Pirelli confirms new three-year F1 deal to 2019

2017 F1 season

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Pirelli has finally confirmed it will remain as Formula One’s official tyre supplier for the next three years.

The new deal was first hinted at during last year’s Russian Grand Prix. According to Pirelli it was completed “over the winter” but discussions over the sport’s new rules for 2017 have had a significant bearing on the agreement as they involve a change in the dimensions of the rubber.

Pirelli also announced it will begin to test tyres to these new dimensions this summer. It had previously indicated this would not happen until the first months of next year.

According to Pirelli it will now be able to conduct “tests with 2012, 2013 or 2014-specification cars, using tyres in the current size but with prototype elements (in the constructions or compounds) to prepare for 2017”.

It will also conduct “a total of 25 days of testing with modified 2015 cars, using prototype tyres in 2017 size: 305/670-13 at the front and 405/670-13 at the rear (for slick tyres)”.

Pirelli returned to Formula One as its official tyre supplier in 2011. Its third three-year deal will see it remain in the sport until at least 2019.

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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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15 comments on “Pirelli confirms new three-year F1 deal to 2019”

  1. NOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Oh and FOM , FIA I thought road relevance was the main concern with developing technologies in F1. So you guys should force the change to 18″ rims because it’s far more road relevant research/size for today’s cars.

  2. I’m genuinely happy about this. The new tyre dimensions look brilliant and will hopefully perform well. Although we can guarantee the continuation of Pirelli’s Made to Degrade range, if it weren’t Pirelli another company would have to do the same thing

    1. I agree, I also think the stability is likely good for F1. I’m surprised Pirelli wants to continue though, with all the flak it’s gotten (some rightly so).

    2. @strontium “Although we can guarantee the continuation of Pirelli’s Made to Degrade range, if it weren’t Pirelli another company would have to do the same thing”

      Not necessarily as its not written into any contracts or anything, Pirelli have the choice to make tyres that degrade as little or as much as they wish as the designed to degrade philosophy is nothing more than a verbal request which Pirelli or any other supplier can decide not to accept.

      You already see the past few years that Pirelli have moved away from the sort of degredation we saw in 2011-2013 & they have already stated that next year will feature even less degredation because the teams & drivers have asked them to make tyres aimed at high performance rather than high degredation.

      Having said that I know that most of the teams & drivers would still rather another supplier (Preferably Michelin) have won the tender because both have lost faith in Pirelli, Although the regular meetings that Pirelli are holding with drivers to discuss what they are doing with the tyres has gone some way to improving relations between them.

      1. @strontium @gt-racer I thought from articles earlier this year that they were deliberately moving away from designed to degrade and trying to create a tyre that the drivers could push on. Surely with the increase in speed, downforce and minimum weight even a performance tyre would allow the tyres to still be an important factor in strategy depending on how they’re managed.

        1. In fact this BBC article quotes a mandate from the FIA that prescribes a move away from designed to degrade and also one of F1s greatest problems, degradation when following

          http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/36563812

  3. Good news. I hated tire war

    1. Bad news. I loved the tyre war.

      1. @jules-winfield As did I for a few reasons.

        Allowed teams to pick the tyres that best suited there equipment rather than been forced to use something that they don’t like and/or can’t get to work.

        It was an extra variable which helped the racing as each different supplier had there own strengths & weaknesses.

        And it also created an extra element of competition which drove performance forward which is kind of what F1 & Motor Racing in general is supposed to be about. Each team, Each supplier pushed performance boundaries & push each other forward which is when you see lap times dropping.

        One of the biggest problems with the Pirelli’s outside of the obvious high-deg & operating windows is that they have never pushed for performance because they have never had a reason to.
        They design a tyre thats actually fairly hard in terms of compound & doesn’t offer up that much performance (Just look at what they call an Ultra Soft & see how hard a compound it actually was) to the point where a 2006 grooved spec tyre would likely actually produce faster lap times if put on a current spec car because they used much softer, much more grippy compounds aimed at sheer performance.

        If you had a tyre war this year the cars would automatically be 2+ seconds a lap faster (As happened when tyre wars began in 1997 & 2001) as the tyre suppliers would instantly have to go after pure performance via softer, gripper, compounds & this would push each of them along just like you see with other aspects of F1.

        You would also get rid of this recent nonsense where the FIA are having to ‘baby’ the tyres with mandated absurdly high pressures etc.. for the 1st time ever in the history of F1 because the sole tyre supplier can’t even guarantee its own produce & don’t see much reason to change them because without competition there simply isn’t a need to as teams have nowhere else to go.

  4. I’m amazed that Pirelli are continuing with this thankless task, but glad they are doing so (assuming they still intend to do away with the design-to-degrade rubber). Can’t imagine there are many companies willing to put their reputation on the line in the name of entertainment in the same way they have.

    1. @jackysteeg Absolutely. I don’t exactly envy them no matter how ‘prestigious’ their status as official F1 supplier is supposed to be.

    2. @jackysteeg In each tender process Pirelli were the only tyre supplier that even considered going along with the design to degrade philosophy.
      Michelin the others that were involved in the 2010 tender process refused immediately & the main reason nobody other than Michelin have considered F1 since is because of that.

      Something that Is actually quite astounding when you think about it is that Pirelli won the contract with support from only 1 person (Bernie). Every team, every Driver & even the FIA wanted Michelin to get the deal & most were quite open about it including in meetings where Pirelli were present in which the teams told the Pirelli representatives face to face that they didn’t like or trust there product & the drivers later said the same thing.
      I have heard from more than a few people that it was expected that Pirelli would withdraw there tender in the face of such opposition & many within F1 are actually quite annoyed that they didn’t & are expecting Pirelli’s ‘better’ tyres for 2017 to not actually be any different, Especially since Pirelli are continuing to insist there tyres be ‘babied’ as much as they currently are.

  5. Right then what is this time requirement for FIA. Running a Degrading tire which should be no less than 35 PSI on front and rear’s just to challenge drivers and Will Pirelli accept that or will they say that they can’t design a tire no less than 50PSI because less than that will become safety issue

  6. Did they even go to tender

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