Pirelli chooses softest tyres for Austria and Germany

2014 F1 season

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Pirelli has chosen the softest tyres in its range for two of the next four races on the calendar.

F1’s official tyre supplier will bring its two softest compounds the Austrian Grand Prix, which is returning to the calendar for the first time since 2003.

The soft and super-soft compounds will be used at the Red Bull Ring, the configuration of which is the same as when F1 last visited the track 11 years ago, when it was called the A1-Ring.

The same two compounds will also be used for the German Grand Prix, which is being held at the Hockenheimring this year. Pirelli used the medium and soft tyres the last time F1 visited the track in 2012.

For the British and Hungarian Grands Prix the tyre selections are unchanged from last year: the hardest two compounds will be used at Silverstone, and the soft and medium at the Hungaroring.

2014 F1 tyre allocations so far

Circuit2014 Option2014 Prime2013 Option2013 Prime
MelbourneSoftMediumSuper SoftMedium
SepangMediumHardMediumHard
ShanghaiSoftMediumSoftMedium
BahrainSoftMediumSoftHard
CatalunyaMediumHardMediumHard
Monte-CarloSuper SoftSoftSuper SoftSoft
MontrealSuper SoftSoftSuper SoftMedium
Red Bull RingSuper SoftSoftn/an/a
SilverstoneMediumHardMediumHard
HockenheimringSuper SoftSoftn/an/a
HungaroringSoftMediumSoftMedium

2014 F1 season


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Image © Pirelli/Hone

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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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16 comments on “Pirelli chooses softest tyres for Austria and Germany”

    1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      7th June 2014, 7:02

      My thoughts exactly. lol

  1. Good job by Pirelli. I guess the team get what they want; soft tyres.

    1. You beat me to it.

    2. And despite the fact that the teams and drivers have complained about Pirelli being conservative with the tyres this season – hardly surprising given what happened in 2013 – no doubt they will start complaining that the tyres are ‘too soft’ when Pirelli does opt for softer compounds.

  2. I’m curious. Would they ever do a Super Soft – Hard combination? Sounds stupid but I think it would spice up the racing.

    1. They rarely do more than one step difference between prime and option. I guess it becomes more difficult for teams to set up the cars to suit both compounds the further apart they are in hardness. Might be interesting but it’s bad PR for tPirelli if the supersoft tyre dies within 3-4 laps, which it probably would if the circuit was demanding enough to warrant using the hard compound.

      1. They rarely do more than one step difference between prime and option

        They (or maybe it was just with Bridgestone?) used to try and always make it two steps to make the difference greater – i.e. Super soft-Medium or Soft-Hard. Of course exceptions applied, for example they always went Super soft – Soft for Monaco. They may have also done Medium-Hard too at some circuits that were tougher on tyres, can’t remember though.

        1. By ‘They’ i meant Pirelli specifically, though maybe the stats would prove me wrong. I can’t remember further back than that ;)

    2. I think they tried it once at Hockenheim 2010 – it didn’t work.

      1. You are right The Super Soft and Hard compound choice is used in Hockenheim 2010 only

        1. From the Wikipedia article:

          The race was also the scene of Bridgestone’s attempt to re-create the conditions at Montreal, where extreme tyre degradation had made the racing closer. However, the plan to bring tyres at the opposite ends of the spectrum – super-soft and hard – had little effect. Nico Hülkenberg was able to do almost forty laps on the super-soft tyres, while Pedro de la Rosa – the final driver to complete his mandatory pit stop – was able to do a similar number on the hard tyre.

  3. Remember that Pirelli are not making the tyres any softer, There just going to be using the softest tyres they have in the 2014 compounds.

    Given how all the 2014 compounds are a few steps harder than the 2013 tyres I doubt they will be that much easier to get upto operating temperature.

  4. Seems a little bit extreme for the Red Bull Ring, no?

    1. It does rather, considering it has been 11 years, through which the cars have completely changed. Then again, they have data that we don’t.

  5. Wish they would drop Hungary, such a dull track. Just a shame a new deal was signed last year.

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