SUZUKA, Japan -- McLaren says it simply made the wrong call with its tyre selection at the Japanese Grand Prix after its allocation left its drivers with no real practice time on the super-soft tyres ahead of qualifying.
McLaren opted for four sets of mediums, five sets of softs and four sets of super-softs per car for this weekend's grand prix, meaning super-softs were in short supply during practice and qualifying. All other teams had at least seven sets of super-softs, with Ferrari opting for as many as ten.
Teams give tyres back to Pirelli after each practice session and, although it can vary from team to team depending on strategy and tyre behaviour, most teams usually aim to save five sets of the softest compound for each driver in qualifying.