Photo Credit: Pirelli
Pirelli say that this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix provides them with ‘one of the biggest challenges’ of the season as each of the teams try a wide of set-up solutions as they attempt to conquer the flood-lit street circuit.
The Italian tyre company will be providing the soft and supersoft compounds this weekend, the same combination allocated for the Monaco and Canadian races earlier this season. However, the extreme Singaporian heat and humidity, coupled with the large number of corners around the Marina Bay Circuit, will ensure that the tyres are working almost as hard as the drivers on Sunday evening.
“Singapore is a race that adds a unique and truly spectacular new dimension to the Formula One calendar,” explains Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport Director. “Because it is such a specific event, this makes it quite hard for teams to arrive at the best set-up and you often see some quite different solutions. Our tyres have to work equally effectively within a wide range of parameters, and this is one of the biggest challenges for us over the course of the year.
“A lot is made of the heat in Singapore, but what people tend to feel is actually the humidity, which means that our tyres should be comfortably within their working range when it comes to ambient and track temperature. The tyres will be working as hard as the drivers this weekend: many of the drivers say that this street circuit is even more demanding than Monaco.
“As we've seen in the past, particularly in Canada, the combination of soft and supersoft tyres provides plenty of opportunities for the teams to put in place some interesting strategies, with the supersoft in particular expected to provide an appreciable performance advantage. The free practice sessions in Singapore will be crucial, as the teams assess the effect of each of our tyres on their set-ups and overall speed.”
