2-Pitstop Race Possible in Australia - Sutil

Tire degradation might not pose such big problems to the Formula 1 teams at the season opening Australian Grand Prix. Despite recent concerns regarding the potentially high number of pit stops to be performed by the F1 drivers during the approximately 90 minutes of action on the Melbourne track on Sunday, the circuit's characteristics may help the teams into strategizing less.

In other words, following the data gathered by Pirelli after the first three hours of practice on Friday, it has emerged that both the hard and the soft compounds behaved better than during winter testing, meaning a 3-pit stop race strategies might actually do the trick.

“They (the tires) need at least a lap to get up to temperature, but I did a long run without any problems, because there are so few fast corners,” admitted Adrian Sutil in a recent interview with Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

“Two stops may be possible,” added the Force India driver, “as you lose a lot of time here in the pits. So it may well be that some try to do two. We will definitely not see a ridiculous race with five stops (per car) or something.”

Pirelli's very motorsport boss Paul Hembery told the media Down Under that the compounds designed for the season opening rounds do not behave the same on the Australian track as they did in Barcelona, due to a multitude of factors, including temperature and circuit characteristics.

“Our rubber is working better,” said Hembery, while Williams' technical director Sam Michael explained: “Melbourne doesn't have the high speed corners of Barcelona or Jerez, so the tyre has a simpler task.”