“Super-super-super soft” tyre needed for Monaco – Ricciardo

2017 Monaco Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Formula One should use a special, uniquely soft tyre for the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, according to Daniel Ricciardo.

The Red Bull driver said the possibility of having a special ‘Monaco tyre’ was proposed by drivers in a meeting with race director Charlie Whiting as a means of making the races more exciting.

Monaco Grand Prix build-up in pictures
Pirelli has supplied its softest tyres, the ultra-soft, this weekend. Ricciardo is one of six drivers who has chosen the maximum number of ultra-soft sets available.

Ricciardo believes drivers “could get through the race on the same set of tyres” this year.

“We talked about ideally we go softer with compounds, but maybe we have a ‘Monaco tyre’. That would be fun.”

“Then obviously it needs testing and all that. Whether it’s easier said than done I don;’t know but a Monaco-specific tyre would be cool. Like a super-super-super-soft, and you’re inevitably going to make more than one pit stop.”

Massa also believes drivers could make their mandatory pit stop at the end of lap one on Sunday, then complete the rest of the race without another pit stop.

“Especially on this track. So if you have the opportunity to [pit] under the Safety Car and maybe stay in a good position so maybe people will try. That’s a little bit a shame for this race.”

“One stop is definitely not great. I remember we were even talking in the last meeting with Charlie and some drivers were asking maybe Monaco needs to be two stops for everybody then the race would be nice. It would be more fun, maybe something can happen for the strategies, then we can work better also for the show.”

2017 Monaco Grand Prix

    Browse all Monaco Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    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...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    34 comments on ““Super-super-super soft” tyre needed for Monaco – Ricciardo”

    1. Radio message to Alonso: Okay, so, Kimi is faster than you, can you confirm you understood that message?

      1. “Be right back, turning left at 240mph”

        1. Or ” As soon as I finish this left turn I will get back to you”

          1. Or “I’ll get back to you as soon as I get to the right turn…..”

            1. @mad-eric

              Yeah that makes more sense , haha :D

    2. Daniel pursuing career at Pirelli?

    3. So basically…nerf tires. Pure foam…no air.

        1. Lol I’ve seen those before too.

    4. You could take the softest tyre ever created & I don’t think it would make much difference because Monaco has never been that hard on tyres. It always used to be one of the non-stop races in the pre-refueling days & even in the refueling era more often than not I recall that it tended to be a 1-stop race for most of the field.

      As to making more mandatory stops to force 2 stops, I’d rather they not do that. As I’ve said many times in the past I don’t think they should have any mandatory stops at all. If somebody (Or everybody) wants to run non-stop like in the past I honestly have no issue at all with that.

      1. @stefmeister, and in the refuelling era, it was really the fuel tank size that was the limiting factor for how far the teams could go into the race, not the tyres.

        1. @stefmeister From time to time two mandatory pitstops are proposed to create more interesting races if tire wear is low, but I don’t like that. Strategies should come naturally I think. I don’t even like the requirement to pit at least once per race. It may encourage drivers to make the required tire change at the end of the first lap, a strategy that was commonplace in 2010, but it’s even more artificial than DRS I think. However, I fear that without pitstops the race will be very boring too.

    5. Yeah make it onestop… But then who will overtake?

    6. Super-super-super soft, sounds amusing (the name, not the idea).
      Which makes me wonder why the current set of tyres are named as they are. For the enthusiasts it’s pretty clear, ultra soft, then super soft, then soft and so on. But for a casual viewer, such as my mom ( who has been watching f1 since many years, albeit casually), it is hard to understand why the super soft is the harder tyre for a particular race.
      A simpler way could be to rename the tyres as below (and there are many ways to simplify this):
      Ultra soft – softest / super soft
      Super soft – soft
      Soft – medium
      Medium – hard
      Hard. – hardest / super hard

      The names remove any ambiguity, and the medium tyre sits bang in the middle of the 5 tyre hierarchy(which is where it should be logically).

      1. soft
        super soft
        mega soft
        ultra soft
        maximum soft

        1. Soft
          Super Soft
          Ultra Soft
          Baby Skin
          Charmin Toilet Paper

        2. soft
          super soft
          ultra soft
          mega soft
          giga soft
          tera soft
          peta soft
          exa soft

          1. @addvariety

            zetta soft
            yotta soft, etc..&c.


          2. Supersoft
            Ultra Soft
            Floppy Soft
            Flabby Soft
            Melted Soft
            Liquid Soft
            Invisible Soft

            1. OMG :D

        3. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
          24th May 2017, 21:25

          super street tyre 2 turbo

          1. You, sir, owe me a new keyboard. One’s that not got coffee on it.

        4. Milk
          Cream
          Yogurt
          Philadelphia
          Butter
          Curated cheese

          For the quali: marmalad

      2. The tires should just have numbers in a series reflecting relative softness. Any names are going to be confusing. Also, the names make them sound like variations of toilet paper.

    7. Anda having all of the drivers fighting for position on track is bad? Sure it is Monaco, but well sort it out lads

      1. @johnmilk That’d be ideal. But history tells us overtaking is exceptionally rare, unless there’s rain (or some bloke called Max Verstappen starting from the back).

        1. I mean… “that guy”. (c) Lewis Hamilton

        2. Just take all of these little shortcuts that they have, in no time we will see them starting to risk it a bit more.

          Verstappen btw as to stay long enough on the race, is yet to have a trouble free day at Monaco

    8. They should just call the tyres “prime”, “option” and “quali”. The casual viewer would understand this.
      Then if people (mainly hardcore fans) really care, pirelli can just publish which compounds are chosen for each of the three standard designations as a side note.

      1. @eurobrun That’d be even more confusing, especially for the casual viewer! Soft/hard/medium is something everybody understands, the prefix is what makes it (more) difficult since the casual viewer might not know there’s such a thing as an ultra soft, super soft and soft to begin with. That’s why, for the casual viewer, there are 3 compounds per weekend, from the 5 available. So one race you might have the following (compound – naming):
        ultra soft – soft
        super soft – medium
        medium – hard

        And the next race, it might be:
        super soft – soft
        medium – medium
        hard – hard

        I understand what the difference would be between prime, option and quali, but that’s even more difficult to explain.

      2. @eurobrun Do ‘casual viewers’ even care about different tyre compounds in the first place? I don’t think it’s patronising to suggest they probably don’t.

        1. From my experience with the peasents they actually care. Probably because they see the colours, I don’t know. But I’ve been asked why the difference in stint duration and what sort of tactics a team can use.

          I would agree with @eurobrun though, we could have just 3 tyre names amd that would be more than enough

    9. GtisBetter (@)
      24th May 2017, 21:52

      I thought we all told pirelli to stop making those tyres. Make up your mind f1 drivers…

    Comments are closed.