Pirelli pushes teams to a two-stop at Austrian GP

Formula One's tyre manufacturer intends to motivate teams to execute a two-stop strategy at this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix by providing the teams with a step softer tyre allocation.

For the first race at the Red Bull Ring, known as the Steiermark Grand Prix, the Milan-based tyre supplier nominated the middle of its 2021 range with the C2 compond serving as the P Zero White hard, C3 as the P Zero Yellow medium, and the C4 as the P Zero Red soft.

In the past, this has been a one-stop race on paper – apart from the occasions when a safety car has prompted drivers to take a ‘free’ pit stop. This proved to be the right prediction as the majority of the field completed the Steiermark Grand Prix with a single stop. However, the softer nomination for this weekend could push teams closer to a two-stopper for the Austrian Grand Prix.

At the Austrian Grand Prix, held just one weekend later on an identical track, P Zero White hard will be the C3, P Zero Yellow medium will be the C4 and P Zero Red soft will be the C5: the softest combination in the Pirelli range.

Commenting on the tyre nomination for the Spielberg Grand Prix, Pirelli's Head of F1 and Car Racing Mario Isola said: “Once again after last year Austria hosts a back-to-back race, which means that the teams have plenty of data on this track and recent experience of how to deal with its particular challenges and tactics.

"However, having two different tyre nominations is a first for the Red Bull Ring, so it’s going to be interesting to see how the teams get to grips with the softest C5 tyres for the second race weekend – and how the new selection influences strategy in order to create different opportunities compared to the preceding Steiermark Grand Prix," Isola concluded.