SHREYASCONF1

The variability in the racing brought about by the new rules allowing drivers to choose from three tyre compounds in a race instead of two, has been one of the brighter elemnts of this 2016 season so far.

And it looks set to continue as it was announced that Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean have made the most aggressive tyre choices for the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix.

For this third race in succession, Pirelli will bring its medium, soft and supersoft tyres, and each driver will have 13 sets of tyres available to use across the weekend in Shanghai.

Unlike many F1 venues, where protecting the rear tyres is key to success, Shanghai is all about getting the front tyres at the optimum temperature, especially for qualifying. A significant percentage of the lap time in Shanghai is spent turning, which damages the front tyres as they slide. Track and air temperatures are often cool at this event.

Each team and driver is also free to pick from those three compounds during the race, compared to two last year, in a new-for-2016 rule that is already proving popular.

Both Grosjean and Massa have opted to take seven sets of supersofts; five softs and just a single set of medium compound tyres for the third race of the 2016 F1 season. These decisions were made several weeks ago and are not in any way connected to events of the opening races of 2016.

Grosjean, who has scored points in his first two races for Haas F1, used an attacking race strategy that featured three stints on the supersoft tyres and a final stint on the soft tyres to finish fifth in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

By contrast, Massa’s Williams team did not have enough new softer tyres available for theBahrain race and lost a number of positions by running the medium tyre.

Mercedes vs Ferrari

At the front of the grid, Mercedes and Ferrari have again gone for a slightly different approach.

Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will both have six sets of supersofts, four softs and three mediums to run in China. Both Mercedes drivers will only have five sets of supersofts, but Lewis Hamilton will have an extra set of mediums, while Nico Rosberg has gone for one more set of softs.

In last year’s race in China, Mercedes used its pace advantage on the medium tyre to run 1-2 to the finish, but the new tyre rule opens up a chance for Ferrari to try something different this time around.

Pirelli “very close” to signing new F1 supply contract

Pirelli is expected to sign its new contract to supply F1 with tyres, which was first announced by Bernie Ecclestone in October 2015, later this week.

Until now, the Italian company has not officially signed the deal with the FIA, pending satisfactionary measures by the sport to be able to test the new 2017 tyres on a respresentative car. But its motorsport boss, Paul Hembery, told Autosport that he expected everything to be sorted out later this week.

He said: “This week I believe everything will need to be resolved. We’re out of time now, but we’re very close. We’ve had a lot of collaboration in trying to do this.

“It’s a difficult world to work in, and within those constraints of the Formula 1 system, I believe we are drawing to a close to get something that will work for everybody.

“Everybody has worked extremely hard, and as ever we’ve worked very well with Charlie [Whiting] and his team.”

Whiting, who is F1’s race director, described the situation as “not unusual” and explained that Pirelli had asked for clarification on what would be expected of its tyres in the much-debated 2017 F1 regulations, as well as a guarantee on testing, before signing the new contract.

He said: “It’s not unusual for a contract to be delayed like this, and we’re still some way before 2017.

“Pirelli wanted the targets they were asked to achieve to be put into the contract. They wanted more specific items in the contract regarding testing. They want a guarantee of testing because if we are going to set them targets then they want the tools with which to achieve those targets.

“Everything else is sorted. They just want this guarantee of testing put into the regulations to have a little more comfort. They also want the possibility to test a previous spec of car, so it’s all achievable in the short term.”

Stoffel Vandoorne reckons he was able to show what he could do in F1 in his substitute appearance Formula 1 debut with McLaren. And although he views it as a one-off opportunity and the point he scored for finishing tenth as a “bonus”, it’s clear that he is challenging for a race seat in F1.

In fact the opportunity worked out perfectly for Vandoorne, who put down his marker. We understand that he is free to look elsewhere next season if McLaren doesn’t give him a race seat. Other teams are aware of that. They monitored his progress all weekend and there was a general feeling that the 24 year old Belgian had confirmed that he’s a special talent.

Vandoorne was required to deputise for Fernando Alonso after the FIA’s medical team stopped the double world champion racing in Bahrain last weekend as a result of the injuries sustained in his enormous accident in the Australian Grand Prix.

Vandoorne built up his pace, moving closer to Jenson Button’s, throughout the track sessions and then when it counted he out qualified Button in the other McLaren. He finished tenth in the race after a feisty performance to score the team’s first point of the 2016 season.

Vandoorne, who had not driven the MP4-31 until the start of FP1, explained that he felt comfortable in the car and was delighted to make the most of his F1 break.

He said: “I think for my Formula 1 debut, I can be very happy with that. Since the beginning of the weekend I felt very comfortable in the car.

“I’m just happy I didn’t make any mistakes operationally, and to come away with a point is a bonus. This weekend was a big opportunity for me to get in the car and I’m very happy I got it.

“I think I made the most of it and showed what I’m capable of, and now it’s just wait and see.”

After his first day of F1 practice, Vandoorne described how Alonso had been helping him get up to speed before his race debut from the McLaren garage.

He said: “Fernando was here all day [on Friday]. He [was] next to me and the engineers, and [was] very helpful, giving some comments about which direction to go with the car set-up, what to try during the practice sessions.

“It’s been very useful to have him here as he obviously knows the car a bit better than me. It’s definitely been good to have his help.”

Vandoorne prepared for his first run in McLaren’s 2016 car by learning it manual as he flew from Japan, where he had been testing in the SuperFormula series, to the Gulf.

He said: “It [was] pretty hectic, with a lot of phone calls with the engineers, and a lot of documents I had to go through on the plane from Japan.

“They sent me through all the files with all the information I had to know, like the steering wheel, things operationally before the race, what we can say and not say [on the radio]. I spent my time well on the plane.”

The Belgian rookie, who won the 2015 GP2 championship in convincing fashion, described his drive last weekend as his “one shot”.

He said: “First of all, this is one opportunity I’m getting. I’m very happy to get the chance to race with McLaren.

“I see this as a one-shot, and I’m grateful for the opportunity I had,”

Many have begun to speculate about whether McLaren may move Vandoorne in next season full time alongside Alonso, bringing Jenson Button’s career with the team to an end. It’s too early to talk about that, clearly, but one interesting dynamic there is that both Button and Vandoorne have the same manager; Richard Goddard, who was in Bahrain at the weekend.

Ron Dennis, who now has control at McLaren, will play a significant role in the decision, when it comes. Vandoorne has a clause in his contract that if McLaren does not give him a race seat next year he is able to seek one elsewhere The other teams are on alert to that.

Button: MP4-31 a “definite improvement”

Button, who retired on lap six of the Bahrain race with a power unit problem, still believes McLaren’s performance at the Sakhir track, particularly his third place in FP2, represents a stop forward for the Woking-based team.

The 2009 world champion used Pirelli’s supersoft tyres finish third in FP2, 1.2s slower than pacesetter, Nico Rosberg.

Speaking after the race, Button said: “The car itself is a definite improvement. We were third quickest in FP2, and I don’t think that’s where we are but it shows that we’ve made a good step forward.

“I think everyone should be very proud of that as a team. It’s just the little niggly problems like today that have cost us a lot of points.”

Button explained how his practice pace represented the best day McLaren had enjoyed in recent seasons.

He said: “You’ve got to say that it was a good day for us, and it [was] the best day for a couple of years.”