F1 teams get extra set of hard tyres for first practice at Austin

[Rob]

Formula 1 teams will have an extra set of hard tyres at their disposal for Friday practice for this weekend's United States Grand Prix.

Pirelli, which is taking the medium and hard tyres to the Austin race, will give the teams the chance to get additional running and get familiarised with the new circuit, where Formula 1 will compete for the first time.

Pirelli said the initial information for the 5.515-kilometre track suggests the surface will be quite smooth.

Motorsport boss Paul Hembery believes the Circuit of the Americas will be one of the biggest challenges for the tyre manufacturer this year.

"Stepping into the unknown is a situation that we are used to: last season the majority of tracks were completely new to us," he said.

"We've chosen the hard and the medium compounds as we think it will be quite a demanding track, based on the asphalt samples and simulation data we have gathered.

"Naturally we've leaned towards a slightly more conservative choice in order to cover every possibility at a brand new circuit, but the tyre choice in Abu Dhabi was also conservative and yet we saw one of the most exciting races of the year."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/104181

[Tifoso84]

Really good news.
Now it's important that it doesn't rain on Friday, so that we could carry out all the necessary testing of the new parts, without any disturbing factors. Weather forecast looks pretty good at the moment.

[fadyferrari]

Guys isnt pirelli bringing the two hardest Of its available compounds to this race an added trouble for us??? we do have a problem getting heat into our tyres!

[SleepySpaghetti]

The 3 races where we saw the Medium/Hard combos:

Malaysia - we all know what special circumstances that allowed us to win there
Belgium - Mclaren won this race with Jenson, Seb came 2nd, 3rd would have definitely been possible for Alonso if not 2nd, Lotus had good pace and was best of the rest.
Italy - Mclaren pretty much owned this race, with us second factoring out perez, but remember the alternator failure plagued Seb who was on for a podium, Lotus was close behind

Hamilton will be the one to beat; based on the above information and the track characteristics of Austin I'm predicting Hamilton will be strong here but we can always hope the ticking time bomb in his car will go off half-way through the race.

Vettel will be strong as well, but I don't think they will have as much of an advantage they have seen in recent races because the Medium/Hard tires will better suit the Ferrari and its new floor and wing package. Also Vettel is going to have engine woes, he is going to be running an older engine combined with the unreliable alternator.

It's going to be an interesting race. If I had to guess the outcome it would probably be Hamilton 1st, Alonso 2nd, Kimi 3rd, and since it's a guess Vettel DNF by alternator.

[REDARMYSOJA]

The 3 races where we saw the Medium/Hard combos:

Malaysia - we all know what special circumstances that allowed us to win there

Rain made that irrelevant


Belgium - Mclaren won this race with Jenson, Seb came 2nd, 3rd would have definitely been possible for Alonso if not 2nd, Lotus had good pace and was best of the rest.

Alonso was crashed out in first turn, so nothing to see there

Italy - Mclaren pretty much owned this race, with us second factoring out perez, but remember the alternator failure plagued Seb who was on for a podium, Lotus was close behind

Have to remember Alonso had the trouble in qualy but was very fast before that, was fast in the race but running damage control after the force off by Vettel caused a problem with the car.

I just don't see any information to gain from those three races.

[Alessandra]

The 3 races where we saw the Medium/Hard combos:


. Also Vettel is going to have engine woes, he is going to be running an older engine combined with the unreliable alternator.

It's going to be an interesting race. If I had to guess the outcome it would probably be Hamilton 1st, Alonso 2nd, Kimi 3rd, and since it's a guess Vettel DNF by alternator.

Hmm....thought for the day!

[Tifoso84]

It's going to be an interesting race. If I had to guess the outcome it would probably be Hamilton 1st, Alonso 2nd, Kimi 3rd, and since it's a guess Vettel DNF by alternator.

Now, be a pal and just factor in another mechanical failure for Ham and then we'll be all set.

1st Alonso, 2nd Kimi, 3rd Felipe ...now that order looks much-much better.

Pull some strings and make it happen.