Pirelli will use different colours on 2011 tyres

[imightbewrong]

For 2011, all F1 tires will have the words “Pirelli P Zero” written on the sidewall, but the color of the writing will change based on the compound, as follows: the super-soft wording will reportedly be in red, the soft will be in white, the medium in blue and the hard in yellow.

In addition to that, the full wet and intermediate tires will also feature different colors, with the former having the “Pirelli P Zero” mark painted in yellow and the latter in red.

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/pirel ... 29938.html

Hope it looks better than that horrid green color. I wonder if it will be easy to spot the markings..

[f136]

Jan.20 Pirelli will use a colorful method to visibly differentiate its tyre compounds at grands prix this year. A few years ago, the FIA said sole supplier Bridgestone must differentiate the appearance of the 'hard' and 'soft' options at races.

With the grooved tyres, the Japanese marque painted a line in a middle groove of the soft options, and when slicks returned in 2009 the soft Bridgestones featured a green circle on the sidewall.

According to Italian sources, F1's new sole supplier Pirelli has come up with a different approach to conform with the same rule in 2011.

A report in the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat claims that each compound with have the words 'Pirelli P Zero' painted in different colours on the sidewall.

The super-soft wording will reportedly be in red, the soft will be in white, the medium in blue and the hard in yellow.

Meanwhile, the sidewall colourings of the full wet tyre will be yellow, and the intermediates red.

After four floodlit nights in Abu Dhabi that concluded this week, Pirelli said it is now ready for the forthcoming group tests and the season.

But the marque's research and development boss Maurizio Boiocci admitted that one unknown factor is how the tyres will be affected by the additional speed delivered by KERS and adjustable rear wings.

"If the speed came on gradually, for sure there would be no problems," he said. "But it remains to be seen what happens when all the power comes on suddenly."

Pirelli test driver Pedro de la Rosa told Spain's Marca newspaper that he thinks Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton will adapt best to the new tyres in 2011.

"Changes like this always benefit the best ones, and the best ones are Hamilton and Alonso," he said.

"But I don't think the changing of tyres brands will be a big problem for anyone."

Meanwhile, it has emerged that - so that no drivers or teams are favoured - the FIA will distribute Pirelli's tyres to the teams after randomly shuffling the code numbers at grands prix.

[NewtonMeter]

Very cool...

[Holm86]

Thats awsome news ....

I was hoping they would use red and yellow for the prime and option but a seperate colour for all compounds is even better

[Nebhotep]

My first thought is it could be a little confusing for those who don't watch F1 regularly, at least at the beggining.What was wrong with the previous solution?Otherwise, I'm curious to see it in action.

[Just_a_fan]

It will be interesting to see who does well on the new tyres. Interesting that they reckon Alonso will adapt quickly; one of the reasons given for his early season struggle with Hamilton was that Alonso was trying to get to grips with the switch to Bridgestones from Michelins.

Of course, with everyone switching tyres they'll all be in the same situation and Alonso might well shine. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing how each of the various driver pairings gets on with the Pirellis. For example, will Button prefer them or Hamilton; will Vettel prefer them or Webber etc.?

We might also see some driver pairing strengths reversing - imagine if Massa loves the new tyres but Alonso doesn't. That could be fun for a few races (for Massa fans anyway).

Will also be interesting to see if the reported changes to the fronts will benefit Michael as discussed elsewhere.

[Just_a_fan]

My first thought is it could be a little confusing for those who don't watch F1 regularly, at least at the beggining.What was wrong with the previous solution?Otherwise, I'm curious to see it in action.

If they're not regular watchers then I don't see why the sport should cater too hard for them. If they find tyre colours too difficult then they'll struggle with many others aspects of the sport impossible to understand. They're probably better off watching something simple like football!

The problem with the previous system is that it was an afterthought. It didn't tell you what the tyres were just that one was softer than the other. The new system means that even if you've missed the info about what tyres Pirelli have been taken to the circuit, you can immediately see what options are available.

[flattyre]

tbh, the people that don't watch F1 regularly won't be wondering what tyre compounds the drivers are using most of them will be watching just for the action.

I like this idea, nothing wrong with adding some more colour to the grid. The only problem I have is that the yellow writing might not be used so often

[raymondu999]

I'd have just preferred differing colors for prime/option tbh

[ringo]

I like the idea. We should be able to see the colours clearly when the wheels are spinning right?

[raymondu999]

I think the colors will blur so that we just see them as kind of blurred red/yellow/blue colors on the tyres.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

I think its a good move. Some cars will perform better/worse in relation to others on specific tyres. We will now be able to see that without the commentator needing to say(which they usually dont).

Basically more information to the man in the street.

[ESPImperium]

I think the colors will blur so that we just see them as kind of blurred red/yellow/blue colors on the tyres.

Think you have it more or less the way they want it to work.

I think its a great move as this means you will have more of a performance differenciator accross the board with the tyres. Thinking that they have changed the compound of the front tyres a little from one that is strong on the turn in even on the mid corner and weaker on the exit to ones that are a little bit more aggressive on the turn in and more even on the exit. Also they have also adjusted some compounds a little as well, especially the medium as the teams wanted a tyre that gave some performance back after the tyre started to go off a little, something more akin to the Bridgestone Potenza tyre that were used to.

I have confedence in what Pirelli are gonna do, Its going to be good for the sport, make the strategy folk work for their money. If refueling was back in the form that the NASCAR, GT2 guys and DTM refueled with the shoulder tank that held 25 litres, things could be really interesting if there was a standardised fuel tank and made refuling a seprate stop to tyres.

But im not gonna go on about my ideal formula for strategy.

Im just looking to see what the Pirelli guys come up with for the season ahead.

[andrew]

Very good idea indeed.

I remember years ago that Bridgestone were supposedly looking into offering colour coded tyres to match each teams sponsorship. pity nothing came of it.

[Racewatcher]

I think it's agreat idea. Lots of times we know that the cars are on the option or the prime, but aren't sure which compound is being used for a particular circuit. The only issue now is that the wets and the dry's use the same colours. What happens when conditions are changing, and drivers pit quickly to go from red intermediates to red super softs?

I know the difference between wets and slicks, but this could be confusing at a glance or from some camera angles.