Stefano Domenicali: Race strategies going to play a big part in 2011 Formula 1 season
Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali recently stated that race strategies are going to play a vital role in the 2011 Formula 1 season in winning races rather than the qualifying in a good position.
“A further impact of having more pit stops is that possibly qualifying and therefore grid position will be less important than in 2010. In simple terms it is more likely that a car that has not set the fastest time and taken pole position can still go on
to win the race,” said Stefano.
In 2010, race strategies were not as important as they used to be but it seems that the teams are going to have to think twice before heading to the track with the most appropriate tyre compound in 2011 in order to produce the best possible results by the
end of the race.
The FIA wanted to make racing in 2011 more interesting and entertaining as a result of which they asked the new tyre suppliers to come up with tyre compounds that wear out faster than 2010’s Bridgestones in order to highlight the ‘race strategy’ factor this
year.
Other than that, since the tyres will now wear out more quickly, the overtaking rate during races might also increase because of which the grid positions will not matter much.
“These tyres are very different to those we used in the past. Therefore, we have to adopt a fresh approach and clearly, from what we have seen so far, the number of pit stops required to complete a race distance competitively will be higher than before,”
he said.
He claims that it is significant in terms of teamwork during the races and now, the drivers will rely on their respective teams because more pit stops will increase the role of team members even more.
Nevertheless, Ferrari are quite confident about their 2011 run as they believe that they are aware of all the qualities and flaws of their new car because of which they are heading to Australia confidently for the season opening race that is expected to
take place March 27, 2011.
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