Brawn Predicts 3-Pitstop Races in 2011

Pirelli has developed the tires for the 2011 Formula 1 season based on the advices received from the series' boss Bernie Ecclestone, who asked the Italian company to design rubber that can wear out in such a way that it ensures multiple pitstop races throughout the upcoming campaign.

However, while Pirelli's expectations revolved around 2-pitstop events, the recent testing this winter has shown that such a prediction is not exactly accurate. According to Mercedes GP boss Ross Brawn, the majority of the races in the 2011 calendar will be tackled with 3-pit stop strategies minimum.

“With these tires you cannot afford to go into the high degradation period because they degrade in a fairly linear way and then they fall off quite a lot towards the end of their life,” said the British official in an interview with Autosport.

“So ideally you set your car up and the drivers drive the car to get the best race time and the minimum number of stops so I think most of us will be looking at three-stop races. If you get to four stops then possibly you are using the tires a bit harder than you should and it would be quite hard to make up that extra pit stop time.”

Depending on the track however, Brawn admitted that 4-pitstop strategies may prove better in some Grands Prix. However, he completely rules out the likelihood of 2-pitstop races in 2011.

“It does depend which track we are at because some tracks have much shorter pit stops than others. Monaco used to be an incredibly short for pit stops so that was a track where you could afford to do pit stops without too much loss.”

“It depends on the circumstances but if your model shows four pit stops are faster as a race and you think you can drive to the speed available then you could see four-pit stop races.”