Pirelli was forced to make a drastic choice. Due to the many consecutive races in the adjusted season, the production of the tires is put under considerable pressure. According to director Mario Isola, it is therefore necessary to determine in advance which tires the teams will receive. This takes away a considerable amount of flexibility.
By default, Pirelli takes three types of tires to the races: white (hard), yellow (medium) and red (soft). These three types of tire are fixed for each team, but they are free in how many copies they purchase from each tire. For example, a team can decide to use more medium or soft tires during a weekend, depending on the strategy that is applied.
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Due to the production capacity of the tire manufacturer, this freedom must now be limited. Isola says opposite Car, engine and sport that he is simply not able to adapt production in such a short time to the individual needs of each team. “Because we have so many races so close together, production is under enormous pressure,” said the director. “We need to prepare 35,000 tires.”
“It is clear to the teams that we now have to be more flexible. That is why we determine the mix for the different circuits ourselves.” As a result, the softer C1, C2 and C3 tires will be used in the first race in Britain and Spain. For the second race at Silverstone and in Belgium and Italy, the teams will have access to the C2, C3 and C4 tires. The composition of the thirteen sets will therefore be the same for everyone. For the first three races, all teams will receive eight C2 (soft), three C3 (medium) and two hard (C4) tires.
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