Sprint weekends change the sums. At Silverstone, the standard 13-set tyre allocation drops to 12, and each driver gets a fixed split: two sets of the hard, four of the medium and six of the soft, across Pirelli's hardest C1-C2-C3 range.
Fewer sets plus a single hour of practice means almost no room to experiment. Teams have to commit early on how to spend their rubber across a Sprint Qualifying, a Sprint race and then conventional qualifying and the Grand Prix — four sessions that all matter, on a track that chews through fronts.
The six softs give options for the short, sharp qualifying runs; the harder end is the currency for race stints on an abrasive, high-speed layout. Get the allocation plan wrong on Friday and there is no clawing it back on Sunday. In a championship separated by 40 points, the team that spends its 12 sets most cleverly could bank places its rivals simply cannot cover.