How do drivers use the Free Practice?

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Obviously I know they use the Free Practice sessions to work on the car set-up, new upgrades, get up to speed with the track and measure tyre wear, but how do they get the best out of the sessions with the limitations we have with new engines and tyre restrictions?

I've observed that drivers seem to have a set structure for practice.

FP1 - All the drivers do an installation lap then sit in the pits for ages. They then seem to do a couple of 6 lap runs on the same set of prime tyres.

FP2 - A low fuel run on options followed by a high fuel run on the same set of options. Presumably measuring likely tyre wear at the start of the race.

FP3 - A few short runs to fine tune the set-up for qualifying.

How many tyres are they likely to get through in the 3 practice sessions? How much will drivers change the set-up duting the sessions? Will the arrive at the circuit knowing more-or-less what the set-up will be?

[Sleeper]

Given that the cars will run something like a million laps at any given track in the simulater and on the simulation softwere all the teams will turn up to a race with the set up pretty much sorted, it'll just be a case of fine tuning the balance to match the conditions plus sorting out tyre wear patterns.

[Sonic]

That pretty much sums it up.

[dom bom]

I would like to run through tyre regulations.

At First :Prime6 and Option5 are available.
After FP1 :Return Prime1
After FP2 :Return Prime1 Option1
After FP3 :Return Prime1 Option1
Q and Race :Prime3 and Oprion3 are available.

[wedge]

Data for upgrades. They may not bring bulky sensors but they're using hi-vis paint to look at airflow.