Pirelli’s first tyre choices for the first three races of the 2018 Formula 1 season have been announced. The new F1 season starts with the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne on March 25th 2018. The race is 102 days away as the off-season stretches in front of F1 fans. After a two-week gap, the next 2 races are back to back at Bahrain and China.
Pirelli’s first tyre choices for the 2018 Formula 1 season
Pirelli’s new tyres
Pirelli has added two new dry weather tyres to their range for the 2018 season. The superhard and ultrasoft compound tyres will debut next season. A complete look at the new Pirelli range of tyres: https://lastwordonmotorsport.com/2017/12/04/pirellis-new-range-of-tyres-for-2018/
Tyres for the first three races
Neither of the two new dry weather tyres will be used at the first three races of the new season. At the Australian GP, the Italian manufacturer has chosen to run the soft, supersoft and ultrasoft compound tyres.
At the Bahrain GP, Pirelli has gone one compound harder and will run the medium, soft and supersoft compound tyres. This second race of the season is now a night race with cooler temperatures.
At the Chinese GP, Pirelli will run the medium, soft and ultrasoft compound tyres. In an unusual move, Pirelli has skipped the supersoft compound tyres and selected the ultrasoft compound tyres.
Drivers’ Tyre Choices
The drivers must choose one set each of the hardest two compounds of tyres for the race and one set of the softest compound tyre for the final session of qualification. This takes care of three sets of the thirteen sets of dry weather tyres each driver is allocated per race. The teams and drivers have a free choice of how many sets each of the three compounds of tyres they want for the remaining ten sets.
The Pirelli tyres in 2017 had compounds that were too hard. In general, the drivers found it hard to switch on the tyres which had a narrow temperature operating range. The teams and drivers will hope the tyres will be easy to switch on and offer more mechanical grip next season.
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