Pirelli announce tyre choices for first four races

2014 F1 season

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Pirelli have confirmed the tyre choices which will be available for teams at the first four races of 2014.

F1’s official tyre supplier will provide its medium and soft tyre compounds for three of the first four races in Australia, Bahrain and China.

The hardest tyre mix of hard and medium tyres will be used for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

This marks a change from last year’s tyre choices for Australia, where the super-soft was used instead of the soft, and Bahrain, where the hard tyre was used instead of the medium.

“The information gained over all three pre-season tests has helped us to come up with the tyre choices for the start of the season, having run with the new 2014 tyres in all conditions now: ranging from rain in Jerez to ambient temperatures exceeding 25 degrees centigrade in Bahrain,” said Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery.

“The conclusion we can draw so far is that the 2014 tyres are more consistent and wear less than their predecessors, without compromising performance. We’re also meeting another of our objectives with one more step towards the reduction of ‘marbles’ on the track.”

Pirelli say the gap in performance between the three hardest tyres – the soft, medium and hard – has widened with their new 2014 compounds.

Circuit2014 Option2014 Prime2013 Option2013 Prime
MelbourneSoftMediumSuper SoftMedium
SepangMediumHardMediumHard
ShanghaiSoftMediumSoftMedium
BahrainSoftMediumSoftHard

2014 F1 season


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Image © Pirelli/LAT

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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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22 comments on “Pirelli announce tyre choices for first four races”

  1. Seems conservative, especially in Melbourne

    1. Good, let them worry about their cars and not the tyres for once.

    2. @ialtair Maybe, but teams may opt to go 2 times soft one medium.

      The tyres are all a grade harder and of a different construction to the early season of 2013 which means that comparing their performances to those of the last half of 2013 is more relevant in terms of performance. What we know though is that the 2013 soft/2012 medium compound was a quick but weary and it didn’t work for the majority of tracks in the early part of 2013, that compound is now the super soft and has a normal aramid construction as the 2012 and late 2013. The 2013 hard is the 2014 medium but last year in Sepang drivers preferred the 2013 medium/2014 soft so I don’t know why Pirelli brought it again, that said it wasn’t as much of an issue as the allocation of soft in Shanghai last season. In the end most of the problems last season where due to the metal construction of the tyre so no big troubles ahead.

  2. Could’ve predicted that line up weeks ago… oh wait, I predicted the softer compounds but didn’t mention them publicly :-)

  3. I’ve decided that I cannot be bothered with Pirelli’s tyre allocations this year. All I want to know is that there’s a harder and a softer compound, and that’s it.

  4. So less chances of beating the pole times from previous year(s)..

  5. Too many stops. I want to see action on the track, not in the pits, and I hope there’s not too much “management” going on – but let’s see how they race.

  6. I’ve no idea what that means this year :) – we’ll see in Melbourne.

  7. Makes sense to be conservative with these new cars.

  8. I’m going to have another whinge about the tyres for Melbourne, I think they should have gone ultra-conservative, either Hard-Medium or Hard-soft, the teams are going to have a lot of problems and tactics to worry about without needing to factor in tyre stops, let them change onto hards on their first stop for dry-ice and then they only have to worry about finishing, I doubt fuel consumption will be a worry for any but the leading few cars.

  9. Have we had any announcements from Pirelli as to how the compounds compare to last years or perhaps 2012s, all I’ve heard are “more conservative” “fewer marbles” etc. PR fluff ?

    1. @hohum I hear you, but I think what’s different this time around if that they’re promising more consistent tyres. they are claiming they have effectively created a tyre that wears less and it maintains it’s characteristics longer, getting more speed with less “marbles” but still with as they say chemical degradation, my read is that the tyre will get slower but it won’t chunk to pieces as they did and I think that regardless of what political view is about tyres that to be true is an achievement. I’m sure hopeful I think the tyres are more responsible for overtaking than DRS and they sure give a strategy option to drivers and teams but this season they are effectively creating bigger gaps for the compounds which may not work as well as the dramatic way the tyres used to lose grip in the last couple years.

      1. @peartree, yes, promises promises but no real details, oh well fingers crossed, we will find out soon enough.

        1. @hohum Can’t wait any longer.

  10. More conservative doesn’t mean better tyres, if they go for tyres that are too hard the cars will all spin their rears unnecessarily on corner exit because of the new torque which I guess would cause further issues with deg and temps nevermind F1 cars looking like Russian ice racers.

    1. Well every year their rain tires, have been just that. It’s been pathetic, they have no grip/traction. I think that is the reason why we’ve had safety cars starts or red flags when they should driving on Full Wets. Instead, they wait until the track going past intermediates into almost dry weather before a restart (ala Canada 2011).

      It has always seemed that their tires have been way too temperature sensitive & inconsistent. So, nowhere near Bridgestone/Canada 2010.

      Anyway, I’m just complaining because Pirelli has not yet been able to replicate that race, as they were asked to. Driving at 70-80% just to make the tires last 6-12 laps is not, in my opinion racing or properly made tires.

  11. Keith, are you going to do an article on the change in quali regs – Q3 runners to use Q2 tyres for race start, with a change in Q1 and Q3 times ?

    1. +1 surprised there hasn’t been a write up on this yet.

  12. @Keithcollantine Bahrain 2013 Option – Medium, Prime – Hard
    Its good that they reverted to 2012 Choices for first 4 races and i hope we mostly see a 1 stopper / 2 stopper races(If teams want to go fast in the end)

  13. Hope Pirelli doesn’t mess up again this year.

  14. Bring all the tyre options to the track, let the teams choose what they want. End of story.

  15. It’s time that these were announced for the entire season from the start so teams can tailor their development to tyre warmup vs conservation.

    It’s fundamentally wrong to me that Pirelli can influence the championship direction with their tyre allocation by favouring competing teams tyre usage characteristics.

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