Yahoo Autos Ferrari's Years of Honing Pit Strategy Are Finally Paying Off
The Mercedes Petronas Formula 1 team was gifted a rather luxurious approach to race strategy when the series introduced its new 1.6-liter turbocharged V6 engine rules in 2014.
Mercedes' motors made the rest of F1's powerplants look like leaf blowers as Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg bludgeoned Ferrari, Red Bull, and the rest of the grand prix grid into submission with a massive horsepower advantage. The separation was so clear and demonstrative in 2014, again in 2015, and once more last year, it simplified the team's Sunday afternoon exchanges with its rivals.
One, two or three stops? Which Pirelli tire compounds should be used? Meh. Mercedes' race strategy for the first three years of the current engine formula involved little more than mashing the throttle and watching as its drivers disappeared over the horizon.
And then Ferrari, driven by the countless cups of espresso and far too many cartons of Marlboros consumed by Maurizio Arrivabene, its hard-edged team boss, showed up for the season opener with a wicked-fast machine for Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. Scuderia Ferrari calls its 2017 challenger the SF70H, and it might as well add MSK-Mercedes Strategy Killer-to the mix of letters and numbers.
Not only has the power gap has been greatly reduced between the Prancing Horse and the German brand, but the Ferrari-critically so-treats its tires with a softer touch. Over a single lap in qualifying or even a single stint in a race, the Mercedes W08 is still capable of living in a world of its own with Hamilton behind the wheel, but the glory days of blitzing the opposition with raw speed from lights to flag appear to have ended when the curtain closed on 2016.
Reaching the top step of the podium this year, as two of the first three rounds have revealed, requires crafty planning and timing from the team on pit wall. And, as I've come to believe, the lack of creativity shown by Mercedes in the crucial area stems from its lack of recent need to find a strategic edge for Hamilton and Rosberg. Ferrari, on the other hand, has spent the last three years living and dying by whatever trickery it could summon from pit lane.
Minus the power and aerodynamics to trouble the Mercedes duo at most rounds, the Italian squad was left with little more than tire gambles and odd pit stop timing to leapfrog a Mercedes, Red Bull, or Williams, and I'm convinced the heavy-and necessary-exploration into alternative ways of playing F1's chess game honed its skills in ways that were never considered in the Mercedes camp.
With Hamilton and team newcomer Valtteri Bottas finding themselves in a somewhat prone vehicular position this year–one where tire life and choice, not to mention stint duration-has become the tactical differentiator between wins and losses.
Mercedes will exhaust its resources to improve the W08's aero balance as it looks to treat its Pirellis in the same friendly manner as the SF70H, but we're unlikely to see the same comfy performance gap return this year.
It's still early in the season and we still have a long way to go until the finale arrives, so don't hand the title to Ferrari and Vettel quite yet; Hamilton will win more races and will likely be joined by Bottas in that category at some point.
Outside of the chassis, aero and power unit improvements Mercedes will find, the less expensive shortcoming to resolve in the race strategy department could be the biggest key to taming the SF70H.
NBCSN F1 reporter Will Buxton says we should look to some earlier signs of strategical weakness as an indicator of what has unfolded so far in 2017.
"We saw even with Mercedes in ascendency, we saw some moments where the strategy fell down," he said. "You look back two years [ago] in Monaco and what happened there and [Mercedes boss] Toto [Wolff] blaming that on the 'algorithm was wrong…' Dude, use your eyes."
Get more of Buxton's thoughts on the Ferrari/Mercedes strategy issue, the F1 paddock's reaction to Fernando Alonso's shock entry for the Indy 500, Will's take on a short-sighted op-ed column that cast shade on the Spaniard's pending trip to race at Indy, and his views on the overwhelming/underwhelming F1 teams and drivers so far this year in the podcast below:
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