“A two-stopper was the winning strategy” – Pirelli’s Mario Isola

Head of F1 and Car Racing at Pirelli Mario Isola, believes that Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen pulled off the ‘perfect strategic race’ at the Austrian Grand Prix where Verstappen cruised to victory at the Red Bull Ring.

On a two-stop strategy, Verstappen won his third consecutive race to make it four wins from the last five races, to further extend his world championship lead. Verstappen started on the medium tyres before two stints on the hard C3 compound tyre. Verstappen was the only podium finisher to complete a two-stop, with Valtteri Bottas and Lando Norris completing a one-stop.

The majority of the field started on the medium tyres, with only a few beginning on either the soft or hard compound. The most notable runner who started on the hard compound was Carlos Sainz, who climbed through the field brilliantly after having much fresher tyres at the end of the race.

The track temperature was much cooler than the Styrian Grand Prix, which brought out the best of the softer compounds which was important, considering that the softest Pirelli tyres were in use.

Isola is happy that they chose to use softer tyres for the second race at the Red Bull Ring, as it led to the race having a different style.

“We are happy that our decision to vary the nominations for Austria resulted in two distinct races, with the second grand prix having a very fast pace and character compared to the first one. Track temperatures today were considerably cooler than they had been during qualifying, which obviously had an effect on tyre wear and degradation, favouring the softer compounds and prolonging the stints.

“As a result, we saw a good mix of one and two stop strategies; with a one-stopper still requiring some degree of tyre management to maintain performance over the length of each stint, while a two-stopper was the winning strategy.

“Congratulations to Max Verstappen and Red Bull for a perfect strategic race today, where their pace allowed them to stop twice without ever losing the lead. Now we remain at the Red Bull Ring for a third week to continue the 2022 18-inch tyre testing programme for two days with AlphaTauri on Tuesday and Wednesday.”