The recent Chinese and Japanese Grands Prix showed how the variability produced by a well nailed double stop helps trigger plenty of overtaking and action.
The problem with F1, however, is that this ideal combination of tire compounds to deliver multi-stop thrills cannot be repeated on every circuit because the range of options is not wide enough.
Too often one of the selections is written off as a usable race tire, so everyone follows the same route, or being good enough to complete almost the entire race distance opens the door to a stoppage boring single.
This is a factor that Pirelli is well aware of, especially as one of the goals set by F1 is to aim for two-stop races.
Finding a solution to ensure that the tires he brings to each race will ensure two stops is not so easy, however.
Mario Isola, Pirelli’s head of F1 and motor racing, joked that to achieve this it would be necessary to produce “24 times three” compounds.
But while it’s probably not as extreme as that, he admits that the challenge Pirelli faces in coming up with a range of compounds that work at the extremes encountered on the calendar is far from simple.
And, in particular, Isola says the move toward more street racing in recent years has complicated the selection process, because what’s ideal for places like Monaco and Singapore isn’t what’s needed for venues high-energy venues like Spa and Silverstone.
Detail of Pirelli tires and wheels on a McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
That’s why he suggests the key to locking in other sites in the exciting two stops is potentially allowing a wider range of software to run the city’s sites.
“We have more and more street circuits on the calendar, and street circuits generally require soft tires,” explained Isola.
“So we’d probably need one more [option] on the soft side, or we need to move the range a little bit to the soft side for the future.
“We are looking at this for 2025 – having compounds with more mechanical strength in order to move the range towards the soft side.”
“Ideally, we would probably need six [compounds] – not have all the two-stop races with different, but majority, strategies. Everything would be difficult. »
To understand the challenge Pirelli faces in coming up with compounds that would work across the full range of circuits visited in F1, Isola says that if bespoke tires were chosen for each venue, then Monaco would be completely self-sufficient.
“For Monte Carlo you need three specific compounds, whereas for some other circuits you need one specific compound,” he said. “So it’s not easy to cover all the different possibilities.”
It’s not easy, but certainly not impossible, and a logical path to ensuring more two-stops in the future would be for F1 to move away from the five-compound limit and open up the choices more widely.
By doing this, Pirelli might be able to have a selection of tires for street circuits, a range for more traditional tracks, and then a few choices for demanding circuits like Silverstone.
But it’s something easy to say and quite difficult to achieve, not least because choosing a perfect lineup for venues like Monaco, Singapore and Las Vegas involves a lot of guesswork because it’s not possible to race outside of weekends. -ends of GP.
“It’s impossible to test there, so the problem is how to develop the tires?” Isola said.
“We are having difficulty finding places to simulate street circuits because low gravity places like Monaco are street circuits, and we cannot ask them, or Singapore or Baku, to close the city for a Pirelli test !
“Well, we could ask but I don’t think we’ll get permission. That’s why we’re looking at different options.”
A post-race tire test in Monaco or Singapore may be a pipe dream, but the benefits it would bring would be felt throughout the year.
