Pirelli retains current tyres for Silverstone

F1 Grand Prix, GP Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Pirelli has announced the slick P Zero compounds that will be taken to the next three grands prix in Great Britain, Germany and Hungary. The company also decided the tyre construction will remain unchanged, contrary to Pirelli’s initial plans.

This decision is due to the fact that the new tyres, which were brought to the Friday free practice sessions in Canada, could not be tested sufficiently due to rain – and that the teams failed to agree unanimously about introducing the changes. Instead a change in the tyre production process should now ensure that the delamination issue has been addressed.

At the British Grand Prix the P Zero Orange hard and P Zero White medium tyres have been nominated: the two hardest tyres in Pirelli’s range.

In Germany the P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow soft have been selected. The Nürburgring is a circuit with varied speeds and corners, plus heavy braking areas. The tarmac roughness is very low, so plenty of mechanical grip from the tyres is required. Combined with the often very variable weather conditions.

For Hungary Pirelli will bring the P Zero Orange hard and P Zero White medium compounds. Hungary is the slowest permanent track on the calendar but it still places a lot of demands on the tyres due to its twisty layout, which means that the tyres move around much more than on a fast and flowing track. This combined with often high ambient temperatures require the hardest tyres of the race, given that this year’s compounds are softer than last year’s range across the board.

The rules stipulate that under normal circumstances each team will receive six sets of the harder compound and five sets of the softer compound for the race weekend. Pirelli will also bring its Cinturato Green intermediate tyre for damp track conditions (four sets per driver) as well as the Cinturato Blue rain tyre (three sets per driver) to each race.