2 stops

[Mark]

It seems invariably 2 stops is always the way to go. When was the last time there was a victory with anything else?!

3 stops never really works out because it means actual overtaking of 2 stopping cars on the track, which you can't do in F1 :p

1 stops are for slow cars and mean spending too much time on the 'wrong' tyres.

It will be interesting to see next year when fuel is taken out of the equation and it becomes about tyre management.

[wedge]

It will be interesting to see next year when fuel is taken out of the equation and it becomes about tyre management.

How it should be. Fuel is used as ballast these days so its down to strategy and more onus on pit passing.

Give them two tyre compounds during the weekend, no mandatory soft tyre usage but free reign on tyre strategy.

[ioan]

How it should be. Fuel is used as ballast these days so its down to strategy and more onus on pit passing.

Give them two tyre compounds during the weekend, no mandatory soft tyre usage but free reign on tyre strategy.

Give them to tires that are closer in performance or just give them one tire. What we get now is a disgrace, they have to use tires that if pushed hard are useless after 10 laps.

[N. Jones]

It seems invariably 2 stops is always the way to go. When was the last time there was a victory with anything else?!

3 stops never really works out because it means actual overtaking of 2 stopping cars on the track, which you can't do in F1 :p

1 stops are for slow cars and mean spending too much time on the 'wrong' tyres.

It will be interesting to see next year when fuel is taken out of the equation and it becomes about tyre management.
Kimi won Monaco with one stop in....uh...2005 I believe.
.

[N. Jones]

Kimi won in Hungary in '05 with three stops as well.

[Sleeper]

Didnt Button win in Malaysia with 4 stops? :p

[N. Jones]

Very true, although I think the weather had something to do with that. :)
That reminds me! Michael won in France in 2004 with four stops.

[Sleeper]

^I barely cont that though, that was Ferrari taking the piss.

[N. Jones]

Well yeah, that was a special situation. But winning with something other than two stops has happened, but I don't think it happens often.

[emporer_k]

If memory serves Massa made 3 stops at Interlagos last year.

But all the examples of non 2 stop victories that come to mind are weather related.

[race_director]

schumi once won france do not remember in 4 stops. do not remember the year. it was time when we use to have real fun with no fuel limit in qualifying and drivers use to pit before 10-12 laps

[call_me_andrew]

It's important to remember that some pit roads are longer than others. 4 stops is easy at a track like Magny Cours because you spend less time at pit road speed.

[jens]

I'm quite tired of Vettel's consistently poor strategies. 3 stops definetely didn't work out and his certain P2 was thrown away. And Barrichello's 3-stop-strategy clearly wasn't the most optimal one in Spain, like some tried to say after that race.

On some circuits a 3-stopper might work, but so far this year with the rules we currently have we haven't seen it.

[AndyL]

And Barrichello's 3-stop-strategy clearly wasn't the most optimal one in Spain, like some tried to say after that race.

That was mainly discussed as part of the question of whether Brawn had deliberately given Rubens a sub-optimal strategy. What I think people were saying was that Brawn believed 3 stops to be the optimal strategy. Which they clearly did since they started both cars on that strategy.

[Sleeper]

schumi once won france do not remember in 4 stops. do not remember the year. it was time when we use to have real fun with no fuel limit in qualifying and drivers use to pit before 10-12 laps
That was 04, as discussed above, and we had the rediculess 1 at a time qualy.

[race_director]

That was 04, as discussed above, and we had the rediculess 1 at a time qualy.

that was good i say. it was man vs man. no fuel b***sht, no complaints of blocking. the best interesting part was we never knew who was going to pit when.

thanks to MAX a.k.a ( MAX the pu***) next year we would see A380 on the track with full fuel for the race. hope drivers have eject seat with parachute incase of a fire with that much fuel

[V12]

Race fuel qualifying has been around since 2003. 2002 was the last year of "proper" qualifying.

The one lap system actually suited race fuel qualifying better since there were no arguments - everyone did three laps (out, flying, in). The worst was that year (2006? 2007?) when they had that stupid "fuel credit" system, that was when I pretty much started not bothering with qualifying and just watching the race.