Pirelli has confirmed the teams’ tyre selection for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Every team bar Williams has selected at least nine sets of the soft tyres for the second round of the 2019 F1 season. Renault and Toro Rosso have made the most aggressive selection, picking 10 sets of the soft tyres.Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen have all chosen the same selection: nine sets of softs, three mediums and one hard.
The Williams drivers will only have eight sets of the soft tyres. Robert Kubica has four sets of mediums, the most of any driver.
Pirelli has selected its hardest available compounds for this race. The hard compound will be C1, the medium compound C2 and the soft compound C3.
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2019 Bahrain Grand Prix drivers’ tyre selections
| Driver | Team | Hard (C1) | Medium (C2) | Soft (C3) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Pierre Gasly | Red Bull | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Daniel Riccairdo | Renault | 2 | 1 | 10 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Romain Grosjean | Haas | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Lando Norris | McLaren | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Lance Stroll | Racing Point | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Alexander Albon | Toro Rosso | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| George Russell | Williams | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Robert Kubica | Williams | 1 | 4 | 8 |
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Hugh (@hugh11)
19th March 2019, 17:05
Ricciardo only has 1 set of mediums?
Nitzo (@webtel)
20th March 2019, 6:42
@hugh11
I believe Nico will have one too come race day. Perhaps they are looking for a 2 stopper like last year —> Soft–medium–Soft. Or in case of an early pit-stop due to an a safety car, soft–hard–soft.
Peter
19th March 2019, 17:34
Was there not supposed some graphic during the race showing tyre wear? Did not see it on the sky feed.
Imre (@f1mre)
19th March 2019, 18:25
I already do not care about the C1-C5 compounds. Soft-medium-hard info is just enough for me.
sato113 (@sato113)
19th March 2019, 18:46
@f1mre sure. but completely goes against the point of these articles.
Hugh (@hugh11)
19th March 2019, 20:01
Well it says Hard (C1) – Medium (C2) – Soft (C3) so that it caters to everyone. If you just want to know Hard, Medium, and Soft, then that info is easily available to you.
Imre (@f1mre)
20th March 2019, 16:23
I mean in race weekends. My comment was not aimed at the contents of the article but the decision to stop using 6 colours for 6 different compounds.
sato113 (@sato113)
19th March 2019, 18:47
Why bring the hardest compunds? Is Bahrain classically harsh on tyre wear?
Pretty sure we’ll hear those familiar comments over the weekend: ‘I think Pirelli have gone too safe on the tyre choice this weekend…’
javier javier (@j3d89)
19th March 2019, 19:00
I always think Pirelli don’t know crap about tires, if people don’t like 1 stop… And you know certain circuit degrade tires faster why not put softer compounds and let the teams go crazy with pitstops 😐..
bosyber (@bosyber)
20th March 2019, 11:10
Because they tried that last year @j3d89, and the answer is: as long as overtaking is as hard as it has been with these 2017+ cars, there’s no use, you lose too much with a pitstop (between 18-28 seconds, while the cars are now, again, faster than they were), end up stuck behind (slower) cars that make your ‘aggressive’ strategy turn into ‘misguided’, so teams just run slower to make the tyres last to the 1 pitstop, and/or the end of the race – that’s why we now have harder compounds again in the hope that at least they can run them somewhat near to as fast as they allow (apart from PU/fuel saving).
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
19th March 2019, 22:09
@sato113
The surface is very abrasive here. Plus Pirelli got rid of the supersoft-compound, which has been used here since 2016.
If they had brought the C4-compound, which is pretty much the ultrasoft from last year, it would last less than 10 laps (if at all) and we would here a lot of radio messages about tyre-saving.
They didn’t really have a choice here.
Chicane85 (@ramysennaf1)
19th March 2019, 20:16
I just wanna know ,how can mclaren officials sleep at night knowing that this is the fourth year running that this team is fighting for the midfield places??? How can they friggin sleep at night!!!!! How can they ??? How can they accept this fact can someone answer me please???this is legendary team, wake upp!!!!
Lums (@lums)
19th March 2019, 20:50
Imagine how the Williams officials are sleeping at night.
Sundar Srinivas Harish (@sundark)
20th March 2019, 1:12
I’m sure they sleep very comfortably. It is just game, why you heff to be mad?
Tim
20th March 2019, 9:18
It’s fifth.
Cristian S (@crystakke)
19th March 2019, 22:40
I hate the new naming. The yellow tire was always called Soft. Hearing calling it medium now it’s confusing. I keep expecting to see the white tires when they say a driver is on the mediums.
They should’ve kept the Soft yellow, White for medium and Red for Hard.
Robert
19th March 2019, 22:56
It’s been literally one race so far, give it some time.
Chaitanya
20th March 2019, 3:02
Toro rosso has gone too aggressive with C3 tyres.
Nitzo (@webtel)
20th March 2019, 6:44
@Chaitanya: STRH was extremely strong at Bahrain last year. Remember Pierre finished fourth and his lap times were also impressive.
Chaitanya
20th March 2019, 14:53
Last year both RBR cars were out of GP so STRH got really lucky and managed to get 4th place. Unless we have similar series of events, I dont think STRH will finish higher than 6th.
anon
22nd March 2019, 23:25
Chaitanya, there was also Kimi’s pit lane accident that lead to him failing to finish, so he had half of the cars that would normally have been expected to finish in front of him retire from the race.
In that respect, Gasly’s 4th place is perhaps a touch misleading – he was the quickest of the midfield pack, true, but if Kimi, Verstappen and Ricciardo had finished, it’s more likely that Gasly would have finished in just 7th place. Even if it would have meant that Gasly was the strongest midfield runner, would we have been quite as complimentary about Toro Rosso and Gasly if he’d finished in 7th place instead?
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
20th March 2019, 6:02
I like the C thing. What I don’t like is how conservative the available C step on a race. After first race and two weeks testing, Liberty should already tried something like C1-C4-C5 or C1-C2-C5.