Pirelli plan to introduce ‘super hard’ tyre in Spain

2011 Spanish Grand Prix

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Pirelli plan to introduce their new ‘super hard’ development tyre at the Spanish Grand Prix.

But motorsport director Paul Hembery admits they may have to postpone it if the expected wet weather in Istanbul tomorrow prevents them from being able to test the tyres.

“The new compound is a new hard compound. The idea is to add three or four laps to the life of the current hard compound with less degradation.

“We want to, if we can, introduce that in Barcelona but we might have rain on Friday so we won’t have the opportunity to test it, so it might be that we have to go to Barcelona again with these same tyres and try and test there.

“But we’ll certainly see it in Silverstone. If we can test on Friday in Istanbul we’ll see it in Barcelona.”

Pirelli have already announced they will use their hard and soft tyres in Barcelona. However the new development tyre could be re-named as the hard tyre.

Hembery added that with the benefit of hindsight they could have been more aggressive with their tyre choice for the first race of the season:

“Melbourne was a big tension race, the first race, there’d been a lot of talk pre-season about how things would happen or not happen.

“And then we had a fantastic race where I think everyone was very happy.

“If anything we were a little bit too conservative. We could have gone there with the medium instead of the hard compound.

“But I have to say that, overall, that was a great starting point.”

See more from Hembery in the video above.

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Image © Pirelli

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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23 comments on “Pirelli plan to introduce ‘super hard’ tyre in Spain”

  1. Oh no, please don’t try and make Barcelona boring…. With these new tyres and DRS, there’s a chance it might NOT send me to sleep this year!

    Keep the tyres that like to fall apart, please!

    1. I think it’s good if the hards last longer – at the moment they don’t last long enough, so everyone uses them for only one stint, and even that is because of the rule. The prime tyre should last longer than the option one, so we have different strategies.

      1. Yeah, the hards should last at least some 5 laps longer than the sofst to give incentive to actually use them

  2. i’m beginning to like this Paul Hembery guy..

    1. He looks like a responsible, down-to-earth person.

      1. Looks rubbish in a suit though

        1. He know what to do to make F1 more interesting with the tools he have.

      2. He does. One of the best people in F1 right now.

  3. Doesnt this just add a couple of laps before they degrade, rather than the bridgestones that could last the whole race- i think stopping 4-5 times in a race is silly.

  4. Nice to see the attitude of constant improvement. Super-hards should increase the tactical importance of the compound.

    1. For example, imagine being able to choose a race between Soft, Super Hard, Super Hard, Soft, or Soft, Soft, Soft, Super Hard

      1. Errr I did that one wrong:

        1) Soft, Super Hard, Super Hard
        2) Soft, Soft, Soft, Super Hard

  5. http://yfrog.com/h81yalwj

    The Pirelli markings from now on, don’t know if this has been posted already?

    1. are they changing the colours as well?

      1. I don’t think so, Personally I think the silver is perfectly seeable

  6. Those markings look nice and clear. Definite improvement. Perhaps not as ‘clean’, but we need to see which tyre’s being used, that’s for sure.

  7. How cool is that to have an F1 Pirelli tyre on your desk!
    The people in and around my cubicle area would be mighty impressed. If you lay it down you could use it as a gigantic coffee cup holder.

  8. The problem for Pirelli is that they’re bringing yellow and silver or white tyres for the vast majority of races. The colours are just hard to distinguish at a distance at at a speed. Maybe the extra colouring will help some bit, the the colours will always be too similar. That’s my thought on this.

    1. They didn’t think the colouring through with regards to their plans of what compounds to bring at each GP

    2. Am I really the only person who doesn’t have a problem telling yellow and silver apart? And I’m watching on a laptop screen…

      1. I find it pretty easy!

  9. I feel that the harder tyre should last longer, however if it lasts too long Spain will be the most boring race this year by a country mile (unless it rains).

  10. I wonder if these tyres will be ready for full use in Montreal…

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