Pirelli reveals their compound choices for the next four Grands Prix – Formula 1 news
Pirelli has revealed its rubber choices for the next three Grands Prix after the Chinese GP.
Ever since Pirelli has come back to Formula 1 it has made the sport a lot more exciting as the Pirelli rubber is prone to a lot more degradation than its predecessor, which allows for different strategies for all the teams. Teams now have to think about
how many pit stops they have to take and at what stage do they have to take it.
Bahrain, Spain and Monaco will be featuring different combinations for each race. Soft and medium tyres will be used in Bahrain while soft and hard in Spain. Monaco will feature super-soft and soft.
Pirelli also explained their choices and said, “The tyre choice for Bahrain takes into account the hot temperatures and medium-grip characteristics of the Middle Eastern circuit. The hard tyre will be seen in Spain to cope with the high lateral loads that
the tyres have to deal with at the Circuit de Catalunya, coupled with the soft tyre in order to enhance the opportunities for different strategies. Monte Carlo is the slowest and most twisty circuit of the year, so the super-soft makes its debut to maximise
the grip available over the course of this short lap.”
Paul Hembery also added that the nominations of the compounds in the current season are driven towards getting optimal performance out of the cars. It can also be seen from the latest choices of tyres the only super-soft tyre has remained the same from last
year. The other compounds have been made softer in order to get more speed. They are designed to get tighter races and more strategic planning from the teams.
China will use soft and medium compounds. China will have higher temperatures and so Pirelli have gone with the soft and mediums.
In 2011 a lot of drivers had trouble coping with the Pirelli compound, notably Mark Webber of Red Bull and even Michael Schumacher had some trouble but with some races under their belt with the Pirelli they look more comfortable with them. Sebastian Vettel
had no issues at all with the compounds and excelled throughout the 2011 season.
It will be interesting to see how the teams and drivers fare with the Pirelli’s this season.
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