Pirelli still "misses data on C6" compound ahead of its debut

Ahead of the potential introduction of a new tyre compound for the 2025 F1 season, Pirelli's motorsport director Mario Isola reckons that the Italian company is still eager to gather further data on the C6 rubber.

Pirelli revealed earlier this year that it has been assessing whether a compound that is even softer than the current softest of its five-compound range, the C5 tyre could add to the excitement of races in the future.

Pirelli has already performed on-track test outings with the brand-new C6 compound, having first tried out the potentially softest rubber of the 2025 tyre range with Ferrari at Paul Ricard. Since then, The aim with the introduction of a new, softer compound is to bring variety into the race strategies.

The Italian tyre supplier hosted an extensive test session in the second free practice session at the Mexico City Grand Prix when the entire running was given over to validating the softer compounds in Pirelli’s 2025 range (C4, C5 and C6).

Despite the test sessions with the C6 compound, Pirelli's motorsport director Mario Isola reckoned that the Milan-based tyre manufacturer has not fully sure about the performance of the new rubber, and therefore it is yet to decide where the brand-new compound could be used.

"That's a good question. I would like to wait for the Abu Dhabi post-season test. We still miss a few data on the C6. It is important to underline that we have to homologate the compound if we want to use it, but we are not obliged to use it.

"So I prefer to have the flexibility to have a C6 in the range that is mainly for street circuit. I can imagine, for example, Las Vegas, just to give you a name that is not Monaco, because otherwise everybody is just mentioning Monaco. We have more and more street circuit in the calendar. having the flexibility to have a C6 could be useful.

"And we are not obliged to select, let's say, three consecutive compounds. So if we realise that, for example, the C6 could be good in some circuit, but close to the C5, we can also decide to nominate C3, C4, and C6 and skip one level.

"So this is giving us a bit more flexibility. We are going to discuss with the teams and with the FIA a draft allocation for next year, as we always do. And I'm happy to have this flexibility, honestly," concluded Isola.