The cooler conditions and the use of the safety car during Sunday’s São Paulo Grand Prix influenced the way Pirelli’s tyres were used, according to Mario Isola.
The soft tyre was the favoured tyre for many during the race at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, with some drivers able to put more than twenty-five laps into them before needing to make a pit stop. The medium tyre also became a better tyre towards the end of the race.
Isola, Pirelli’s Motorsport Director, was interested to see how the set-up of each car influenced the performance and degradation of the soft and medium compounds, and how track evolution played a part later in the day.
“A truly emotional race,” said Isola. “It’s wonderful to see how Interlagos always puts on a unique show for the fans.
“As expected, it was the variables that made the difference today, with accidents, two safety cars, and temperatures dropping by more than 10 degrees – which compelled drivers to adapt their driving styles according to the compounds they were using, mixing up the cards for every strategy.
“On top of the performance of all the different choices, it was really interesting to see how the setup of each car influenced the performance and degradation of the P Zero Red soft and P Zero Yellow medium compounds.
“The soft allowed for stints of more than twenty-five laps with manageable degradation, even with heavy cars at the start of the race, while the medium seemed to perform better towards the end, owing to track evolution with more rubber being gradually laid onto the surface.”
Isola was also quick to congratulate George Russell on his maiden FIA Formula 1 World Championship race victory, with the British racer using a soft-medium-soft strategy to claim the win ahead of his Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
“Congratulations to Mercedes and especially to George Russell for his first grand prix win, made all the more unforgettable thanks to this fantastic crowd here in Brazil,” said Isola.
