Pirelli will make the same tyre options available to drivers in the second and third rounds of 2015 as in the season-opener.
Formula One’s official tyre supplier has nominated the medium and soft compounds as the two mandatory sets for both races. Drivers will also be given the super-soft tyre to use in Q3.
Last year the soft and medium compounds were used for both races.
As both events are flyaway races, teams have until 14 weeks before each race weekend to make their selections. That gives them until December 25th for the Bahrain Grand Prix and January 8th for the Chinese Grand Prix.
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SatchelCharge (@satchelcharge)
17th December 2015, 14:26
No big surprises. Surely then they will then bring the three softest compounds to Russia.
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
17th December 2015, 14:48
Meanwhile pre-season testing starts in 2 months…
It shows what a laughing stock F1 is these days. I’ve never ever thought some 5 years ago we would have such ridiculous limits and situation with tyres and sport overall. And then they wonder why F1 is losing popularity and viewers.
Akshat
17th December 2015, 15:42
I still haven’t got my head around those rules.
Patrick (@paeschli)
17th December 2015, 16:36
When will the ultra-soft tyre be introduced?
Atticus (@atticus-2)
17th December 2015, 16:56
I would say as soon as the fourth round, Sochi. Monaco as latest.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
17th December 2015, 16:58
OMG, even Autosport got confused by the new rules.
It wrote that
They might thought the right thing, but the wording is confusing.
Just to clear it up, based on the official Pirelli presser, it’s still just one of these two they have to use, the same as in Melbourne.
Lewisham Milton
17th December 2015, 17:43
Will the Baku tyres be announced before or after the track’s laid?
sato113 (@sato113)
17th December 2015, 18:38
So a team could use supersofts and mediums in these races? Also are supersofts available for q2? So everyone would probably use them. And have to start the race on them consequently…?
Khalid (@leblep)
18th December 2015, 6:16
@sato113 Interesting point you got there. Teams can indeed choose to use supersofts in Q2 to get to Q3, but to start the race on them would probably disadvantage them, so it will not be an easy decision I guess. It will be interesting to see how many teams do that.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
17th December 2015, 18:50
I think that Mercedes’ dominance will end in 2016. Not necessarily because Ferrari’s chassis and engine will have caught up to them completely, but because Pirelli will play god in the sport.
We all know what a huge difference tyres can make in car performance. When Mercedes couldn’t switch the tyres on in Singapore, they went from being their usual 0.75 s faster to being 1.4 s slower.
There are endless examples in 2012 where a team will hit the sweet spot in tyre usage, and will end up being ridiculously fast. There were plenty of cases among Lotus, Sauber, and Williams.
We all know that Pirelli could end Mercedes dominance tomorrow simply by making/choosing tyres which do not suit them; and given the current state of F1, that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.
Simon (@weeniebeenie)
17th December 2015, 19:29
@kingshark it would if dominant Mercedes were just replaced by dominant Ferrari. What we need is a new category of Pirelli that just levels the frontrunners, they could give it some cool branding as well – “The Equaliser”. Various versions given to each team until they’re levelled off in performance.
I’m joking of course but seriously, dominance is boring no matter who does it, so just ‘neutering’ Mercedes is likely to solve the overall scope of F1 in 2016.
markp
18th December 2015, 10:21
Ferrari went from winning 5 drivers and 6 constructors in a row to being no where in 2005 when the tyre rules changed. So tyre rule changes to shake things up has history.