F1 teams braced for significant jeopardy in unusual Spanish GP

The Spanish Grand Prix looks set to be a guaranteed two-stop affair for most teams in the F1 paddock, but there remains a considerable risk posed by a step into the unknown.

Traditionally, the race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has seen one-stopping as the default strategy with a second pit stop the alternative approach.

But due to concerns over the race-ability of the hard compound, most teams and driver will look to employ the two-stopper with one set of medium Pirellis and two of the red-walled soft compounds.

The outliers to this are Charles Leclerc and the Haas pair of Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon, who all have two sets of medium tyres and no hard tyre available to them.

Starting from seventh, this could prove a useful advantage to the Ferrari driver if tyre wear is higher than anticipated. That would put rival teams and drivers on the back foot, as the hard compound would then almost certainly have to be used.

Pirelli's head of motorsport, Mario Isola, explained the situation facing teams in Barcelona after qualifying.

"Why I'm not speaking about the hard, because the hard is sliding a little bit, and so overheating in a similar way to the medium - and the level of grip is lower," he told media including RacingNews365.

"The delta to the medium is estimated to be around 0.9 to one second per lap, and it is an indication that [caused] the majority of the teams decide to keep only one set of hard, one set of medium.

"So the hard is a backup," he added. "I cannot exclude that someone is not going to use the hard, because if the degradation of the soft is higher than expected, for the drivers with only one set of medium, one set of hard, being a two stop race, they have to use one set of hard."

Is the one-stop still an option?

Nonetheless, Isola did acknowledge the one-stop strategy is possible, but argued it is "not convenient" for teams to take that approach.

He suggested it could be 15 seconds slower overall compared to a two-stopper, with the added need to manage the tyres across the 66-lap race.

"One stop is feasible in terms of wear, yes. In terms of performance, it is much slower than the two stop," he said.

"We are talking more than 15 seconds, so a lot of time because you need to manage the medium and the hard - and the pace in general - and it's not convenient to plan a one stop strategy."

What tyres and when

When detailing how those stints could be broken down for each team, he highlighted why he believes most teams will start on the soft tyre.

"I believe a two stop [race] for everyone: Soft-medium-soft or soft-medium-medium for [Charles] Leclerc and the two drivers from Haas," Isola stated.

"Or: Soft-medium-hard [or] soft-hard-medium - then it depends on what they want to use first - for the other drivers.

"I mentioned the soft as the first choice at the start of the race because it's quicker, and if you want to keep your track position, the soft is the compound that you should choose at the start of the race."