30/04/2019
NEWS STORY
Ferrari will take 9 sets of the red-banded soft rubber to Barcelona next weekend for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Hoping to return to the form witnessed in pre-season testing at the Spanish track, and end Mercedes run of 1-2s, Ferrari, like Renault and Alfa Romeo, is taking almost a full complement of the C3 compound, which, while the softest available compound in Bahrain also, was the medium in Melbourne, Shanghai and Baku.
Mercedes takes 8 sets of the softs, as do Haas, McLaren, Racing Point and Toro Rosso, while Red Bull and Williams take just 7.
George Russell takes the most (C2) mediums, the Briton having opted for 5 sets, while Charles Leclerc, Nico Hulkenberg, Antonio Giovinazzi and the McLaren pair take 2.
While most take either 1 or 2 sets of the hards, the McLaren pair, Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris, who scored a double-points finish last weekend, take 3 sets apiece.
Last year the medium, soft and supersoft were available, while in 2017 it was the hard, medium and soft.
Last year's race saw - surprise, surprise - Lewis Hamilton lead a Mercedes 1-2, with Max Verstappen joining them on the podium.
All three were on a one-stop strategy, starting on softs and then switching to mediums, as were eight of the other top ten finishers. Fourth placed Sebastian Vettel, who made a second stop under VSC conditions, and ninth-placed Sergio Perez being the only points finishers to make two stops.