Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Red Bull Ring, 2021

Pirelli to test new rear tyres next week

2021 Styrian Grand Prix

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Pirelli will bring a new specification of rear tyre for Formula 1 teams to test at the Austrian Grand Prix next week.

Formula 1’s official tyre supplier said the decision had been taken in conjunction with F1 and the FIA to test the revised rubber in first practice for the second race at the Red Bull Ring next week.

The tyres are being tested in reaction to the failures suffered by Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix earlier this month. Both drivers suffered failures of theor left-rear C3 compound tyres.

“This decision has been taken in addition to the recently issued technical directive and the latest starting parameters prescribed by Pirelli, in light of the fact that it is not currently possible to monitor running conditions in real time,” said Pirelli in a statement.

“This will remain the case until next year, when standard Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) sensors will be introduced across all teams.”

Drivers will be provided with two sets of the new tyres for use in either of the first two practice sessions. Pirelli hopes to introduce the revised constructions in time for the following round on the calendar, the British Grand Prix.

Silverstone is one of the most demanding tracks on the calendar for tyre use. The C3 compound has been nominated as the soft tyre for that round.

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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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9 comments on “Pirelli to test new rear tyres next week”

  1. RandomMallard (@)
    25th June 2021, 17:32

    2013 all over again? Will it benefit the dominant team underperforming in the first half of the season (Merc now, RB in 2013), or will it just benefit RB again. We will have to wait.

    1. @randommallard It wrecked a season that was pretty epic up until then. I hope it doesn’t do the same now.

  2. oventry Climax
    25th June 2021, 18:07

    “No, no, there is nothing wrong with our product, it’s all due to misuse by the teams.”
    “We will bring a revised, sturdier tyre next week.”
    “Hopefully we can introduce it just before the very grandprix that last year, our otherwise perfect product was not up to.”
    “Just to help Mercedes? You’d have to ask mr. Todt about that. No, actually, that’s just a coincidence.”

    What a farce.

  3. Coventry Climax
    25th June 2021, 19:14

    Maybe my previous comment will still pass the filter, so on the risk of saying things twice: While Pirelli says their product is not at fault, that it is the teams that misuse their tyres, they do now come up with a new tyre? And also just in time for the British GP, where Mercedes suffered tyre problems last time, and Pirelli also claimed there was nothing inherently wrong with their tyres?
    So again, because Mercedes have problems with the tyres, they just change the specs mid season?
    F1 has become a comedy show. But maybe that was to be expected with the americans coming in.

    As far as I know, there was nothing wrong with my first reply. You have my email address, can you explain please what was wrong with it?

    1. In this instance, that there were a lot of ” marks in the post, which automatically makes it look suspicious for HTML (increasing the chance it could be spam or even something malicious) – it just throws it into a moderation queue to be looked at.

      1. Great to see an answer; weird that quotation marks can trigger this.
        Blaming HTML sounds a bit Pirelliesque though.

        I suggest whitelisting all established and registered contributors.

    2. Probably the C was missing from the name

  4. Since there was not enough time to develop a new tyre thread since Baku, can we assume that this new spec is that 2019-spec that teams voted against?

    Pirelli was working on a more robust construction at the time, but teams voted against the introduction of it. Maybe due to the cascade of setup changes that would come along.

    FIA decided to trim rear downforce down in 2021 to ease the load on the rear tyres. It wasn’t enough, it seems.

  5. If they go horribly wrong just like Baku, calls to get Pirelli out will increase by a ton.

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