Pirelli explains the reason for late change to minimum tyre pressure

Following a late change to the minimum tyre pressures, Pirelli's motorsport director Mario Isola explained that the Milan-based tyre supplier elected to make changes due to the unexpected improvement in lap times.

Due to the condensed nature of a sprint weekend, drivers complete two important sessions on Saturday. The opening one was the F1 Shanghai Sprint which was won by Ferrari's seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, who took his maiden sprint victory.

It was a Saturday of firsts today in Shanghai. This morning, at his 19th attempt, Lewis Hamilton took his first win in a Sprint race, as did his new team, Ferrari. In the afternoon, at his 48th attempt, Oscar Piastri tasted the delights of claiming his very first pole position.

After a break of just three hours, drivers were back in their cars to complete the main qualifying for Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix. While the sprint qualifying was won by Hamilton, the main qualifying saw McLaren's Oscar Piastri claim his first pole position for a grand prix. Interestingly, the last time McLaren was on pole in Shanghai dates back to 2008, courtesy of Hamilton. Piastri is the fifth Australian to take an F1 pole, after Jack Brabham, Alan Jones, Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo.

En route to his maiden F1 pole position, Piastri set the best ever lap at the Shanghai International Circuit, beating Hamilton's benchmark from yesterday's sprint qualifying which which the seven-time F1 champion usurped Sebastian Vettel's previous record.

Due to the extreme improvement in lap time, Pirelli elected to raise the minimum tyre pressure from Saturday. The Italian tyre supplier's motorsport director Mario Isola explained that it was "logical" for Pirelli to make sure that the high loads do not lead to any safety issues.

“A day of records. In qualifying we saw yesterday’s lap times beaten and in the Sprint, taking into account the stint from today’s winner compared to the same event last year, we saw lap times over four seconds faster, even though temperatures were significantly higher.

"From one year to the next, we therefore see a huge increase in performance, much greater than that based on simulations going into this race, which it should be noted, are based on data received from all the teams. It was therefore absolutely logical to raise the minimum pressures for the start, by one psi on each axle.

The 19-lap sprint race provided teams and drivers with a first impression regarding the tyre behaviour that could define the Chinese Grand Prix.

After the sole practice session had indicated that front graining would emerge as a limiting factor, it was no surprise to see all drivers start the 100km dash on a set of Mediums. Managing graining in the only real opportunity to evaluate the tyres over a long run was the dominant theme of the 19 laps, with quite noticeable differences, not just between teams but also between drivers in the same cars.

Pirelli noted that 'there was slightly more graining today than yesterday, which accelerated wear, but in fact the data gathered from the Sprint meant all the teams were able to change their set-up.' How that affects tyre behaviour will be seen tomorrow in the race.

As for strategy, Isola stated: "the level of degradation leads us to suggest that a two-stop is obligatory, featuring the Medium and the Hard. Although the new Soft is fairly close to the Medium in terms of performance, we don’t think it’s a valid choice, even if it could offer more grip off the start line.

"In fact, those starting near the back might go for the Hard to extend the first stint as long as possible, before making up places in the run of pit stops.

"What we can be sure of is that everything would seem to be in place to deliver an uncertain and exciting race. In yesterday’s Sprint Qualifying, we saw the top three covered by just 80 thousandths, while today it was 82: a further indication of just how close it all is in Formula 1 in the early part of the 2025 season.”