Pirelli will supply the soft and medium tyres for the first Formula One race in Russia.
F1’s official tyre supplier tends to bring a more conservative selection for the first race at a new track.
Though it is common for them to select the softest compounds for temporary circuits and street tracks – as at Monaco, Canada and next week’s Singapore Grand Prix – they have chosen to go one step harder for the inaugural race at the Sochi International Street Circuit.
Pirelli has also chosen its tyres for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, which as last year will be the medium and hard compounds.
2014 tyre selections so far
| Circuit | 2014 Option | 2014 Prime | 2013 Option | 2013 Prime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melbourne | Soft | Medium | Super Soft | Medium |
| Sepang | Medium | Hard | Medium | Hard |
| Shanghai | Soft | Medium | Soft | Medium |
| Bahrain | Soft | Medium | Soft | Hard |
| Catalunya | Medium | Hard | Medium | Hard |
| Monte-Carlo | Super Soft | Soft | Super Soft | Soft |
| Montreal | Super Soft | Soft | Super Soft | Medium |
| Red Bull Ring | Super Soft | Soft | n/a | n/a |
| Silverstone | Medium | Hard | Medium | Hard |
| Hockenheimring | Super Soft | Soft | n/a | n/a |
| Hungaroring | Soft | Medium | Soft | Medium |
| Spa-Francorchamps | Soft | Medium | Medium | Hard |
| Monza | Medium | Hard | Medium | Hard |
| Singapore | Super Soft | Soft | Super Soft | Medium |
| Suzuka | Medium | Hard | Medium | Hard |
| Sochi | Soft | Medium | n/a | n/a |
2014 F1 season
- Fear of rules change led Mercedes to run dominant 2014 engine in “idle mode”
- Bianchi’s fight for life ends nine months after Japanese Grand Prix crash
- Mercedes’ Bahrain battle “too dangerous” – Warwick
- Streiff’s comments on Bianchi crash investigation prompts legal action from FIA
- Is stewarding improving? Analysing 2014’s penalties
Image © Pirelli/Hone
LATG (@lotus-grosjean)
11th September 2014, 15:38
Ok this is just my opinion, but I think the tyres play an important role on the first impression of a new track.
If the tyre selections are too conservative for this Sochi International Street Circuit and produce a boring race, a lot will say something like ‘the track is boring’, ‘we shouldn’t have a second race here’, ‘Valencia 2.0’ …
But we also have had some boring races at old-school tracks. There’re a lot of factors that could determine how a race goes so it might not be a good idea to the judge the quality of the circuit right on its debut.
Hopefully we will have an interesting race.
hobo (@hobo)
11th September 2014, 16:24
@lotus-grosjean – A lot of factors go into making a race boring and tyres are just one of them. But no tyres were going to make Valencia worth watching. Webber doing a backflip, Kobayashi diving under people at the last turn, Schumacher getting a podium on his return, none of that made it worth watching. I predict Sochi will be a horrible Korea-Valencia reboot and tyres will not be a factor in that. Hope I’m wrong, don’t think I am.
OEL F1 (@oel-f1)
12th September 2014, 9:33
@hobo
Honestly, didn’t you watch the race there in 2012? That was one of the greatest races I’ve ever seen!
pastaman (@)
12th September 2014, 13:29
+1
Jules Winfield (@jules-winfield)
11th September 2014, 22:02
The tyres were very conservative for the first race in Austin and that was great (helped by the lack of grip).
Formula Indonesia (@)
11th September 2014, 15:46
super-soft, medium will make it more interesting, but anyway lets hope we got an exciting race to watch, and also Russian GP will not banned by EU
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
12th September 2014, 17:59
Still think teams should have free reign on what compounds they use.
Would likely make things more competitive as every team could pick the best compounds for there package rather than been handicapped by a compound/s which don’t work for them.
greg-c (@greg-c)
13th September 2014, 15:21
+1+1
Great idea , still use your 2 compunds per race ,
Would you have to pre select or run through the 4 of them in FP ?