The Formula One traveling circus used up 42,792 tires in 2016, enough to fill up 10 Boeing 747-8 freighters. Track temperatures ranged from 51 degrees Fahrenheit up to 141 degrees. Vallteri Bottas topped out at 231 miles per hour, a new F1 record. Pirelli is once again providing the entire numbers, and they are astounding.
Each year Pirelli likes to give a little breakdown of what it (and the rest of F1) did this season, and it’s the weirdly fine-grained look that actually make the sheer size and scope of F1 understandable.
Just the numbers associated with the Pirelli hospitality suite, which follows the tire team around like an overgrown chow tent, are absurd:
PIRELLI’S HOSPITALITY IN 2016
- Meals served within Pirelli’s hospitality unit (including tests): 15,600
- Litres of water drunk in Pirelli’s hospitality during the year: 10,200
- Kilograms of pasta cooked by Pirelli’s chef: 900
- Pizzas cooked by Pirelli’s chef: 420
- Number of different dessert recipes prepared at Pirelli’s Hospitality unit: 50
- Desserts eaten at Pirelli’s hospitality: 7,500
- Coffees served at Pirelli’s: almost 30,000
- Litres of olive oil used during the year: 500
Wow, 420 pizzas. Nice.
But it’s not just the food, as it puts the racing in scale as well:
TIRES
- Total number of tires supplied in 2016: 42,792
- Of these, 38,112 were supplied for race weekends and 4,680 for testing
- Of the 42,792 tires, 28,188 were slicks and 14,604 were rain or intermediate tires
- Total number of tires used during race weekends: 15,652, of which 13,844 were slick tires and 1,808 were rain or intermediates
- Total number of tires that were recycled: all
- Maximum number of kilometres driven on each compound (excluding tests):
Hard: 759 km (Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull)
Medium: 3,597 km (Valtteri Bottas, Williams)
Soft: 6,566 km (Sergio Perez, Force India)
Supersoft: 4,598 km (Valtteri Bottas, Williams)
Ultrasoft: 2,052 km (Nico Rosberg, Mercedes)
Intermediate: 444 km (Jenson Button, McLaren)
Wet: 523km (Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes)PIT STOPS
- Total number of pit stops: 933, of which 4 drive-throughs and one was a stop and go)
- This makes an average of 44.4 per race, and 2.01 per driver in each race
- Most pit stops in a race: 66 at the Chinese Grand Prix
- Fewest pit stops in a race: 26 in Russia
OVERTAKING
- Total number of overtaking manoeuvres during the season: 866 (*), with an average of 41.2 per race
- Highest number of overtaking manoeuvres at a dry race: 128 in China (**)
- Highest number of overtaking manoeuvres at a wet race: 64 in Brazil
- Fewest number of overtaking manoeuvres at a dry race: 10 in Hungary
- Driver with the most overtaking manoeuvres during the year: Max Verstappen, 78 (**)
- Driver with the most overtaking manoeuvres at a single race: 18, Lewis Hamilton in China
- Driver who has been overtaken least: Sebastian Vettel, one time (by Max Verstappen at the Brazilian Grand Prix, 66th lap, 5thposition)
- Driver who made up most places on the opening lap: Fernando Alonso, who gained 41 positions on the opening lap
- Team that carried out most overtaking: Red Bull, 136 moves (**) – 61 by Daniel Ricciardo, 60 by Max Verstappen, 15 by Daniil Kvyat
- Team that has been overtaken least: Mercedes, seven times (Nico Rosberg four, Lewis Hamilton three)
Throughout the course of the year, Pirelli recorded 239,044 miles on its tires, which is actually more than enough for a one-way trip to the Moon.
- By compound, it works out as: Hard 14,236; Medium 99,447; Soft 133,988; Supersoft 86,014; Ultrasoft 31,647; Intermediate8,278; Wet 11,095
- Distance covered in testing during 2016 (excluding race weekends): 61,772 km, of which over 12,000 km with 2017 Wider Tires
- Distance covered in races in 2016: 123,534 km
- Number of fastest laps (in qualifying and races) set by the world champion in 2016: 14 (six in races and eight in qualifying)
- Lowest average speed at which a dry race has been won in 2016: 159.992 kph (Nico Rosberg, Singapore Grand Prix)
- Lowest asphalt temperatures recorded during a race (on Sunday): 15°C in Canada
- Lowest asphalt temperatures recorded during a race weekend: 13°C in Mexico.
- Highest asphalt temperatures recorded during a race (on Sunday): 59°C in Malaysia
- Highest asphalt temperatures recorded during a race weekend: 61°C, again in Malaysia
- Lowest ambient temperatures recorded during a race (on Sunday): 11°C in Canada
- Lowest ambient temperatures recorded during a race weekend: 11°C in Canada
- Highest ambient temperatures recorded during a race (on Sunday): 37°C in Malaysia
- Highest ambient temperatures recorded during a race weekend: 37°C in Malaysia
But perhaps no statistic is sadder than the one about Pirelli’s PR team itself, which apparently blurted out 234 press releases in the past year. Of those press releases, Jalopnik has blearily paid attention to one.
This one. It’s fine.