Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will run different tire strategies in Melbourne
Pirelli has issued the first list of 2016 tire choices for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. It reflects the new rule allowing teams and drivers to make different selections for each race from the three compounds made available by the Italian company.
Due to manufacturing and shipping time, the choices had to be made in mid-December, well before the new qualifying rules were drawn up â medium, soft and supersoft being the three choices.
One set of mediums and one set of softs were made compulsory by Pirelli -- each driver must have both these sets available for the race, and must use at least one of them. In addition, Pirelli nominated a set of supersofts for qualifying.
Teams were then given the opportunity to choose the remaining 10 out of 13 sets. They are allowed to split the drivers -- Mercedes being the most notable example.
Lewis Hamilton has only one set of mediums and six sets of softs, while Nico Rosberg has taken a second set of mediums and has only five sets of softs. Both also have six sets of supersofts.
Sauber and Haas have also split their drivers, while Manor has made a very conservative choice weighted more towards mediums.
In total, five combinations have been chosen for the first race, listed as follows:
