Mario Isola is expecting the Chinese Grand Prix to prove that the graining issues that have befallen Pirelli in the past have been significantly reduced, something they want confirming after seeing it during pre-season testing.
The Head of Car Racing of Pirelli Motorsport expects teams to focus on the two softest compounds the tyre manufacturer are bringing to the Shanghai International Circuit, especially when they only have two sets of the hardest tyre available to them for the whole weekend.
But after seeing the graining reduced during testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Isola feels it will be good to see in true racing conditions that the problem has all but gone.
“We’re bringing the middle selection of compounds, but we expect teams to use mainly soft and supersoft, depending of course on the unpredictable weather: especially as the allocation is just two sets of medium,” said Isola.
“In the past, there has been some graining in China due to the long straights followed by tight corners, but we’ve seen in Barcelona testing that graining is generally reduced this year, so it will be good to have that confirmed.
“In case of wet and possibly cool conditions, we will supply wet weather tyres in a different compound, with the target of giving the drivers more grip.”
