No hard tyres again for Italian Grand Prix

2017 Italian Grand Prix

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Formula One’s official tyre supplier Pirelli will continue to avoid using its hard compound tyre at the Italian Grand Prix.

The Monza circuit is the quickest on the F1 calendar but this will be the third year in a row the hard tyre compounds won’t be used at the race.

The super-soft tyre will be the mandatory compound for qualifying. Drivers will have to keep at least one set of the soft and medium compounds tyres available to use in the race and run at least one of them.

The hard tyre has only been used at the Circuit de Catalunya so far this year and is now unlikely to reappear before the end of the season. The tyre selections are yet to be announced for the races in the USA, Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

2017 F1 tyre compounds so far

Circuit2016 tyres2017 tyres
MelbourneMediumSoftSuper-softSoftSuper-softUltra-soft
ShanghaiMediumSoftSuper-softMediumSoftSuper-soft
BahrainMediumSoftSuper-softMediumSoftSuper-soft
SochiMediumSoftSuper-softSoftSuper-softUltra-soft
CatalunyaHardMediumSoftHardMediumSoft
Monte-CarloSoftSuper-softUltra-softSoftSuper-softUltra-soft
MontrealSoftSuper-softUltra-softSoftSuper-softUltra-soft
BakuMediumSoftSuper-softMediumSoftSuper-soft
Red Bull RingSoftSuper-softUltra-softSoftSuper-softUltra-soft
SilverstoneHardMediumSoftMediumSoftSuper-soft
HungaroringMediumSoftSuper-softMediumSoftSuper-soft
Spa-FrancorchampsMediumSoftSuper-softSoftSuper-softUltra-soft
MonzaMediumSoftSuper-softMediumSoftSuper-soft
SingaporeSoftSuper-softUltra-softSoftSuper-softUltra-soft
SepangHardMediumSoftMediumSoftSuper-soft
SuzukaHardMediumSoftMediumSoftSuper-soft

2017 Italian Grand Prix

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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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    11 comments on “No hard tyres again for Italian Grand Prix”

    1. Profile Photo

      Bastian Shi (@kimiforpresident)
      29th June 2017, 14:21

      Anyone else think the hard tyre should just be dropped for 2018?

      1. Jabbadap
        29th June 2017, 14:41

        I thought it is already common knowledge that hard tyre have been dropped for rest of this year.

        http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/130284

        1. Profile Photo

          Strontium (@strontium)
          29th June 2017, 15:21

          I hadn’t heard this, very interesting.

          I think they need to change the naming for next year then, so ultra soft becomes super soft, super soft becomes soft, etc. Keep the three tyre rule though, of course. Or alternatively, allow the teams
          the choice of all four compounds every weekend.

          1. Profile Photo

            F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
            30th June 2017, 7:52

            @strontium There will be a mega-soft compound next year and the hard compound will be scrapped. So then there is mega-soft, ultra-soft, super-soft, soft and medium. Madness!

      2. Markp
        29th June 2017, 21:27

        No as all the compounds will be made softer next year so there should be 5 compounds that are usable depending on circuit. At the moment they are so hard they only really need US, SS and S tyres.

        Pirelli were hammered for soft tyres but teams wont do good length tyre tests so they went the other way. By next year they should be able to work out a happy median.

    2. Scotty
      29th June 2017, 14:44

      Drop the ultra soft name and make the entire range softer. In other words next year’s hard would be this years medium.

    3. Profile Photo

      charliex (@photogcw)
      29th June 2017, 14:57

      Very unfortunate but it is the result to the lack of sufficient testing on the then-new 2017 specs cars

      1. Sumedh
        29th June 2017, 15:34

        I don’t think this is due to lack of testing. If you see last year, the hard tyres were used for roughly 6% of the laps done last year (Palmer was the highest user at 90 laps – 9% – across the season) while being available for 20% of the races (Catalunya, Silverstone, Suzuka, Sepang). So anyways, they were not a preferred tyre in the era of degrading tyres. This year with non-degrading tyres, their appeal was bound to reduce.

        The loss of the hard tyre should not be moaned about or blamed on to anyone (teams, testing, Pirelli or FIA). The tyre has run its course and will pass into history peacefully.

    4. Profile Photo

      Matthijs (@matthijs)
      29th June 2017, 15:46

      Pirelli drops hard tyre for rest of 2017 Formula 1 season, so it’s obvious that they will not use the hards in Italy ;)

      http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/130284

    5. Profile Photo

      Kribana (@krichelle)
      29th June 2017, 16:31

      Well… they wasted their time and other teams time by bringing that tyre…

    6. Profile Photo

      Jere (@jerejj)
      29th June 2017, 20:59

      Again, a bit disappointed about the compound combination choice, and I’d use the same argument in favor of bringing the ultra-soft to Monza as I did with Baku: Low-degradation has been the historical norm there. If last year’s less durable and softer than this year’s ultra-soft tyres can handle the high straight-line speeds there then in that regard so can the current ultra-soft as well. The top speed excuse behind the lack of courage to bring the ultra-soft is quite a poor one exactly because of that (last year’s tyres that are less durable than this year’s softest compound could handle the high speeds of Baku, Monza, and Mexico without a problem). How much are you willing to bet that they will again choose this combination for the Mexican GP despite valid reasons for bringing the ultra-soft/supersoft/soft combination?

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