Quote:
Originally Posted by Knowlesy
1999 and 2000 were catastrophically bad years.
At the time they were tense seasons, with quite close title battles, but go back and watch the individual races now. Dire stuff.
Bridgestone made absolutely rock hard tyres and it was impossible to race on them. Ally that to the wonderful refuelling era and you had a recipe for pooh. So, so boring especially when you got to watch a thrilling CART race later in the day.
This is why Pirelli have a mandate to make tyres that fall apart the moment you leave the pits, unfortunately.
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The ways of beating your opponents in the pits were pretty similar to CART though. Both in F1 drivers were able to go faster at the last laps of a stint compared to the first laps. In F1 the reason was that at the end of the stint the car was light, with the same tyres. In CART, in the end of a stint your tyres where worn, but that more than compensated for the fact that due to the ban on tyrewarmers, drivers struggled to get on the pace in their out-lap.
So, to overtake your competitor strategically, you'd try to be able to go further with your fuelload. When your opponent went in the pits, go as fast as you can for a lap or 2, and make your pitstop. When executed well, you might end up in front of your opponent.
The current tyres make for different ways to beat your opponent. Due to the ban on refuelling and the soft tyres, the faster laps are set in the early laps of a stint. You can overtake strategically by going in the pits early, set a few very fast first laps of your stint, and get back on the track in front of your later stopping opponent. Offcourse, your strategy can bite you back if in the end of the race your tyres are very worn, and you're vulnerable to attacks on the track, or you even need an extra pitstop.