Teams to test “longer life” medium tyre in Canada

2011 Canadian Grand Prix

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Pirelli medium

Pirelli will bring a revised medium tyre for teams to test at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Team will be able to sample the tyre in practice on Friday.

The medium tyre is due to be introduced for the first time this year in the following race at Valencia. Pirelli have not yet decided whether they will use the new medium tyre there.

Pirelli told F1 Fanatic: “It’s not a big change: it will keep broadly the same performance levels as the current medium, but with a slightly longer life.

“With the hard tyre becoming harder, a tweak was needed to the medium to ensure that it fitted exactly between the soft and the hard in terms of degradation”.

Teams will use the soft and super-soft tyres in Canada, and the medium and super-soft tyres in Valencia.

Pirelli added the new hard tyre introduced in Spain was “likely” to be used at the British Grand Prix as well.

2011 Canadian 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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    29 comments on “Teams to test “longer life” medium tyre in Canada”

    1. Good to see how much effort Pirelli puts in to make things fit perfectly. I hope the publicity involved makes them reap the rewards for their work.

      1. Despite the critics they receive, they are constantly trying to improve the tyres, which so far have helped make the season wonderful. Great job by them.

        1. I actually don’t know how anyone can criticise them to be honest, barmy!

          1. Douglas 62500
            7th June 2011, 8:55

            Yeah they appear to be working very hard to improve those tyres. It really does make races more exciiting to watch, but I still do miss those near perfect, indestructable Bridgestones !!!!

        2. Fixy, what’s so wonderful about this season? Red Bull is throwing a wrench in what was supposed to be a wonderful season. It’s an awful season in my opinion, just 0 parity. Let me give you a few reasons why:
          Race 1 – RBR/SV pole & win
          Race 2 – RBR/SV pole & win
          Race 3 – RBR/SV pole & 2nd
          Race 4 – RBE/SV pole & win
          Race 5 – RBR/SV 2nd & win
          Race 6 – RBR/SV pole & win

          1. HNTX,

            my point too.

    2. Why do they use soft and super-soft in Canada but medium and super-soft in Valencia? Both are street circuits, so why the difference?

      1. Could be a number of things: warmer temperatures in Valencia, more abrasive tarmac, the sequence of fast corners towards the end of the lap putting tyres under greater strain. I’ll make a note to ask.

      2. Actually the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is not a street circuit, even though the walls are close to the track.

        1. It is a street circuit in the way that it is not permanent, not raced on throughout the year, and/as it is used for public traffic (parts of it).

          1. x2

            Its a green circuit by the time the F1 circus comes into town. Even though most of it is used as public roads, it’s an island with really only a casino and some exhibition space. Therefore there is no point for people to be driving on it unless they are using it to get to a park/waterfront.

            1. And some sites are forecasting a lot of RAIN for the weekend ! Juicy !

          2. I don’t think the pit straight is used, or my mates would have been in trouble! https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/67215_481046758161_503793161_6713808_3980009_n.jpg

    3. So, the teams haven’t even used the original Pirelli medium tyre in a race yet, and already it’ll be ditched? Pirelli were wrong about the life of the supersoft tyre (the tyres went much longer than 10 laps in Monaco). While I don’t doubt that maybe a new specification of medium tyre should be used, perhaps it’s better to see just how long the original medium tyre actually works in a race rather than ditching it immediately and testing a new specification?

      1. They did run it in testing.

        1. And to follow up on Keith’s reply:

          The harder compounds specifically have had one major complaint only really: the trade-off isn’t really there lifespan-wise. So making them a bit more durable only sounds sensible. Yes, they’re a lot slower than the softs, but to make them a viable option in the race, they have to last appreciably longer, which so far they haven’t seemed to.

          1. Making the hard tyre harder in Barcelona pretty much ruined the race for everyone unless you were a Redbull or McLaren for no appreciable gain!

            They should go back to the ‘old’ hard tyre! sticking with the lastest one makes no sense!

        2. All the tyres changed at least slightly since testing. So I would have to agree and say technically they have, but realistically they haven’t run it yet

    4. There’s an old saying that applies here: if ain’t broke don’t fix it. The races have been great with the tyres as they were so changing them risks making the racing boring again.

      1. The races have been great with the tyres as they were

        They haven’t raced on the mediums yet.

    5. Clueless making it up as they go along = Pirelli
      Tried of their PR ******* now, ruining a good season of the back of the best season a decade (which most seem to overlook).

      1. whoops, but you get the gist.

      2. well the contract for them to become F1 tyre supplier was relatively last minute. Considering the fact that they were asked to provide tyres that degrade, and provide good racing, i would say they have done a dam good job so far.

        Perhaps there would be less ‘making it up’ as they go along if there was in season testing… but if teams smashed out thousands of laps and got to know tyres intimately, then that could have taken the edge off the races, as well as cost etc etc.

        Man people who are closely involved in F1, have also heaped praise on the ‘clueless’ pirelli sucj as Brundle, Couthard, Croft, Davison, Jordan to Maurice Hamilton, to name a few.

    6. What’s made he racing great in 2011?
      Is it DRS, no, how about Kers, no?

      It has been the new tyres, they have created FANTASTIC races so far, with so much excitement down through the grid.

      Why tamper Pirelli?

      1. To be fair, I think DRS has given us at least a couple of decent races, particularly China.

        KERS you can’t really lump in the same bracket as it’s about the most equal addition to the cars this year…except in the case or Mark Webber it seems ;)

        1. Im not sure that DRS can claim much credit in China either

    7. Yet more tyres for the teams to get their collective head around, cool :D

    8. I know Montreal is a street circuit with some runoff area but that doesn’t explain with good degradation why they are bringing soft and super-soft tyres there, I guess Super-soft & Medium would have been better choice.

    9. They better bring lots of rain tyres…

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