Pirelli reveal softer compounds and new tyre colours for 2012
2012 F1 season
Pirelli's 2012 F1 tyre range
Pirelli will supply softer tyres in 2012 in a bid to further improve the standard of racing in Formula 1.
The tyre manufacturer revealed its 2012 F1 tyre range on Wednesday, including new soft, medium and hard tyre compounds. The super-soft compound remains unchanged, but all four dry-weather tyres will have a different construction in 2012 with a squarer profile.
Pirelli will also introduce a new wet-weather tyre. The intermediate tyre remains unchanged but the colours used to distinguish them will be revised – the intermediate tyre now has green colouring and the wet-weather tyre uses blue.
The dry-weather tyres will retain their 2011 colouring: red for super-soft, yellow for soft, white for medium and silver for hard.
According to Pirelli the banning of exhaust-blown diffusers has influenced their choice of tyres for 2012: “This new measure, which should result in a reduction of aerodynamic downforce acting on each tyre, requires a wider and more even contact patch.
“This objective has been met by having a less rounded shoulder on each tyre and using softer compounds, which produce better grip and more extreme performance.”
Pirelli added they intend to reduce the performance gap between the compounds from the 1.2-1.8 seconds seen last year to 0.6-0.8 seconds.
The new tyres will make their first appearance at the start of F1 testing at Jerez on February 7th.
Pirelli president and CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera said: “After the positive experience of last year, the teams asked us to continue providing tyres with the characteristics that contributed to spectacular races in 2011.
“And this is what we have done, optimising the compounds and profiles in order to guarantee even better and more stable performance, combined with the deliberate degradation that characterised the P Zero range from 2011.
“We’re expecting unpredictable races, with a wide range of strategies and a number of pit stops: all factors that both competitors and spectators greatly enjoyed last year. The development work on the new compounds took place throughout the 2011 season, thanks to the impressive learning curve and reaction times from our engineers, who are ready to continue those evolutions during the season ahead.”
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Image © Pirelli
wasiF1 (@wasif1) said on 26th January 2012, 1:45
” 1.2-1.8 seconds seen last year to 0.6-0.8 seconds.”" NOOOO, this will just bring rack racing like the Bridgestone did.
raymondu999 (@raymondu999) said on 26th January 2012, 8:03
@wasiF1 how on earth do you come to that conclusion?
wasiF1 (@wasif1) said on 26th January 2012, 9:42
@raymondu999 Towards the end of 2011 F1 season we saw that the performance level between the hard & the soft compound (in each race) wasn’t too much of a difference so if the performance level is shortened then more or less everyone will try the same strategy.So if the gap is more then we may have different people doing different things which according to me should spice things up,the main thing Pirelli did last year & Bridgestone missed it.
raymondu999 (@raymondu999) said on 26th January 2012, 9:49
@wasiF1 Pirelli began to go conservative in selecting tyres for venues. Yes. Tyres started to last longer (not really as a function of Pirellis changing; but rather of the cars growing kinder on the tyres). Yes.
But where exactly did we see that the difference became smaller?
wasiF1 (@wasif1) said on 26th January 2012, 13:32
@raymondu999 the time difference between the two compound.
raymondu999 (@raymondu999) said on 26th January 2012, 21:15
@wasiF1 yes; where did we see that?
In fact most of the races where most difference was observed were towards the end. Korea for one; India for another; etc.
Tricky (@tricky) said on 26th January 2012, 13:29
If Pirelli are keeping the same compounds (except the SS) and changing only the profile (which affects all tyres the same way) then how can they reduce the performance gap between the types?
raymondu999 (@raymondu999) said on 26th January 2012, 21:14
@Tricky the compounds have all been softened a step. i.e. the 2011 supersoft is the 2012 soft; the 2011 soft is the 2012 medium; etc
Younger Hamii (@younger-hamii) said on 26th January 2012, 21:07
Honestly out of all the Wet/damp driving sessions we had throughout the entire season last year,I cant remember the extreme wets being used once.If im wrong then someone correct me on that!!!
With the compounds albeit the Super-soft,It seems as though Pirelli are taking Bridgestone’s construction of the tyres in 2009,which did what Pirelli are currently aiming to do,providing ‘better grip and more extreme performance’ but im skeptical.Will they face the same problem Bridgestone had with the tyres in 2009? That being the Fronts providing more grip than the Rears
raymondu999 (@raymondu999) said on 26th January 2012, 21:12
Canada? Korea practice?