Pirelli has introduced which tyre compounds shall be obtainable for all of the remaining rounds for the summer season break, with vital adjustments for the British and Belgian Grands Prix.
Whereas the choices for the Purple Bull Ring and Hungaroring are the identical as final season (with the C3, C4 and C5 compounds taking the arduous, medium and tender slots), Silverstone’s shall be a step softer: C2, C3 and C4.
Given the occasions of 2013, when tyre failures disrupted the race and prompted Pirelli to revert to a earlier carcass spec, and 2020, when Silverstone was internet hosting back-to-back races and went a step softer for the second race resulting in a spate of tyre delaminations late on, this can be a daring step at a circuit with high-speed corners which might be demanding.
However the selection for Spa-Francorchamps is extra intriguing nonetheless.
After the opening rounds of the season panned out largely as one-stop races in dry circumstances, Pirelli floated the potential of having a niche between the chosen compounds so they don’t comply with in sequence. Therefore in Belgium the medium and tender would be the C3 and C4, as they have been final yr, however the arduous would be the C1 quite than the C2.
The intention is to widen the efficiency differential between the arduous and medium selections and put groups ready the place the potential outcomes of one-stop versus two-stop methods are much less clear-cut.
“In Silverstone, the problem shall be to handle the medium, which for the previous two years truly served because the tender,” mentioned Pirelli’s assertion.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photograph by: Ferrari
“Whereas in Spa, which can be a dash occasion, these choosing the arduous, with the concept of stopping simply as soon as, should take into accounts the efficiency distinction that now separates the C1 from the C2, which was final yr’s arduous.”
Introducing the compound ‘step’ at a dash weekend is one other side Pirelli sees as producing intrigue as a result of it provides additional problems to tyre selection. However the focus stays on the grand prix – not essentially pushing groups in the direction of a two-stop technique, since that may possible end in most of them converging, however offering arduous selections between one and two.
“They [teams] at all times discover a technique to apply a technique on one cease,” Pirelli motorsport supervisor Mario Isola mentioned throughout the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix weekend.
“It’s not that we’re making an attempt to push them to have a two-stop technique as a result of it is higher, it is extra motion, extra unpredictability and higher races – however with the three compounds which might be so shut they at all times attempt to use the arduous and the medium to maneuver to a one-stop.”
The speculation behind making the arduous compound more durable is that this makes a one-stop race probably slower – the arduous is extra resilient, so the drivers can probably push extra on it, however it can nonetheless be slower than a rival utilizing a soft-medium-medium two-stopper. However this has required extra simulations based mostly on efficiency information from the opening rounds as a result of the variations between compounds should match into a transparent ‘window’.
Too small a distinction between arduous and medium, and the one-stop stays the de facto selection. Too huge and the one-stop turns into untenable.
This is the reason the Belgian Grand Prix weekend is, in impact, a sensible take a look at of Pirelli’s principle.
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