Pirelli explains how new tyre rules will work

2016 F1 season

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Formula One’s official tyre supplier has explained how the new tyre rules for 2016 will work.

Pirelli will select three different compounds of tyre per weekend from five different types, which include the new purple-coloured ultra-soft alongside the existing four compound types used previously.

Pirelli’s new ultra-soft tyre for 2016
As before each driver will get 13 sets of tyres per weekend (each set is four tyres). They will be able to choose the compounds for ten of these sets from the three compounds available.

Of the remaining sets, two will be a fixed set chosen by Pirelli which will be the same for every driver, and may be of two different compounds. The final set will be of the softer compound and will be available for Q3.

Pirelli will choose the three compounds available for each weekend with the FIA and inform the teams, who will then make their choices for each race. If they fail to do so, the FIA will nominate their tyres. The choices will be kept secret until two weeks before each race.

Changes have also been made to when drivers must relinquish their tyres during the weekend. The first set must be returned 40 minutes into first practice, a second stint at the end of first practice, two further sets at the end of second practice and another two at the end of final practice. The sets nominated by Pirelli cannot be returned and must be kept for use in the race.

The top ten drivers in qualifying will still have to start on the tyres they used in Q2, having returned their tyres from Q3. However the remaining drivers will be able to use the set that was saved for Q3 during the race.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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97 comments on “Pirelli explains how new tyre rules will work”

  1. What an incredible mess.
    We’ll need a memo with all the tyre rules next to us when we watch the races!

    1. I think that many fans will simply ignore this rule altogether. For instance, most football fans don’t know/understand how UEFA coefficients are calculated (despite the fact that they are important in determining how many teams their country can have in the UCL). I don’t think this rule will be much different. Most fans will simply ignore its complications, and very few will actually take the effort to fully comprehend it and keep track of the tyres during a race weekend.

    2. Another stupid gimmick that no one wants or asked for.

      All the drivers want is consistent grippy tyres and that’s what the experienced and apt fans want too. Not this garbage.

      There is no way that this is superior to having multiple tyre suppliers, but then the hedgefund owners of F1 wouldn’t be able to whore out the “Official Supplier of F1” badge. Pathetic. WEC, get ready for an influx of disenfranchised F1 fans.

      1. Apex Assassin, it’s a bit ironic to complain about having a single tyre supplier in F1 and then encouraging people to move to the WEC – you seem to forget that the ACO will impose a standard tyre on every car from the LMP2 class down from 2017, coupled with an total ban on tyre development (with Michelin not being happy at either measure).

  2. The top ten drivers in qualifying will still have to start on the tyres they used in Q2

    Will this idiotic rule be ever dropped? Since its introduction in 2010 probably something like 98% or 99% of Top 10 times were set on softer compound and since 2014 it is 100%, so what’s the point? It reduces variety in strategy and makes “the show” poorer, so why absolutely no one is interested in throwing it into the bin? Things like that make me question the intelligence of apparently smart people running teams and the sport.

    1. Smart people? Maybe not. There is a difference between knowledge and intelligence. F1’s administration at present is a brilliant example of that.

      1. tbh I didn’t think they had either

    2. Fudge Ahmed (@)
      3rd December 2015, 13:18

      IIRC this was brought in to avoid the issue of drivers not setting a time in Q3 at all in order to have the freshest boots for the start.

      These tyres rules are an absolute mess, who could possibly keep track of that mess in the post above.

      Go away Pirelli.

    3. I want that rule to go. Even when the qualifying session is wet and the start is dry, the overwhelming majority of drivers choose to start on the softest tire. And why wouldn’t they? Starting on the prime puts you at a disadvantage when going off of the line.
      Either remove the qualifying tire rule or the mandatory stop rule. I think you can’t have both at the same time. Although I’d like to see both go since the tires are so fragile that stopping is pretty much necessary.

      1. Both rules should go away. Teams should have an ability to select 2 compounds they wish for the race without any mandatory stop. Qual should should ultrasoft. That’s it. Like it was for almost 50 years in F1. Best solutions are always already invented.

    4. Agree 100%!

  3. I’ll pretend like I understood all that.

    1. I think I understand but strongly suspect I am wrong.

  4. I really like these new rules, it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

    Does this mean there is no mandatory pit stop anymore?

    1. It wasn’t mentioned here, but I have read elsewhere that Pirelli will designate one compound as the “prime” for the weekend, with the two others being “options”. You have to run on the prime and at least one of the options during the race, so one pit stop will still be mandatory.

    2. @strontium, if only you were right I would like these rules too, unfortunately I believe you are wrong.

    3. @strontium There will be a mandatory pitstop. Every driver will decide for himself though which 2 out of the three compounds he will use(apart from the one of the 2 sets Pirelli chooses identically for all drivers for the race)

  5. “Pirelli will select three different compounds of tyre per weekend from five different types, which include the new purple-coloured ultra-soft alongside the existing four compound types used previously.”

    Is the above correct? Three different compounds instead of two now? So at Monaco for example we could have the soft tyre, the super-soft tyre AND the ultra-soft tyre?

    I’m guessing the ultra-soft tyre will be used at Monaco, Singapore and a couple of other tracks too.

  6. The top ten drivers in qualifying will still have to start on the tyres they used in Q2, having returned their tyres from Q3. However the remaining drivers will be able to use the set that was saved for Q3 during the race.

    Say we have a scenario where Pirelli say the three tyres available are the Ultra Soft, Super Soft and Soft. Team X says it will use the Ultra Soft and the Soft for the weekend. Team X gets into Q3. Does this mean that they will be able to use the set of Super Soft’s that Pirelli supply to those getting to Q3, effectively saving a set of the Ultra Soft for the race?

    1. If the Ultra Soft is one of the three offered by Pirelli for the weekend, that’ll be the compound given to the drivers for Q3 (since it is the softest of those available). You could run in Q3 on a different compound if you like, but would still have to give that US set back, used or not. If you don’t get into Q3, you will have an extra set of the softest compound available (the set the Q3 runners used and had to give back). Also, two sets will be nominated by Pirelli (of the same or different compounds), which has to be used in the race. It is a bit confusing, I must admit…

      1. The way I understand it is that Pirelli say “you can use any of (for example) the Ultra Soft, Super Soft or Soft over the weekend, but we nominate the Super Soft or Soft as the Prime and Option for the weekend”. So come Q3, you get allocated an extra set of Pirelli’s nominated Option tyre (the Super Soft). So my question was if you chose to run the Ultra and the Soft, you effectively get a “free” set of the tyre you didn’t chose to run, saving yourself a set of your softest tyres for the race fi you chose not to run them.

        1. Wow, I couldn’t have read those rules more incorrectly if I tried. :/

          1. @geemac, thats ok I couldn’t understand your explanation any more than I understood Pirellis’. I challenge anyone to correctly and succinctly state the effect of this rule ! A farcical rule for farcical tyres for a sport that is itself rapidly becoming a farce.

    2. I understood it as this: 1 set of ulstrasoft is given as an extra set only for Q3, these teams must return these set at the end of Q3, and start on the set they set a Q2 time.

    3. Jelle van der Meer
      3rd December 2015, 13:02

      I read it again but understood it differently.
      Everyone gets 13 sets of which 7 are left at start of qualifying – the 7th set being the softest available compound for Q3.
      Anyone making it into Q3 must start their race on the tyre they set their fastest Q2 time on and they must also give back the Q3 set of tyres whether these are used or not.
      Anyone not making it into Q3 can start on any tyre they want INCLUDING the Q3 which is available for them in the race.

      In other words the FIA have increased the penalty for drivers making it into Q3 – likely to help overtakes by those outside the top 10. It can result in funny behavior, for example with last race qualifying Sainz narrowly beat Verstappen into Q3 but with no chance at all to finish higher than 10th in Q3. If these new rules would already been valid I could imagine that Sainz at end of Q2 might have slowed down not to be 10th but be 11th knowing he would start generally on cleaner side, free choice of starting tyre and an extra set of the softest available compound for the race.

      1. The rule about not making it to Q3 is the same as it was this year already.

        I can’t imagine the drivers now having enough different sets of tyres in FP to figure them out before the race when they need to do set ups first. They use 2 softer sets for qualifying simulation, so that leaves only 4 sets for doing set ups and figuring out with which ones you want to race. However some types of tyres just work better with certain temperatures and the teams don’t know how the weather is going to be 2 weeks in advance.

        The Ultra Softs are only going to be used at street circuits.

        1. The rule about not making it to Q3 is the same as it was this year already

          This is wrong. If you don’t make it to Q3 you don’t currently get the extra Q3 set of tyres. The new rules change this so you get a free extra set of brand new tyres for the race. As stated above the advantage of starting 11th rather than 10th is increased beyond the advantage already obtained in 2015.

          1. That’s the part I don’t like – a reward of extra tyres for not being fast enough.
            Looks like Ferrari were practising for this with Vettel at Abu Dhabi…
            The extra set should just be for the top ten to qualify on, to help them put on a show. They’re not even intended as race tyres.

  7. @keithcollantine looks like a typo in the second to last paragraph

    “The first set must be returned 40 minutes into first practice, a second second at the end of first practice,”

  8. Gilberto Agostinho
    3rd December 2015, 12:33

    It’s great that F1 is listening to the viewers and it’s simplifying the rules, these new rules by Pirelli will be so easy to follow and to explain to people new to F1! (end of sarcasm)

  9. Convoluted rather than complicated. A simpler solution would be:
    Pirelli makes five compounds and decides to rule out unsafe choice depending on the circuit.
    Teams agree on the equal number of sets required, irrespective of the choice variation within.

    1. …with a special ‘Williams’ rule whereby each set can be made up of half and half for different compounds so long as they are from the same type wherein by dry weather and wet weather may not be permitted unless under the strict conditions that a Q2 time is set under mixed weather conditions and Q3 fall upon an even numbered date of the month allowing for the provision that during the first 5 minutes of qualifying rainfall should not exceed 3.67mm over a maximum of 76% of the track surface.

      1. Chocolate milk out my nose @philipgb

  10. Now try explaining that to a brand new fan. I think it is unnecessarily complicated.

    1. This. How is any new fan going to understand this at all? I’m struggling and I’ve read it twice.

  11. Yawn… I have no idea what’s going on and this sounds like i won’t help. I’d rather watch racing on the track and not need to know the detailed tyre history for that race of all the competitors involved to feel like I know what’s really going on. Just give them all the same tyre, that all degrade the same, for the whole race. They can get a fresh set if they need to, that’s about as complex as I want my F1. I feel like every viewer needs to be a mini Ted Kravitz to get any satisfaction out of watching this sport these days.

    1. +1, If I want a competition based on multiple tactical outcomes I’ll watch chess, and if I want to watch a competition based on chance I’ll watch roulette.

  12. It goes some way to reduce the confusion, but the fact Pirelli have to go into such a long description shows these rules are just too complex. Why can’t it be more like the BTCC, where each weekend, you use softs in one race, hard in the other two?* Or even better, the WEC, where the regs are little more than ‘here are some tyres, put them on the car’?

    *Except Thruxton, where everyone uses the super-hard ‘Thruxton’ tyre in all three races.

    1. here are some tyres, put them on the car’

      Because that would (a) be too simple, and (b) would result in Pirelli not getting 76,000,000,000 mentions during a race weekend.

      1. To go with the 76,000,000,000 trackside logos they already have? :D

    2. here are some tyres, put them on the car

      I read that in Ron Swanson’s voice. :D

  13. So, from what I understand is that by the time they get to the race, each driver will have 6 tyres to race on. Also, the sentence saying:

    The sets nominated by Pirelli cannot be returned and must be kept for use in the race.

    my understanding of that suggests that whilst they are available only for the race, they do not necessarily have to be used, is that correct?

    Anyway, here’s a working example of what tyres three different drivers could potentially have during a weekend.

    Obviously there are far more possibilites. It also doesn’t seem to have a limit on how many of each tyre set a driver can choose so there is an extreme example in there also.

    1. As it turns out, one of the two sets (the pink coloured ones) that are designated by Pirelli for the race must be used in the race, and Pirelli will decide which. Other than that, the teams can run any of the remaining 5 sets during the race as shown in the image.

    2. For drivers outside the top 10 they will have 7 sets for the race. In your example the green sets would be race tyres except for the top 10.

  14. New tyre rules will work? ? what?

  15. ColdFly F1 (@)
    3rd December 2015, 13:26

    It’s not that difficult, as long as you have a mathematician in your team:
    (H+M+S+SS+US)/4=13
    Q=FP1(20)-6
    FP2=FP1-2
    FP3=FP2-2
    If Qp10, R=Q
    if RW, R>=2

  16. Regarding the superduper soft tyres: if teams are only allowed to use them in Q3, then how are they supposed to practice on them? Does it become a competition in which drivers have to guess how well the superdupers will hold up during a lap, how they should heat those tyres up? Isn’t that unfair towards drivers who do not make Q3 on a regular basis?

    But apart from that, yes the tyre system is now extremely complicated for spectators to understand, but I’m actually really to see how this will unfold.

    1. but I’m actually really interested to see how this will unfold.

    2. @andae23
      I don’t mind that actually, let the more adaptable drivers shine. If they can figure the ultra-soft tyres out quicker than anyone else, they deserve to be on pole.

      1. @kingshark I would agree with you, but I’m a bit worried about it. If you’d do a flat-out lap on the 2015 super softs, then on all but 3 or 4 out of 20 circuits the performance of the tyre will drop off significantly during that lap. I’m guessing the superduper soft compound will degrade even quicker, so I don’t know whether drivers will be comfortable driving an unknown, unstable tyre for only one lap each weekend.

        Also, as @sparkyamg says, teams could bring an extra set of superdupers for their drivers. I can see Mercedes and Ferrari doing this, but why would a team like Toro Rosso, Lotus or Force India bother?

    3. The tyre that Pirelli chooses for Q3 (let’s say the Ultra Soft in this example) can be used in other sessions and therefore practiced on if a team chose to select it as one of their own sets for that weekend.

      It is just that that specific Pirelli Q3 set of tyres, ie those specific 4 tyres, can’t be used either before or after Q3. Previously teams could equip cars with tyres used during Q3 at some point during the race, or, burn through all their softest tyres in Q1 and Q2. This can no longer happen, and I’m guessing the purpose of this is to make sure that everyone who makes it through to Q3 has at least one set of tyres that will never be used elsewhere and will therefore encourage teams to go for it instead of ‘saving’ tyre life for the race.

    4. The compulsory ultra-soft may be used in Q3 if a driver makes it to Q3, or the race if the driver misses Q3. There is nothing to stop teams picking an ultra-soft tyre as one of their 10 “optional” tyres, which would allow it to be one of the six tyre sets teams are likely to use in practise. Most likely teams will select an ultra-soft compound for Practise 3 and hand it back at the end of that session, in addition to taking the compulsory ultra-soft for Q3/race purposes.

  17. What a complete and utter mess. Does F1 take pride in itself being as complicated as possible?

    1. I think parts of it do…

    2. F1: the not the pinnacle of motorsport. Not the fastest cars. Not the best drivers. But we guarantee you the most complicated technical rules (especially if a parity engine does get added in!)

  18. On another note, the naming of the tyres is somewhat off as well.

    Ultra Soft – Super Soft – Soft – Medium – Hard

    The medium tyres are no longer a medium tyre, but instead a hard compound. The soft tyres are the most “medium” tyres in this range, if that makes any sense.

    If anything, they should simply make the name of each tyre one step harder.

  19. Why oh why did they call the new compound ultra-soft. It was confusing enough already at weekends using the two soft tyres – because the “hard tyre” was the “soft tyre” and the “soft tyre” is the “super-soft tyre”. Why do we need “ultra-soft” too.

    Super-hard, Hard, Medium, Soft, Super-soft just makes way more sense.

    I can only think of two reasons that they’ve done this. Firstly it could be that they simply don’t like the sound of Super-hard, from a marketing point of view (both for Pirelli and for F1). In that case, call it the Endurance tyre or something. We just don’t need three softs.

    Secondly, it could just be that they want they want to keep the top 4 “colours” as they currently are (i.e. orange as the hardest tyre and and red as the softest of the existing tyres, soon to be second-softest), and I guess there’s something to be said for not reassigning all the colours to new names because it could be confusing. But, I still think that the confusion due to the naming system would be way higher than due to changing the colours. You can explain the logic of changing the colours to people much more easily than why there are 3 different soft compounds, and only one each of medium and hard.

    In any case, I think this would have been an excellent opportunity to re-jiggle the compound colours. I would propose:

    Super-hard = Orange
    Hard = Yellow
    Medium = White
    Soft = Pink
    Super-soft = Purple
    Intermediate = Light Green
    Wet = Light Blue

    Colours are fairly subjective so there’s not a whole lot of hard science to my reasoning. Basically, I feel like the “hot colours” (yellow and orange) make a lot of sense for the hard tyres. Medium is in the middle, and white is a neutral colour. Then, the pink and purple – purple is already used to denote a fastest sector/lap, so having that on the softest tyre correlates well with that. The pink I think could be made vibrant enough so that it is easily distinguishable from the white and purple.

    Meanwhile I think green and blue on the wet tyres is fine as it currently is (even if the tyres are not that fine… please, please, please can we develop a better “monsoon” tyre so we can run more in the rain…).

    1. Forgot to add, if it was found that the pink was going to be either too similar to white or too similar to purple, then the red could probably fit there.

  20. Sometimes I have tried to explain F1 rules to my family. I think I am not very good at explaining things but I have done my best. But here I give up, there is no way I will be able to explain this to someone, who watches F1 occasionally. I am not saying that the new tyre rules are necessarily bad, maybe they will improve racing but they are far too complicated for those weird people, who do not check F1 news several times a day.

  21. I’ll attempt a description of what this is likely to look like here:

    – Teams get 2 sets of tyres per practise (they could in theory use more, but the handback rules make that counterproductive). Five of the sets involved are likely to be “race tyres” (i.e. the same compound as the Pirelli compulsory race tyre) and “option tyres” (the compound Pirelli doesn’t require anyone to use). The other one will be a “qualifying” set so the teams can practise their qualifying runs in Practise 3. (There’s no rule stopping this because only the compulsory sets are prohibited before qualifying – a set chosen as one of the team’s optional 10 sets may be used in any session provided it’s handed back at the correct time).

    – For qualifying, it’s different depending on whether you expect to make Q3 or not. This is because Q3 runners must use the compulsory “qualifying” compound in that session or not at all, while people who are out in Q1 or Q2 may instead use the “qualifying” compound in the race. That tyre will probably do 5-8 laps at the end of the race, so for a team that thinks it will be just forced onto 2 stops and doesn’t think it can reach Q3, that’s highly useful.

    Expect everyone to do banker laps on their hardest compound, and to use the same set for all banker laps done. Whichever “non-qualifying” option is softest will probably be used for Q1 and Q2 (with the possible exception of dominant teams in Q1 and people seriously considering one-stop races in Q2) and the qualifying tyre will obviously be used for Q3’s final run.

    One-stopping is likely to be the standard strategy for any Q3 runner who can get there and make it work. Expect a lot of Hard-Softs. For any that can’t do so for whatever reason, expect Race-Race-Option, Race-Option-Race or Option-Race-Race, depending on precise strategy.

    For non-Q3 runners, two-stopping is almost always going to be the preferred approach, using Race-Option-Qualifying or Option-Race-Qualifying. There will be a lot of attempted fightbacks in the last 5 laps as a result.

    Three-stoppers will be stuck at the back, unless it rains or the conditions are bad enough to prevent two-stop strategies involving a qualifying tyre.

    Short version: it looks like a lot will change, but probably things will be very similar to how they were in 2015 in terms of tyre use.

  22. I don’t get the rules, and I’ve been watching F1 for quite some time now. Looks like I’ll have to wait for a few races to understand how it works out.

  23. I’ve always considered myself fairly well versed on the ins and outs of F1, but reading this I couldn’t tell you for sure if the cars even use tyres any more.

    1. @philipgb
      They’re renaming them synthetic rubberised track/car interaction devices from next year.

  24. Also, the medium tyre is no longer the medium tyre. The medium is the second hardest compound while, logically, it should be #3 if you have 5 compounds.

  25. This is nonsense. Sheer and utter nonsense

    1. Really it is pretty much the same as it is now except that whichever compound of tyre the team runs in Q3 will be exchanged for a fresh set of the Pirelli Option tyre.

  26. Luis Miguel Martínez
    3rd December 2015, 16:05

    Will each driver now have to use the three compounds in the race? Races will be now 2 stops minimum?

    1. One stop minimum. A team may choose to completely ignore the compound Pirelli doesn’t select for race purposes, and if they don’t have the ultra-soft due to reaching Q3, they obviously don’t use it in the race.

  27. When I say these are the new the tyre rules involving three different compounds per weekend of which we choose one and then you have to use it but only in qualifying session three but you still have free choice for the rest of the weekend but not entirely, you smile and nod.

    I think he’s talking to you…

  28. Here’s what the rules should be: You get 13 sets of tires for a race weekend; your choice. Choose wisely.

    That’s it.

  29. Picture a race right now. Both Force India cars are on the Medium tyre and pit one lap after the other. One takes a new set of Medium tyres, the other a set of Soft tyres. At this precise moment, all that matters is that the car on Soft tyres is going to try and chase down the car on Medium tyres with better grip. The bunch of Super-Soft and Hard tyres on a factory floor in Italy are completely irrelevant.

    Otherwise it’s like going into a pub, ordering your favourite beer being told that the barrel has run out. Usually, a decent pub covers up the choice you can’t make to avoid mild annoyance. So to send a clear message, tyre naming needs to be standardised, and the compounds kept quiet. The Soft might be the Super-Soft compound at some events for example. But that information is of no consequence to the race, and probably only of interest to about 1% of the audience. I’m sure Pirelli tweak compounds throughout the season, so just keep that stuff behind the scenes.

    The way to do that is to present 5 tyres as standard each weekend instead of 7. I’ll take it that there are now 3 dry compounds that the driver can use during a race weekend, and not 2 in these new rules. The fan would see a selection of Soft – Medium – Hard – Intermediate – Wet, regardless of the underlying compound. So when a car is going up against another in the dry, you can see which of the 3 compounds they are on. Some teams can run an aggressive strategy of lots of Soft tyres, some may run with Hard tyres and go long. That’s it. It doesn’t have to be rocket science.

  30. I have read this thing five times and have no idea how this works. So apparently there is no need to use two different compounds during the race anymore?

    1. @kaiie, I wish you were right, but my understanding is they must still use 2 of the 3 compounds (offered by Pirelli ) during the race, and they can also choose to run the softest compound in Q3 even if it is not 1 of the 2 compounds they are going to race on. I think I finally understand it, but I may be totally wrong.

    2. Teams must use one of the two “race” tyre sets provided by Pirelli in the race, plus one other set (this may be a Pirelli-provided set – race or, if they still have it, qualifying – or a free choice). Note that all three Pirelli-chosen sets must be retained until Q3 (and only the ultrasoft gets handed back at all).

  31. “Here are some tyres; go nuts!”
    That’s what the rules should say… The only thing I took away from reading all of that nonsense is that people who don’t get into Q3 get an extra set of tyres. That is categorically unfair, so I guess it’s probably time to stop using the word sport!

    1. They get to use the qualifying tyre in the race instead of the Q3 they never attended; in that sense it’s like the 2015 regulation, except that the specification of one tyre set in Q3 is fixed (to encourage people who make Q3 to take it seriously).

  32. A message from Insincere Dave: “My PhD. in Tireology means I know exactly what this means!!!!”

  33. My chemistry class was easier to understand then this disaster. Someone please put competent people in charge.

  34. “Prominent F1 team seeking individual with great attention to detail and high mathematical acumen to track and deploy racing tires during competition weekends. Must be able to perform time sensitive decision making skills in a high pressure environment, while rushing tire dollies to and from the Pirelli tire depot.”

  35. will the ultra softs ever be used in races?

    1. @sato113, I think they can be chosen as the 2nd. compound if a team wants to use them in the race.

    2. Probably. Anyone not making it to Q3 may use the compulsory ultra-soft in the race. (Anyone who picks an ultra-soft for an optional tyre set could use it in the race, but the fact these tyres are chosen weeks in advance make that use (as distinct from Practise 3 usage) unlikely). While it is only likely to be good for about about 5 laps before falling off the cliff, even on the minimum fuel load, a marginal two-stop situation would see a Hard-Soft-Qualifying sequence make sense for people who missed Q3.

  36. Coming next year – Grooves!

    1. …but only to be used on laps with odd numbers.

  37. What. A. Mess.
    It may turn out to be good, to be honest.

  38. Legit spirelli, legit. It’ll NEVER work for you guys. Just go home and let the other pro’s like Goodyear do their job! WORST TYRECOMPANY EVER!

    1. Well, you’d better hurry and tell the people that run all these series they picked the wrong supplier:
      WRC
      Blancpain GT
      Ferrari Challenge
      Lamborghini Super Trofeo
      Maserati Trofeo
      Superbike World Championship
      Motocross World Championship
      21 national rally series
      18 national GT series

  39. each driver will get 13 sets of tyres per weekend (each set is four tyres).

    Thanks Keith.

  40. 2020: Pirelli Edammer Tyre.

  41. This is what I understood from the tyre rules:
    Pirelli will select THREE different compounds for each race.(For example M,S & SS)
    Out of which TWO will be nominated for the race but only ONE will be compulsory (Team choice).
    Teams will still have to run TWO different compounds in the race.So they can choose ONE
    from the Pirelli nominated set and the OTHER ONE from the THREE available compounds.
    For example if Pirelli nominates M and S for the race , then say Team-X chooses M and SS
    for the race.Regardless of these choices, however, all teams running in Q3 must run atleast ONE set
    of SS (softest compound), simply because they are made available for race by Pirelli.
    If you are a mid field team that just managed to go past Q2, then this means it’s better for you
    to not take part in Q3 at all and save the softest compound for the race.And if your team had chosen
    M and S for the race and you didn’t take part in Q3, then it means you now has got a free set of SS.

    Bottom line would be that instead of just two compounds, we might see three compounds of tyres
    playing around in the tracks.

  42. Is this a joke?

    1. Sadly not.

  43. Here’s my interpretation:

    We have 3 tyre each weekend nominated by pirelli, i named it as fast, option, and prime (the softest might not be ultrasoft)
    Out of 13 available:
    2 is fixed by pirelli and one of it must be used during the race (might be different type of tyre)
    While 1 tyre is the fast tyre for everyone (only for q3 use, but if you’re not in q3 it will be a free set for the race)

    Q2 rules remain the same, and in the race a driver need to use at least 2 different type of the tyre which is still the same rules from this year.
    But strategy will play out differently, depends on what team think as their optimum tyre. Some might rather start 11 than 10 to have free tyre choice, and over the weekend they’ll have all 3 type of tyre but the amount of set they’ll have is different.

  44. Could somebody please explain to me what the difference is between a front right and a front left? Similarly for the rears.

    1. The tread pattern is asymmetric on F1 tyres, to improve the cornering. I’m not sure exactly what tread differences are involved, but the left- and right-tyres do have different patterns on the tread, and therefore only work optimally if attached to the correct side of the car. Pirelli gets annoyed at teams which don’t do this as in 2013, unexpected explosions occurred that were partly attributed to putting tyres on the wrong side of the car. Albeit it was never identified whether that was due to teams putting the tyres on the wrong sides of the car, under-pressuring, incorrectly cambering, design flaws, or some combination of the above.

      1. IIRC, it was deemed to be ‘all of the above’

  45. Will they work? :D

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