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Formula One’s tyre supplier Pirelli is set to introduce new ‘tougher’ specification of tyres from British Grand Prix amid extraordinary pace by the teams. The teams will test the new spec during Friday practice at the Spanish Grand Prix. The current specification of tyres will be in use at the five races, before the British Grand Prix at Silverstone from July 7-9. They were designed using the projection of expected performance levels provided by the teams before the season.
Across the five opening races of the season, Formula 1 has witnessed a consistent leap forward in lap times. Despite the floor regulations during last weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, Sergio Perez’s pole position was two seconds faster than that of last year. The International Automobile Federation (FIA) has given its approval to Pirelli to introduce a new specification of tyre that will be expected to deal with higher loads. Pirelli’s Head of Motorsport Mario Isola has confirmed the testing of the new specification of tyres.
He said, “We’ve seen how much more performance the 2023 cars have compared to last year throughout the opening races of this season, and that is thanks to the extraordinary pace of development shown by all 10 of the teams.” He further added, “The new specification contains materials that we have already developed for 2024, which will make the tyres more resistant without affecting any of the other technical parameters or their behaviour on track. To allow all the teams to test the new construction on a level playing field, Pirelli will supply two extra tire sets per car to be used during FP1 and FP2 at the Spanish Grand Prix.”
Notably, the FIA made the changes “for safety reasons without notice or delay.” However, there are no concerns over the safety of the current tyre specification in Imola, Monaco, Spain, Canada and Austria, but the changes are made to ensure safety later in the campaign.
