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TYRES ON THE
TRACK
* The new C1 makes its debut at the first race of the season in Sakhir. This
year, Pirell has expanded the range of available compounds to six, with
three still chosen for every race. The brand new C1 compound fills the gap
between the hardest C0 (used as the C1 in 2022) and the C2, which is
unchanged from last year.
* At the Bahrain Grand Prix, C1 will be the P Zero White hard, C2 will be
the P Zero Yellow medium and C3 will be the P Zero Red soft. The teams will
have at their disposal two sets of hard tyres, three sets of mediums, and
eights sets of soft per car, as well as the usual allocation of Cinturato
intermediate and full wet tyres.
* The Bahrain International Circuit features some of the most abrasive
asphalt of the year while the track – consisting of low to medium speed
corners – mainly places traction and braking demands on the tyres. The
layout also requires a good level of stability at the rear of the car.
* The wide range of temperatures is a factor to take into consideration.
Asphalt temperatures can reach 45 degrees centigrade during the day,
dropping by at least 15 degrees as evening falls. FP2, qualifying and the
race – which all begin at 18:00 – will therefore be run in very different
conditions to the remaining sessions, which take place in the early
afternoon.
* The Bahrain Grand Prix takes place on a circuit surrounded by the Sakhir
desert. Wind can sometimes blow sand onto the track, affecting the grip
levels during the sessions. The support races include Formula 2 and Formula
3, with the resulting rubber laid down influencing track evolution.
* Tyre degradation will be a key factor when it comes to deciding the
strategy. Last season, all the drivers bar one stopped three times (rather
than the anticipated two-stopper) due to a late-race safety car. The winner
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) carried out his first two stints on the soft,
before swapping to the medium. The safety car allowed him to put the soft
back on for the final run to the flag, ahead of his team mate Carlos Sainz. |
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MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR
RACING
“The first race of the championship will be an important test bench to
validate all the development work we have carried out last year, which
allowed us to further improve the structure of the tyres and introduce a new
compound. Our latest C1 will make its debut at Sakhir: an entirely new
compound based on last year’s C2, which allows us to reduce the performance
gap between the harder compounds in the range. We expect it to be a valid
option for the race this weekend as well. The ‘undercut’ is often pivotal to
the Bahrain Grand Prix, so it will be interesting to see how the teams make
use of this new element in the trio of compounds that are nominated for
Sakhir.”.
OTHER PIRELLI NEWS
The World Rally Championship – another series officially equipped by Pirelli
– has got underway, with Toyota’s defending champion Kalle Rovanpera winning
in Monte-Carlo and Ott Tanak triumphing for M-Sport Ford in Sweden on only
his second WRC event in the car.
The Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli launched its 2023
season on the Bathurst circuit in Australia, resulting in the fastest race
in the history of the 12 Hours, with a record number of laps completed and
the winning Mercedes crossing the line less than a second ahead of the
Porsche that was runner-up. Bike legend Valentino Rossi topped FP2 before
finishing sixth in the race with his BMW team mates. |
