Formula 1 will play a historic race at the Yas Marina circuit, because Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton will play for the world title of the 2021 season in the last appointment. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will decide who is the winner of this epic year, however, there is one factor that will be key, and that is none other than strategy and tyres.
The drivers will have to complete 58 laps of the modified Emirati track and in qualifying we saw a strategic variety between the two championship candidates, because Verstappen took pole position and will start on the soft rubber, while Hamilton will start from second place on the medium.
Pirelli , the category’s official compound supplier, decided to travel with the C3, C4 and C5 range, the softest, so degradation is likely to be higher and the number of pit stops to increase. After holding free practice, the Italian company complained about the aggressive curbs in Abu Dhabi, explaining that it was possible to see punctures again due to the repeated passage of cars over the curbs.
However, Mario Isola reassured the teams saying that what would cause a possible blowout would be a continuous excess of time on the piano, something that will not happen at Yas Marina. Thus, the teams will have to find the perfect balance to achieve the best possible result and close the 2021 world championship, but what tires will they use and what will be the laps in which they will make the pit stop? Here we discover it thanks to the information provided every weekend by the manufacturer of the compounds
The best strategy for the Abu Dhabi race, one stop at Yas Marina or two? What tires are the best for the F1 Abu Dhabi GP?
Max Verstappen will start from the first position thanks to a spectacular lap in qualifying, beating Lewis Hamilton’s time by several tenths. The Red Bull rider, however, will approach the race differently, because his best Q2 time was on the softest compound (C5), while the Mercedes rider made the cut on the medium (C4).
The rest of the drivers, except for Yuki Tsunoda and Valtteri Bottas, copied the strategy of the world leader [Verstappen, having 9 wins], and will start with the red tires. The one from AlphaTauri and the other Mercedes will have to manage the appointment with the medium, but everything can happen with the degradation of the renewed Yas Marina track.
The circuit has undergone modifications to facilitate overtaking, but with F2 it was seen that it is not as simple as expected, and the strategy will play a key role in the race. The pilots are expected to make a stop in Abu Dhabi, but it is not ruled out that one of them will try two stops, even that another risks making three and does not take care of his tires at any time.
Pirelli has stipulated that the front tire pressures will be 23.0 psi, while on the rear wheels it will be 21.0 psi. As for the weather, it is expected that the temperature will drop as the test progresses, since it will begin at sunset and end with the artificial light of the gigantic spotlights that will illuminate a new champion or an eight-time winner.
In graphic, the best pitstop strategies for the 2021 F1 Abu Dhabi GP
| Number of stops | What tire to go with? | When to stop? | Second stop? |
| A |  |
Lap 24-29 (make hard |
Nope |
| A |  |
Lap 19-23 (make hard |
Nope |
| two stops | |
Lap 16-19 (put soft |
Lap 32-25 (put media |
What tires does each driver start with in the F1 Abu Dhabi GP 2021 race?
1st Max Verstappen – Soft Tires (Red)
2nd Lewis Hamilton – Medium tires (yellow)
3rd Lando Norris – Soft Tires (Red)
4th Sergio Pérez -Soft tires (red)
5th Carlos Sainz – Soft tires (red)
6th Valtteri Bottas – Medium tires (yellow)
7th Charles Leclerc – Soft tires (red)
8th Yuki Tsunoda -Medium tires (red)
9th Esteban Ocon – Soft tires (red)
10th Daniel Ricciardo – Soft Tires (Red)
The drivers who could not make the cut and stayed in Q1 and Q2, that is, from 11th to 20th , will be able to choose the compound with which they will start the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix race. The ten who went through to Q3 will be forced to start on the tires on which they did their best lap in the second round of qualifying, so everyone except Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda, who will ride the medium (yellow), will have a set of softs (red) on the starting grid at Yas Marina.
How many tires and what compounds does each driver have left for the Abu Dhabi race?
As is tradition, Pirelli announces on Twitter the remaining sets of tires for each of the drivers to more easily indicate to fans the possible strategies that each team will carry out. These are the ones left for Yas Marina’s career.
