2011 Tyre Changes in Formula One
March 19, 2011With the 2011 Formula One season looming on the horizon, I thought it a good idea to write about the changes in Regulation, the first of which will look at Pirelli’s announcement regarding its tyre compounds.
The beginning of the 2011 season sees the transition in sole tyre supply from the Japanese Bridgestone, who decided to move away from Formula One after 14 years at the end of 2010, to the Italian manufacturer Pirelli, with their P-Zero tyres. Pirelli have a pedigree within Formula One, and have served as tyre suppliers to the sport in 1950-58, 1981-86, and again in 1989-91.
Much speculation has been bandied around in the press of late with regard to the durability of the new tyres; whether or not, when negotiating the contract, Herr Ecclestone had insisted that Pirelli manufacture the tyres in such a way that the two different ‘Dry’ compounds were as far apart in terms of performance and durability as was possible.
Little ‘concrete’ information can be taken from the recent rounds of testing, but one thing is becoming increasingly apparent, that there is likely to be more pitstops this season. Does that make for a more exciting season? We shall have to wait and see.
In a move to distinguish the type of tyre being used to the viewing public, Pirelli have announced they will be using different coloured logos on each of the compounds walls. For Dry weather tyres, the logo on the Hard Tyre will be silver, the Medium compound will be white, Soft compounds will carry yellow logos, and the Super-Soft will be red. The Wet tyres meanwhile will carry orange logos on the Full Wet, the Intermediate tyres will cary light blue logos.
Announcing the initiative, Pirelli’s Motorport Director Paul Hembrey said: “These will enable both live and television audiences to tell at a glance who is on what compounds, which will be vital knowledge as tyres are set to form a key part of race strategy this year.”
This may well be the case. The standard during the 2011 season was a one-stop strategy, however teams are estimating that this will increase to at least three stops this season, so those drivers and or cars that can look after their tyres better, look to be at a distinct advantage, even without a wheel yet being turned in anger.
Changes to the 2011 rules (more of which to come later in a later post), mean tyre allocation has been reduced from 14 sets of dry weather tyres per driver, per race weekend, to just 11. Drivers will be allocated three sets (two prime, one option) to use in P1 and P2, a set of which much be returned at the end of each session. Eight further sets will be available to each driver for the remainder of the weekend.
To make things further complicated, the FIA have decreed that there must be a two-compound gap between the available types of dry weather tyre at each race, which basically means that there is no chance that the white and silver coloured logos will confuse viewers, as the hard and medium tyres will never be used in the same weekend.
Again, following on from recent times, each driver must use both types of dry weather tyre during a race, and where a race is declared as wet, they will have a free choice.
Pirelli have already allocated the compounds that will be taken to the first three races of the season; so Australia, Malaysia and China will see the hard and soft compounds, the hard designated as ‘Prime’ and the soft the ‘Option’ tyre.
