Breaking news
Formula 1
Pirelli back-up compounds designed to be like 2016 tyres
Pirelli's back-up compounds for the 2017 Formula 1 season are designed to be similar to last year's high-degradation tyres, the Italian firm has indicated.
Jamie Klein
Edited: Feb 17, 2017, 3:51 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
When Pirelli announced its compound choices for the first races of the 2017 campaign, it revealed it had created a range of back-up tyres, made using “more traditional criteria” than its new rubber.
This year’s wider tyres are designed to degrade less and allow drivers to push harder over a race distance, unlike the rubber which has been used since 2011 that was introduced to spice up the show.
Speaking during Pirelli’s launch event in Turin this week, Pirelli F1 racing manager Mario Isola confirmed that the back-up tyres had been created along the lines of its previous products, and would therefore degrade thermally when pushed.
He did however state Pirelli currently has “no intention” of bringing the tyres into use, and that agreement with the FIA and the teams would be needed for them to come into play.
**“**We decided to start the season with compounds that are completely new – a new philosophy which was in line with what’s required, less degradation,” Isola told Motorsport.com.
“We made our assumption on the fact that the new cars are achieving the level of performance seen in the simulations.
“If for any reason we don’t reach this level of performance, less energy going into the tyre, we’ll need to go back to tyres with more of a classical philosophy.
“We have one range of back-up compounds homologated that we can use to replace the base compounds. This would be a discussion we would need to have with the teams and the FIA to agree the process to introduce these.
“But we have no intention to use these at the moment.”
Asked specifically if the back-up tyres would degrade thermally as previously, Isola replied: “Yes, because the back-up compounds are more similar to the old generation – more degradation, faster warm-up.
“They are not harder or softer, the hardness is similar. But with the new compounds we try to have a wider working range, a completely different philosophy.”
Pirelli "has an idea" of late-season downforce levels
Isola also stressed that Pirelli took into account the anticipated increase in downforce levels throughout the season when developing its new tyres, with the rate of development among teams expected to be high.
“We asked the teams for their simulations not only for the beginning of the year, but the end of the year,” he continued.
“If I look at the simulations for the start of the year, the values coming from different teams are quite close [to each other].
“Looking at the values for the end of the year that take into account the rate of development, it’s a bit wider. But we keep this communication [with the teams], we have an idea.”
Pascal Wehrlein, Mercedes AMG F1 testing the new 2017 Pirelli tyres
Photo by: Pirelli
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article F1 teams back active suspension return
Next article Williams "promised" Bottas release to top F1 team
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jamie Klein
Super Formula Fuji: Ayumu Iwasa wins as Kakunoshin Ohta misses chance to seal title
Super Formula
Super Formula
Fuji II
1 mo
Super Formula Fuji: Ayumu Iwasa wins as Kakunoshin Ohta misses chance to seal title
Super Formula Fuji: Igor Fraga wins while Kakunoshin Ohta closes on title
Super Formula
Super Formula
Fuji II
1 mo
Super Formula Fuji: Igor Fraga wins while Kakunoshin Ohta closes on title
Latest news
Carson Hocevar and Cleetus McFarland win LeMullets 2026 in epic finish
General
Misc General 4 h
Carson Hocevar and Cleetus McFarland win LeMullets 2026 in epic finish
TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
10 h
TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale
Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Homestead
11 h
Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Formula 1
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe