Pirelli Motorsport’s Head of Car Racing, Mario Isola, believes the degradation levels this weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will be higher than what was seen during the pre-season tests at the same circuit, primarily down to the warmer temperatures that are expected.
Pirelli are bringing the three hardest compounds to the circuit this weekend, which means a first outing of 2017 for the Hard compound, and it is also the final race before drivers are able to select their own choices of tyre from the Monaco Grand Prix onwards.
Isola expects the developments being brought to the circuit by all of the teams to also change the way the tyres degrade, and he is excited to see the outcome of the race in Spain.
“This is the last race where allocations are fixed for every team: as of Monaco, drivers are making their own choices about the quantities of each compound they would like to nominate,” said Isola.
“While Barcelona is a well-known venue, aerodynamic evolution of the cars, enhanced by the latest upgrade packages brought to Spain, mean that performance is increased but degradation levels could also be higher compared to testing. We can additionally expect weather conditions considerably warmer than February.”
