Pirelli is looking at skipping a step in its compounds range at several Grands Prix this season, in a bid to introduce greater strategy variation.

‘Skipping’ a compound would mean greater disparity in the levels of tyre wear encountered by the teams, opening up the possibility of a greater variety of strategy options.

Revealed: Pirelli’s plan on tyre compound separation

This year, Pirelli’s dry tyre range has encompassed seven different compounds, ranging from C0 as the hardest and most durable, to the C6 as the softest with the shortest tyre life.

For each Grand Prix, Pirelli selects three consecutive compounds from this range in order to become the Hard/Medium/Soft tyres – the decision on which of these compounds to bring along comes down to the unique demands of each race track.

In recent years, there has been a certain level of predicability to the tyre compound choices, with Pirelli often bringing along the C2-C4 range in a selection that works well at a wide variety of circuits and surfaces.

At lower tyre degradation circuits, such as the low-speed and smooth-surfaced Monaco, the C3-C5 range has worked well while, on the flip side of that, the likes of the C1-C3 has been favoured for the likes of Silverstone’s high-speed sweeps and more abrasive circuit.

But a pattern has emerged recently, with teams usually erring on the side of track position being favourable to trying to exploit a quicker car on fresher tyres in order to fight back on a more aggressive tyre strategy. How this usually happens is keeping the number of pit-stops down as much as possible, meaning one-stop strategies have become de rigeur and, as a consequence, has led to more processional races.

But, in a bid to tackle this, Pirelli is now evaluating the possibility of introducing a step in the compounds in order to create a greater disparity between the performance levels and durability of the tyres over any given weekend.

For instance, this could consist of bringing along the C2 and C4 tyre as the Hard and Medium, respectively, and using the new, extremely soft compound C6 as the Soft.

This would increase the chances of the differences in laptime and durability being so negligible as to be inconsequential and, as a result, open up the chances of teams being able to embark on, for example, a one-stop on the C2, two-stop on the C4, or even a three-stop on the C3 – if the teams planned out their tyre use through practice and qualifying accordingly.

The choice of tyre compounds for each Grand Prix is something that is left entirely up to Pirelli, with its choices communicated to the teams at least four weeks before any given event.

It’s understood that Pirelli intends to introduce a step in its compound choices at several races this year, but it’s not yet clear which handful of races may be chosen – in theory, the earliest possible race this could be introduced at is the Austrian GP at the end of June.

The decision will be made after Pirelli has evaluated its production operations to fully understand whether it can roll out with its plan this season, and is a choice being made in conjunction with F1 in order to help spice up the show.

A compound step is something Pirelli has tried out with success in Formula 2, with Pirelli’s chief F1 engineer Simone Berra explaining how it has worked.

“We have four compounds and, many times this year, we have decided to skip one level to try to generate a bit more difference between what we can call the prime and the option, it depends on what you want to call it,” he said.

“The idea is always to generate a little bit of difficulty for the drivers to manage the tyres. That is the same approach that we have in Formula 1.

“You have a soft tyre that is quite an aggressive approach that requires some management, and a hard tyre that is good for a long stint – obviously with a good consistency, but with a level of performance that is much lower.

“There is always learning in any of our activities or championships, we try to cross the experiences in order to get useful information from Formula 2 and Formula 3 and from other championships. Don’t forget that our technology is also flowing from single seaters to GT, for example, because, at the end of the day, our activity in motorsport is useful for road tyres.

“The technology, the vehicle model of a tyre that will be developed in Formula 1 is also used for the development of other tyres, ultra-performance tyres for the road.

“So anything is useful, and Formula 2 is very close to Formula 1 in terms of strategy and compounds selection.

“Obviously we are talking about two compounds instead of three, so it’s slightly different – shorter races, only one stop, but there is always a good indication from Formula 2 to bring into Formula 1 or the opposite sometimes.”

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