Mar.21 (GMM) Ross Brawn is predicting a regular maximum of three-stop strategies in 2011.

Due to the extreme degradation of new supplier Pirelli's tyres, some of the sport's figures were warning of the possible need to pit four or possibly even five times during a grand prix.

But Mercedes team boss Brawn is quoted by the Melbourne Age newspaper: "If you get to four stops then possibly you are using the tyres a bit harder than you should and it would be quite hard to make up that extra pitstop time."

Brawn famously masterminded Michael Schumacher's four-stop victory in France some years ago, but he thinks that many visits to the pits this year will be rare.

"It does depend which track we are at because some tracks have much shorter pitstops than others.

"It depends on the circumstances but if your model shows four pitstops are faster as a race and you think you can drive to the speed available then you could see four pitstop races," he added.

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