Extreme Chinese GP predicted after 'limit' reached

Pirelli's motorsport director Mario Isola has not ruled out an extreme three-stop strategy in the Chinese Grand prix, as the medium tyre reached its "limit" in the sprint race. 

With the new track surface at the Shanghai International Circuit, tyre degradation has been a serious issue. 

Graining was a major problem during the sprint race, as early as eight or nine laps into it. Some drivers managed to get through the graining stage, whilst others quickly lost considerable pace.

Carlos Sainz was forced to make a pit stop during the 19-lap race, whilst Max Verstappen was easily overtaken by Oscar Piastri due to tyre degradation. 

As things stand, a two-stop strategy is what Pirelli believe to be the best approach to the race, using the hard tyre which has yet to be used this weekend.

"The graining on the left front tyre is still there," Isola told select media including RacingNews365. 

"And the wear on the medium tyre is quite high for some teams. It was even towards the limit.

"Therefore, we expect that the best strategy tomorrow will be a two-stop: medium, hard and hard. Nobody has data on the hard tyre yet, but we do think that is the best approach."

However, whilst a two-stop is what Pirelli recommend, the tyre manufacturer recognises that a three-stop could also be required.

When asked if a three-stop strategy could be required, Isola answered: "It depends on the degradation. 

"If you have a higher degradation than expected, you recover the 23 seconds [for a pit stop] quite easily. Or you can also try to undercut, for example, because with high degradation it's quite powerful. 

"But if I look at the data that we have collected today on the medium, the degradation was slightly higher than one-tenth of a second per lap, that for the medium is average, or a bit more than others. 

"So the medium was working as a medium, not in a very strange condition or unusual condition."