The Qatar Grand Prix is the penultimate race of the season and the last to be run to the Sprint format. It comes just one week on from Las Vegas, 13,000 kilometres as the crow flies from this week’s venue in Lusail. Both races and indeed the final one in Abu Dhabi take place at night, but the weather could not be more different.
Conditions were cold on track in the Nevada desert, but in Qatar, drivers will have to deal with heat and humidity similar to that experienced in Singapore. The Middle Eastern track is particularly demanding for the tyres, and that has led to the introduction of an exceptional measure, restricting the number of laps that can be completed per tyre set. This means the drivers will have to change tyres at least twice during the race.
The Compounds
The three hardest compounds in the Pirelli range have been selected for Doha. The C1, C2 and C3 are the obvious choice at a track where tyres are subjected to energy levels similar to those experienced in Suzuka and indeed, these are the only compounds that have ever been run for this Grand Prix. This trio of compounds has previously been used three times this year, all in the early part of the season, in Japan, Bahrain and Spain.
Most of the corners at the Lusail track are high speed, which means the tyres have little time to recover, and the section which works them the hardest is from turns 12 to 14. The track surface, which is quite smooth, has usually led to graining, which contributes to producing a high wear rate on the tyres.
