All three completed over 100 laps and were fast. With Bamber consistently fastest of all.
Let’s look at the spread of a selection of the fastest drivers from the race. the top three drivers and the rest of their crew was chosen. This includes the top two in the race and the pole winning Cadillac crew1
Driver time and Stint management
Looking at how these three crews and podium Alpine crew did shows some different approaches to driver and stint management.
Interesting split of driver time in the car for the #15 and #36. Alpine specifically, despite having three drivers, let their two strongest have the bulk of the time. Schumacher in #36 (shown) started and finished the race. Milesi in the #35 had a similar high lappage count.
In a previous post we saw the wining Porsche #6’s approach to stints. A fairly even split. It is slightly longer for the first driver. Obviously this is driven by how the race is panning out, but also has the advantage of getting the needed longer tyre stints over with early on.
The #2 Cadillac only has two drivers. They alternated between the two through the race, with Bamber having a shorted stint at the end due to retiring 20 laps early. If he had completed these he would have completed the most laps of any driver – he was still third in this table (see below).
This can introduce a situation where a new driver doesn’t get new tyres. Their pros so not a big issue, but it needs managing.
It is also interesting to note he got fastest lap. Mainly because he is fast and on pole, but also this lap had the advantage of the early running. The first laps of the race have give you best opportunity to get a quick on in. That ability to nicely warm the tyres up on two controlled warm up laps is a lot nicer than leaving the pits on cold tyres and in racing conditions. No traffic certainly helps too!
BMW have three driver’s like the winner, but look like they have a definite hierarchy in the drivers. As the race goes on the driver gets more opportunity. First driver still gets those sweet spot laps.
Alpine tried to maximise their chances by putting their strongest driver in twice and for over 100 laps!
Discussion on TenTenths.
For completeness here are all the drivers:
