Pirelli Motorsport Director Paul Hembery, believes there will be an interesting race in store this weekend at the 2016 Canadian Grand Prix, with weather conditions and tyre strategy all playing a key part in the outcome.
“In Canada there’s the potential for some quite mixed weather conditions, as we also saw in Monaco, so this could make it a very complex race as has often been the case in the past.” said Hembrey.
“The compounds that we have nominated mean that there is plenty of scope for strategy, on a circuit where it’s definitely possible to overtake on the track as well.
The softer compound tyres are generally quite difficult to make last at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, especially with cooler temperatures, but Hembery believes that the relatively new ultra-soft tyre could make for some interesting strategic decisions during the race.
“The ultra-soft made its mark when it first appeared in Monaco but Canada is a very different type of circuit with more demands on tyres. This could lead to a number of different tactics coming into play, as evidenced from the tyre choices made by each team prior to the race.”
Pirelli have nominated the yellow walled soft, the red walled super soft and the purple walled ultra-soft tyre compounds for the Canadian Grand Prix, and there have been some interesting tyre choices made by the drivers, with the Renault Sport F1 and Haas F1 teams not selecting any of the super-soft tyre compounds at all, and the American team going super aggressive with ten sets of the ultra-soft compound.
The Mercedes AMG PETRONAS, Scuderia Ferrari, and Red Bull Racing teams have gone for slightly different variations to each other, with the Milton Keynes based squad opting for one more set of the soft tyre, which is the hardest compound of the three on offer. The Brackely based squad have taken one more set of the softest compound tyre, and the Maranello based squad have gone with more of the middle ground tyre, the super soft option.
Hopefully the tyre choices made will be able to cope with the demands of this high speed, low downforce track, and an interesting mix of action and strategy will be played out before our eyes.
