Formula One’s official tyre supplier Pirelli says it does not intend to add an eighth tyre compound next year.
Its tyre range has increased from five dry-weather compounds to seven this year following the addition of the hyper-soft and super-hard tyres. Pirelli refers to the latter as a ‘back-up’ and has not nominated it, or the hard tyre, for any races so far.
But Pirelli sporting director Mario Isola revealed they are considering some minor changes to its tyre range based on how its 2018 tyres performed in testing and the first race in Australia.
“I think this year we have had a good range,” he said. “[Some] say too many but we decided to make the super-hard as a back-up so we have a range of six compounds now.”
“Obviously we have to test them, to understand them for future races and to understand if for next year we need not more compounds but to move some of them.
“If, for example, indications are the soft, super-soft and ultra-soft are quite close while between medium and soft you have a good step, between ultra-soft and hyper-soft we have a good step. Maybe we need to have a higher delta between soft, super and ultra.
“That means that for next year we will design compounds to achieve this target, but not to increase the number.”
Don't miss anything new from RaceFans
Follow RaceFans on social media:
Go ad-free for just £1 per month
>> Find out more and sign up
2019 F1 season
- Crying in the Melbourne car park at 2019 grand prix was my career low – Ocon
- McLaren Racing reports reduced £71 million loss in 2019
- Kvyat: Hockenheim podium last year was “my biggest achievement” so far
- How the FIA’s new encrypted fuel flow meter targets Ferrari’s suspected ‘aliasing’ trick
- “He smashed my office door”: 23 must-see moments from ‘Drive to Survive’ season two
Andrey Baydin (@minilemm)
31st March 2018, 12:00
Oh you not fun anymore
GongTong (@gongtong)
31st March 2018, 12:14
Ya think we could not have a fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh compound in 2019 as well?
Always talking about the logistical difficulties of providing the teams with all of the compounds at each circuit, then making more compounds.
I’m pretty sure it’s been said before but I’ll put it in caps for the new bosses:
SOFT. MEDIUM. HARD.
START ON THE TYRE YOU QUALIFY ON.
DO WHAT YOU LIKE.
Jeremy Smith
31st March 2018, 17:26
Perfect I agree 100% keep it simple …
F1 Engineer
3rd April 2018, 10:01
No, I and many others want to know exactly which tire the car is running at all times. There is no advantage to renaming the supersofts the soft one week and then the same exact tire is the hard the next week. Stop being lazy and just learn the tires. If it is too complicated for you maybe rename them a,b,c etc like Goodyear used to do in the past. But if the Merc are blistering a certain type of tire, say the supersoft, I don’t want that tire to be called a different thing every race.
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd April 2018, 11:02
Hey, just to remind you there @gongtong, you are speaking for yourself only (and the fans who say they want the same as you).
I am dead set against everyone starting on the tyre they qualify on. And calling the same tyre differently every other race weekend (which happens when you just use those three names you mention – as F1 Engineer describes) makes far less sense than having seven compounds and nominating the 3 that best fit each track for every race.
Instead I enjoy the better understanding we get from seeing how the tracks demand different tyre compounds.
GongTong (@gongtong)
6th April 2018, 12:41
@bascb apologies for sounding like I felt my opinion was the only one of worth. I may have misinterpreted but I’ve seen in various places what I perceived as a majority in agreement over certain elements of simplification.
The rules I mentioned aren’t necessarily a set I personally think would be ideal, just example of a more streamlined solution. For example, I’m not so bothered about them starting on the qualifying tyre. There are cases where it’s necessary and cases where it’s not.
The point is that there would be a potential for much more interesting and varied strategy if there was less control over what teams can do. Including, of course, changing tyre from Saturday to Sunday.
As for the renaming compounds. That wasn’t what I was calling for. I’m calling for three compounds. Soft, medium and hard. Named as such.
I love strategy as much as any of us, please believe me there. But three compounds should be ample.
Even if the compounds were simply renamed though, I don’t see the issue. The nerds like us will go on the computer and find out which is which. The casual viewer can use the terms soft medium and hard. Nobody needs to suffer there really.
BasCB (@bascb)
8th April 2018, 19:14
Three compounts would mean having a very compromised set of coupounds that would seriously hurt on track action and racing @gongtong.
The differences between what the tracks require are such that with only those three compounds, some at some tracks the only viably tyre (but still not quite soft enough) would be the soft, while at others even the medium is too soft to race on. I am certain that even before winter testing would be over all drivers, teams and the media would be up in arms against giving the teams a wholly unsuitable range for the top level of racing.
glynh (@glynh)
31st March 2018, 12:16
Very bad news, I think the one thing all fans agree is we need more compounds. It’s just to simple this year.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
31st March 2018, 20:43
@glynh – Agree. Very disappointed. 21 races deserves 42 compounds.
Guess we’ll have to keep ourselves entertained by staring deeply into the Todt Thongs racing around the track.
@HoHum (@hohum)
31st March 2018, 22:46
@glynh, It’s a language problem, we’ve run out of words to describe even softer tyres.
F1 Engineer
3rd April 2018, 9:55
Back in the day Goodyear used to bring an A, B, and C compound to every race and almost each race would have different tire compounds and sometimes constructions. What we have now is actually more understandable to the average fan.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
31st March 2018, 12:52
Is a relook – hopefully a significant relook – on the cards for 2021? You know, alongside the whole simplified PU initiative?
It would be nice to get fewer variations of tyre compounds, and instead have races with a larger number of pit stops if required.
Hugh (@hugh11)
31st March 2018, 13:06
Instead, there will be an 8th, 9th, and 10th!
Egonovi
31st March 2018, 13:37
They must have run out of names ;)
Egonovi
31st March 2018, 13:40
On a more serious note: I don’t mind how many compounds they have, as long as they simply call the 3 dry compounds they take to a race: Soft, Medium & Hard.
GongTong (@gongtong)
31st March 2018, 18:00
A friend of mine joked about the “super-duper soft”.
I do also agree Egonovi.
F1 Engineer
3rd April 2018, 9:52
Why? Why must everything be simplified for the simpletons? If the Ferrari’s don’t preform well on the supersoft tires I want to know that the supersoft tires that they are running are the supersoft tires, but not the soft one week and the hards the next and then the mediums a couple races down the schedule. If you are not clever enough to understand which tire is which , the rest of us shouldn’t have to suffer because of that. Maybe a less technical sport is more up your alley, speaking of alleys, may I suggest bowling?
schooner (@schooner)
31st March 2018, 13:39
That’s too bad. I was hoping for a hyper-medium.
Aapje (@aapje)
31st March 2018, 15:07
Or they could do sponsoring deals: viagra-hard
Phylyp (@phylyp)
31st March 2018, 17:35
@aapje – I’d laugh at your very humourous comment, but seeing as how they’ve started doing things like DHL DRS and (something else I forgot*), I’m actually a little fearful that someone might think it “a good idea”!
socksolid (@socksolid)
31st March 2018, 22:03
They could do a compound between soft and medium and call it sloppy.
Dougracing (@dougracing)
31st March 2018, 16:06
Oh no Pirelli, please bring the mega-hyper-soft tyre :(
Sergio Marchionne
31st March 2018, 16:07
That does it. We’re leaving F1.
Vettel fan 17 (@)
31st March 2018, 17:15
Maybe in the meantime they could get rid of a few of them
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
31st March 2018, 17:41
I really don’t see why they need seven compounds. Soft, Medium, Hard, Inter and Wet should be plenty enough.
All this ultra super soft, mega ultra soft… Just a step to far, when almost always softest two get used.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
31st March 2018, 19:28
I really wanted the ultra-hard and the hyper-hard and the super-ultra-mega-hyper soft tyre for 2019 :(
socksolid (@socksolid)
31st March 2018, 21:56
Just call the compounds soft, medium and hard for each race and paint them purple soft, yellow medium and green hard. Simple, elegant and does all it needs to. Purple soft because when a driver goes fastest in sector it is purple colored time.
There is absolutely no point using this current system. If the driver is on a, say, soft compound in a race it tells you nothing useful. The colors are totally useless unless you take time to learn them. Which is faster. Orange or yellow? Exactly. Unless you know what the other tire options are and only then you can know if the driver has tires that are fast or tires that last long. But in three name system the compound name tells you exactly what is going on without having to try to figure out what the other colors are and is the current one softer or harder. In the current system the real medium tire is actually the soft one as it has 3 compounds below it and above it. So it is not just complex and non intuitive but misleading as well.
For all I care pirelli could use 400 tire compounds per season. Just mention that the compounds are little softer in this race. Nobody cares really. But during race weekend there should be three. Soft, medium and hard. Purple, yellow, green. If you need 4th call it super hard and paint it white.
The current system makes just as much sense as if fia started using colors for different sectors of track. Instead of 1st sector you have red sector, middle is blue and 3rd sector is white. Amazing! You could even use different colors for different tracks.
F1 Engineer
3rd April 2018, 10:07
Nope, the different compounds have different temperature ranges, and thus it is important to know exactly which tire compound they are running, and not soft , medium , hard, which varies every race just for the slow thinkers who don’t know their colors.
There are 7 compounds, 2 of which will probably not be used. Is 5 colors really that difficult for you?
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd April 2018, 11:05
Also @socksolid, apart from the point made by F1 Engineer, that would mean Pirelli would have to repaint left over tyres every weekend because the “soft” this weekend could well end up being the “medium” or hard at a next race.
socksolid (@socksolid)
3rd April 2018, 11:11
There are no left over tires. The unused and used left over tires go to shredder after each weekend. Pirelli makes about 45000 tires per season (45 thousand). See here for example:
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/100969/pirelli-no-easy-fix-for-lack-of-running
socksolid (@socksolid)
3rd April 2018, 11:12
@bascb
Here is a better link:
https://www.tyrepress.com/2015/07/pirellis-formula-one-tyre-recycling-commitment/
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd April 2018, 11:48
Yes @socksolid, all tyres that are sent to the track are fitted and then shredded (and indeed their rubber gets recycled). But I am sure that Pirelli manufacturing runs do not exactly copy the amounts they need for every race, so the repainting would have to be done at the factory before shipping to another event (because that is both cheaper but also helps them get shorter reaction times for shipping to races because they can hold a mid season “stock”).
This (being able to produce batches) might well be one of the reasons why Pirelli introduced more transparency (by giving each compound it’s own colour instead of using “main”/”option” or hard/medium/soft names that would be used for different compounds on a race by race basis as was the usus up to then).
If they would want to keep the batch production but call them differently at each track, they would then have to make a seperate step in the process where they store them “unpainted” and only paint them once they are prepared for shipping. But that makes shipping take more time (to allow for the painting) as well as introducing an extra chance for mistakes into the process.
socksolid (@socksolid)
3rd April 2018, 13:42
The tires need to be painted anyways so it doesn’t matter which color they need to be. Bridgestone had no problems painting their tires. Also each tire is individual unit with its own tracking codes and I’m 100% sure when a tire is made pirelli already knows for which race it is for. If a tire fails pirelli needs to know and does know where and when a tire has been in which place in factory/around the world at any given time. 100% standard factory inventory management. Sure they might have some extras in case something happens during transit but those are ear marked to be extras. Every factory around the world that uses any kind of inventory system does this.
They don’t need to store unpainted tires. Or maybe they do. Doesn’t make any difference. Maybe/probably they use machines to paint the color which makes it a total no issue. There is no difference in doing things in batches. They paint them anyways. Just paint in different color. It doesn’t add any time. If anything it makes it easier for them as they have less colors. It doesn’t add any extra steps.
Have you ever worked in factory? When you have something like an production line the automated system tracks the parts in every single step of the way. It tracks every shelf spot the part sits, every worker that does work on the part, every function of every machine. If they don’t do this then when a tire fails they can not go back and fix the problem.
It is color of the paint on a tire. It is not rocket science.
max
31st March 2018, 23:12
Extra soft? Divine soft? Unbelievably soft?
Super medium? Hyper hard?
With so many options we should keep increasing the range with at least 2 new compounds every year.
Driomed
1st April 2018, 13:51
Doesn’t matter how many compounds you have if you pick the wrong ones for the race. Melbourne should have been hyper soft, ultra soft, soft.
Change the rules so that each driver has to use each compound for at least one complete lap (unless it rains).
F1 Engineer
3rd April 2018, 10:14
Yes, in hindsight they should’ve been more aggressive in Melbourne, but they have to be somewhat cautious with unknown downforce levels and unknown weather conditions. Track temps could be anywhere from 40 to 65c.
Wow, can’t believe I’m actually defending pirelli.