Formula 1 tyre supplier, Pirelli will bring in a tougher compound for the British Grand Prix and the rest of the 2023 season.
The Italian manufacturer has been amazed by the development rate after the opening five races of the season.
Teams have been progressing much quicker than pre-season data suggested.
There are no fears of tyre failures that have blighted the sport in recent years. However, Pirelli feel it’s their best interests, with performance likely to increase throughout the rest of the season.
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The teams will test out the new tyres in first and second practice at the Spanish Grand Prix. That race weekend starts on Friday 2nd June.
Confirming on Friday Pirelli’s head of car racing and F1 Mario Isola said:
“We’ve seen how much more performance the 2023 cars have compared to last year throughout the opening races of this season, and that is thanks to the extraordinary pace of development shown by all 10 of the teams.
“The new specification contains materials that we have already developed for 2024, which will make the tyres more resistant without affecting any of the other technical parameters or their behaviour on track.
“To allow all the teams to test the new construction on a level playing field, Pirelli will supply two extra tyre sets per car to be used during FP1 and FP2 at the Spanish Grand Prix.”
Credit: Tyrepress
Learning from past mistakes
Formula 1 is no stranger to tyre issues in its history. A series of failures at the inaugural Qatar GP in 2021 left people doubting Pirelli.
“Any small debris, any kerb can cause a small puncture, and losing air then the tyre, when it’s broken, is not able to sustain the high level of energy that these cars are putting on the tyres.“We need to understand why the loss of pressure, so we need to investigate what happened before.” said Mario Isola to Autosport after the race.
The Italian manufacturer has been the sole supplier to F1 since the 2011 season.
How the new tyre will impact the pace of the cars remains to be seen.
Max Verstappen and Red Bull have been in scintillating form so far.
They lead both championships with Sergio Perez sitting 14 points behind his teammate in 2nd.
Fernando Alonso continues to get the most out of the Aston Martin picking up another podium in Miami.
Perhaps more life in the tyres will allow teams to put more pressure on the Red Bulls.
The challenge will be to catch them first.
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