Question about tyre usage rules and potential loophole.

[ajdavison2]

Unless wet tyres have been used, drivers must use both dry tyre compounds during a race and failure to do so will see them excluded from the results. Or if the race is suspended and can't be restarted, 30 seconds will be added to the elapsed race time of any driver who hasn't used both compounds.

<Taken from the formula1.com.

After watching the Australian GP and the high levels of deg on the SS compound it would arguably have been better to be able to race the full race on the medium compounds, I heard several times that the medium is the better race tyre. Now this is where my question comes in, obviously the rules state that both tyres have to be used in a dry race but what actually counts as 'being used'? My question is in several parts.
a) Is there a minimum usage for tyres, I.e. do the drivers have to complete a minimum of 1 lap on a set of tyres?
b) Would being able to just use the mediums, and the speed disadvantage they bring vs the SS be worth it for the better levels of deg?
c) This is where my theory comes in, It would only work for drivers who have started on the medium compounds. Basically if driver X starts on the mediums, pits, switches to the SS, BUT doesn't leave the pits and immediately goes back onto mediums do the Ss tyres count as being used, and therefore can he run the rest of the race on the mediums?

This would involve sacrificing, I imagine, about 8 seconds in the pits (4ish per set of tyres). And I'm not sure if over a stint, it would be worth it. we've all seen what happens when drivers go off the cliff on the SS, (RAI last year in.. bahrain?, Sutil this year in Melbourne. and the loss seems to be more than 4 seconds.

So yeah, just spit balling a theory.

[adrianjordan]

I'm not certain, but I'm fairly sure that they have to complete a minimum of 1 lap to count as having the compound.

Maybe we'll see more very short stints on the SS compound....

[ajdavison2]

Do you think it would work in theory though?

[Nando]

"drivers must use both dry tyre compounds during a race"

I think if you put them on for 1 second then take them of it will not count as them being used.

[beelsebob]

a) Is there a minimum usage for tyres, I.e. do the drivers have to complete a minimum of 1 lap on a set of tyres?

25.4 f) Unless he has used intermediate or wet-weather tyres during the race, each driver must use at least one set of each specification of dry-weather tyres during the race.
If the race is suspended and cannot be re-started, thirty seconds will be added to the elapsed time of any driver who was unable to use both specifications of dry-weather tyre during the race. However, any driver who completes the race without using both specifications of dry-weather tyre will be excluded from the race results.

So no, there's no limitation, he must simply use them, however, it's difficult to finish the race while using them without leaving the pits, doing a lap, and coming back to either the pits or the start/finish line.

b) Would being able to just use the mediums, and the speed disadvantage they bring vs the SS be worth it for the better levels of deg?

Almost certainly, I expect everyone would have 2 stopped mediums today if that were possible.

c) This is where my theory comes in, It would only work for drivers who have started on the medium compounds. Basically if driver X starts on the mediums, pits, switches to the SS, BUT doesn't leave the pits and immediately goes back onto mediums do the Ss tyres count as being used, and therefore can he run the rest of the race on the mediums?

No:

Tyres will only be deemed to have been used once the car’s timing transponder has shown that it has left the pit lane.

[Pup]

Never mind.

[ajdavison2]

Ohh I see.. well that clears that up haha.

[Undead_Mud]

That also means, that you can´t pit in the final lap to use the supersoft to cross the line in the pits.
(Assuming your pit box is before the finish line)
Would be unfair to allow that only for some teams depending on pit box position.