F1 field facing major Australian GP jeopardy

The F1 teams head into the Australian Grand Prix with considerable strategic jeopardy hanging over them, with the high probability of a safety car at the Albert Park Circuit likely to cause chaos amid the new regulations.

Outgoing Pirelli head of motorsport Mario Isola highlighted that the majority of drivers should move on to a two-stop if the season-opening round in Melbourne is disrupted, due to the pit stop loss being low-to-average at around 20 to 21 seconds.

However, with the new cars and power units, which Isola concedes will be the teams' main focus, it breeds the opportunity for someone to take a gamble and stick with the conventional one-stop strategy, which is the fastest route to the chequered flag.

Speaking to media, including RacingNews365, Isola confirmed that a medium-hard approach was the default option.

He also shared that the soft compound "could be an option" due to the small delta between the tyres.

That has not always been the case during the Pirelli era, but with four-to-five tenths between each option in the range "not a big difference", there could be notable variation between different teams and drivers.

If a safety car does indeed transpire, Isola expects the teams to opt for either a medium-hard-medium approach or go for a soft-medium-soft.

Available tyres

Whilst Max Verstappen will start from P20 after his crash in qualifying, that incident does provide a silver lining for the Red Bull driver in what will be a step into the unknown for the entire field.

The Dutchman still has three sets of fresh soft-compound tyres, as well as two sets of new white-walled hards and another set of unused mediums.

Meanwhile, those higher up the order do not have the luxury of fresh red-walled rubber.

The Mercedes and the McLaren drivers are the reverse of Verstappen, with all four holding onto two sets of fresh mediums and only one set of new hards.

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, only have one fresh set of each, handing the Ferrari duo a slight disadvantage.