Ultra-soft tyres for Russian Grand Prix

2017 F1 season

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Pirelli has confirmed it will bring ultra-soft tyres to the Russian Grand Prix for the first time this year.

One-stop strategies have been the norm in Russia
F1’s official tyre supplier has announced the tyre options for drivers in the third and fourth races of 2017 in Bahrian and Russia.

The tyre allocation for the Bahrain Grand Prix will be unchanged from last year and see the first appearance of the super-soft tyres in 2017. Drivers will have to use at least one set of medium or soft tyres during the race.

The ultra-soft tyres will make their debut at the following round. Drivers will have to use at least one set of softs or super-softs during the race.

Most drivers used one-stop tyre strategies last year at Sochi when the ultra-soft tyre was not available, running one stint each on the soft and super-soft rubber.

The Sochi Autodrom is holding the Russian Grand Prix for the fourth time this year. The ultra-soft tyre was introduced last season and made only five appearances at the races in Monaco, Canada, Austria, Singapore and Abu Dhabi.

Pirelli has been given a brief to increase the durability of its tyres for this season. It marks a departure from the previous policy of using high-degradation rubber which has been in place since it returned to F1 in 2011.

2017 tyre options so far

Circuit2016 tyres2017 tyres
MelbourneMediumSoftSuper-softHardMediumSoft
ShanghaiMediumSoftSuper-softHardMediumSoft
BahrainMediumSoftSuper-softMediumSoftSuper-soft
SochiMediumSoftSuper-softSoftSuper-softUltra-soft

2017 F1 season

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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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13 comments on “Ultra-soft tyres for Russian Grand Prix”

  1. If these tyres are more durable, could we see Pirelli discontinue the current ‘hard’ compound and reclassify the existing as Super-Soft, Soft, Medium, Hard? (bumping the remaining tyres up description)

    1. They have just done the opposite of that. The Ultrasofts are reclassified super softs and so on.

      1. Ah ok, thanks for the information.

      2. @rethla where is that from?

        1. @hahostolze

          Its not official ofc. but i remember when the Ultrasofts was new the verdict from the teams and drivers. Ultrasofts was a little softer than the previous supersofts but the big difference was that the new supersofts was alot harder than the previous ones.

  2. I’m not so confident of Pirelli, i would wait until the february tests.

  3. The Australian GP will feature the same compound combination as Russia (ultrasoft/supersoft/soft), while Bahrain will feature the same as China (supersoft/soft/medium), so there’s two errors on the ”2017 tyre options so far” list.

  4. Awesome. Soooo how durable will ultrasoft be?

    Maybe they aim to have a good racy tire with good thermal range and so soft it does degrade fast through natural wear and tear… But overall is as grippy as glue.

  5. The table at the bottom is wrong

  6. The Blade Runner (@)
    12th January 2017, 9:34

    Apparently the Russians are denying the leaked tyre news stating that they do not hold a dossier on rubber compounds…

    1. Particularly the wet rubber compound….

      1. The Blade Runner (@)
        12th January 2017, 14:30

        Fnar fnar!

  7. Tbh Pirelli have gone too conservative in the season opener, considering 2017 tires will be harder in general.

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