2016 F1 tyre regulations and race allocations

The 2016 regulations stipulate that Formula One's official tyre supplier, Pirelli, makes three out of its five tyre compounds available at each Grand Prix, allocated following the company's judgement of the most suitable sets and following consultation with the FIA.

Just like in 2015, the total number of tyre sets available for each car is 13, of which some have to be returned after as the weekend progresses. Also unchanged is that each driver will have to use at least two different tyre compounds during the race itself.

However, while the two compounds were previously the same for all cars, this choice is now partly up to the teams.

Of the 13 sets, Pirelli selects two sets that must be available during the race, and another one, the softest of the three, to be reserved for Q3.

The other 10 sets are free to choose for teams among the three compounds allocated by Pirelli. Teams have to specify which sets they want for each car beforehand, a choice that may differ among its two cars. If a team fails to do so in time (eight weeks before the start of a European event, and 14 weeks before a non-European race), they will automatically be given three sets of the harder, 4 sets of the middle and 3 sets of the softer compound tyres.

Below are the tyres that Pirelli has announced to make available in the 2016 F1 Championship races: