McLaren predict ‘two-stop races’ for 2018

McLaren technical director Tim Goss believes two-stoppers will be the strategy of choice in this year’s early races thanks to Pirelli’s new compounds.

This season Pirelli have widened their tyre selection with the introduction of the Hypersoft tyrs and the Superhard compounds.

The teams tested the Hypersoft during last year’s post-season Abu Dhabi test with the new rubber receiving rave reviews.

The softer rubber means more grip and more speed with Goss predicting a trend towards two-stop races.

“They [Pirelli] have released compound choices for the early races, we’ve looked at that and I think our opinion is that there will be an increase in tyre grip,” he said.

“That could be half a second to a second a lap, something like that, and there will be more bias to two-stop races than previously.

“We still think it will be a mix of one- and two-stop races, but biased more to two-stop races, so I think moving sensibly in the right direction.”