Pirelli Motorsport have changed the way they reveal their tyre compounds for each of the events of 2021, with Formula 1’s sole tyre manufacturer revealing the tyres for all twenty-three races.
Pirelli have also confirmed that they will mandate the number of each compound each driver will be allocated for each round, with two sets of hard compound, three sets of medium compound and eight sets of soft compound.
The compounds are similar to that of 2020, or in some cases 2019, with races in Azerbaijan and Brazil going a step softer than before. The compounds for the two new events on the calendar, the Dutch and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, have also been unveiled.
Mario Isola, the Head of F1 and Car Racing at Pirelli, says the decision to announce the compounds for all twenty-three races is so they can have ‘maximum flexibility’ should races be cancelled again due to COVID-19.
“Announcing all the selections for the year right now will help the teams and the drivers with their planning, also allowing for maximum flexibility just in case the calendar has to change due to COVID-19 restrictions, as we saw last year,” said Isola.
“The selections themselves are on the whole similar to last year (or 2019, in the case of races not run in 2020), which means that teams should have plenty of data to fall back on – but we have two races where the nominations are softer. The first is Azerbaijan, where our C2 hard tyre wasn’t used last time, so we are now going with the softest selection of all: C3, C4 and C5.
“Then we have Brazil, where we will take the C2, C3 and C4 this year, as the C1 that was selected as the hardest choice last time didn’t show a particularly big advantage in terms of wear over the medium. In both cases, the softer nomination could lead to a greater variety of race strategies.”
