A wet Friday practice session in Istanbul today provided the first chance for the teams to use the new Pirelli wet and intermediate tyre, which have been described as ‘extremely effective’ by Motorsport Director Paul Hembery.
“We've seen our intermediate and wet tyres take to the track for the first time, and as we confirmed when we tested in the wet at Istanbul Park last month, these tyres are extremely effective even in the soaking conditions we saw today,” said the Pirelli man.
“The weather for the rest of the weekend looks like it is going to be brighter, but even if it continued to rain, our wet tyres are designed to last for 30 laps or longer while the intermediates can run for about 20, so there are no concerns about supply,” he added.
“The teams also had the chance to try out the latest evolution of our hard tyre [today], which we are assessing with a view to Barcelona. It's not quite as fast as our original hard tyre, but it does last a little longer with extra stability, so we will be very interested to hear the feedback from the teams.”
