Turkish Master Class On Tyres

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50 laps for intermediates is way beyond it's life expectancy and took it into a second life as a slick tyre when the grip disappeared.

Today we saw Lewis Hamilton using his driving skill and experience to win the Turkish Grand prix and secure his 7th World title. There were literally 6 or 7 drivers who could have won this race and teams made wrong choices.

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Above is Carlos Sainz in the McLaren clearly showing the intermediate tyres when they are still new. The amount of grip with the tread is perfect for when the track is damp but not so good when the track is drying out. The cars are dispersing 100's of liters per second so the track does dry out and change fairly quickly.

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No grip left helped Hamilton go even faster and was the difference in his race pace compared to everyone else. This still takes loads of skill to make those tyres work when others kept spinning off and why they changed their tyres.

This is the intermediates of Lewis Hamilton when he finished the race and it clearly shows there is no grip left. What he did today he has done before and this was history repeating itself. He was uncompetitive for over half the race and then things just changed. He had driven the tread off the tyres degrading them slowly into a set of slicks and then his pace increased. The drop off point never happens on intermediates like they do with slicks if the track is drying out as they become a totally different tyre.

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Hamilton and Perez were the only ones to turn their intermediates into slicks lasting 50 and 48 laps respectively without changing for new tyres.

Lance Stroll was leading for over half the race and what the team thought was a good idea they boxed and changed the tyres. What happened was the total opposite as the car lost roughly 6 seconds per lap in race pace. Other teams also pitted and changed tyres with the same result. The teams should have realsied this was the time to put on slicks or very close to it anyway. What was stopping many of them was the threat of rain as even up until the last lap it was expected to fall.

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Conditions changed as the track dried out the longer the race went on.

Red Bull asked Verstappen with roughly 15 laps remaining what he thought and he said the time for slicks was now yet they didn't bring him in. Slicks would have been high risk with high reward as you would have to stay on the racing line. Martin Brundle who is an ex racing driver reckoned the lap difference would have been a good 10 seconds to whoever gambled.

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Sebastien Vettel came third congratulating Hamilton on the win and record equaling 7th World Championship. Look at the tyres though as there is no tread left.

Hamilton on the other hand was just getting quicker and quicker as he was basically on slicks now. The tread had all gone and even though the grip wasn't all that great the speed was there. Saying that it also depended on how the car set up for the race as cars with extra toe and camber would have degraded the tyres too quickly. This is what happened with Lance Stroll as they used Ferrari's information not thinking their car is set up differently. This worked for Le Clerc, but not for Stroll and shows that Racing Point have loads to learn. The conditions changed that much and Mercedes got it spot on again and have proved why they are the best team by a long way. This is not just about the car as Mercedes was clearly not the best car today, but the team and driver.