Zandvoort Tyre Selection

We are back racing this week and we head to Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix and the tyres have been selected!

The chosen compounds are: C1 (Hard), C2 (Medium) and C3 (Soft). This is the same choice as the last two years (since it returned) with the difference being that the current C1 compound is softer than its predecessors.

There has been 32 Formula 1 Grands Prix held at Zandvoort since 1952, with F1 returning to the track in 2021 after a 35 year absence.
With the most successful team at the track being Ferrari with eight wins while the driver with the most is Jim Clark with four.

Most drivers made three pit stops last year. On paper, the best and fastest strategy is a two-stopper, but it’s possible to stop just once with careful tyre management.

Overtaking is quite tricky because of the narrow track and constant sequence of corners. This makes qualifying even more important in terms of the end result.

The second half of the season gets underway with a unique race. The Dutch Grand Prix takes place in Zandvoort: one of the most traditionally demanding tracks on the calendar that returned to the Formula 1 schedule three years ago on the wave of all the local support for Max Verstappen, who repaid his fans amply with a pair of victories from the last two races. It’s a very twisty track with two banked corners – Turn 3 and Turn 14 – that are steeper than Indianapolis, by way of comparison. On corners like this the stress on the tyres is greater than it would be through normal corners, as the vertical forces increase with the much higher speeds due to the banking. We’ve brought the same tyres as 2022, at least as far as the names are concerned: C1, C2, and C3. However, the current C1 is actually a new compound for this year, positioned between the C2 and the previous C1, which is now called the C0. Last year, in a race that was characterised by two neutralisations, no fewer than 14 drivers – including the top three – used all three compounds, underlining the wide variety of options available to the strategists on the pit wall.

Mario Isola – Motorsport Director.