various soft/medium/hard combinations that are in play.

The cooler-than-usual temperatures of an April Suzuka race mean that the soft tyre – which is comfortably quicker than the medium – has enough life in it to become an option for the race – while a rougher track surface has kept degradation high for the other compounds.

And with the medium and the hard not being too far apart in terms of their performance, things appear to be much more open than they usually are.

The most logical and safest route is to run a medium/hard/hard, as those two compounds have offered the best consistency so far during the limited practice running.

But, as Isola explains, the soft has thrown a spanner in the works because it could deliver a pretty significant advantage if it is used at the start.

“The soft is 1-1.2 seconds per second quicker than the medium,” he said. “And that means that if you want to get the advantage at the start of the race with a compound that is giving you a lot more grip, you take it.

“Sure you have a shorter first stint, around 10 laps, but then you can plan a strategy with the soft/hard/hard – especially with a powerful undercut.”

But this combination is not an option that all the teams can run to, with allocation choices already leaving Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin with only one hard available for the race.

That means the medium has to come into play for them, and degradation could need to be managed more, especially if the track is made greener on Sunday morning with light showers expected to sweep through Suzuka.

Wide open choices

Last year Max Verstappen won with a medium/medium/hard strategy, but the soft being a decent option could mean things are different this time around.

Plotting how best to use the tyres if teams do not have two hards is far from clear –…