Ahead of the season-opening race in Melbourne, Formula One's sole tyre supplier Pirelli has announced that it will supply teams with the same compounds it brought to Melbourne's Albert Park circuit last year.

The 75th FIA Formula 1 World Championship is about to get underway in Australia, in Melbourne’s Albert Park to be precise, home to a semi-permanent street circuit. The race in the capital of the State of Victoria marks the start of a long 24 race season, this record number having been reached for the first time last year and between now and the weekend of 5 to 7 December, Formula 1 will visit five continents.

Having “softened up” its compound choices last year, Pirelli has confirmed the same three compounds for the opening round of 2025, with the trio of C3 as Hard, C4 as Medium and C5 as Soft.

However, compared to a year ago, the tyres themselves have evolved in terms of the characteristics of both construction and compound. The former has been slightly modified to handle the increased aerodynamic loads likely to be generated by the final version of the current generation of cars.

As for the latter, the C3, the most versatile in terms of balance and degradation, is substantially the same as the version used for the previous two seasons, while the C4 has been modified to reduce the possibility of graining on the tread surface, as well as minimising degradation, something that has also been applied to the C5 in order to expand its use as a suitable race tyre.

A fortnight ago, in the Bahrain pre-season test, the C3 did the most work, completing over two thirds of the total mileage. eams and drivers therefore have plenty of data relating to this tyre, which is quite similar to last year’s, although they will have to take into account that the Sakhir track surface has very different characteristics to the one they will encounter in Albert Park, which explains why in Australia the C3 is the Hard, while when the championship gets to Bahrain, it will be the Soft.

Strategy

Last year, the most popular strategy was a two-stop, with the Hard doing most of the work, completing 80% of all the laps, with an average stint length of 22 laps. Only three drivers opted to start on the Soft, with a longest stint of seven laps, while two drivers lined up on Hard tyres, making the Medium compound the most popular tyre on the grid, with 15 starters.

Graining made its unwelcome presence felt over the weekend, although it never really compromised tyre performance. Albert Park could be the first real test to see if the changes made, especially to the C4 and C5, will produce the expected results.