Hamilton and Alonso praise Pirelli

Formula One tyre manufacturer Pirelli have introduced two new tyre compounds for the 2018 Formula One World Championship.

In fact the Italian tyre developer will now supply Formula One teams with seven slick P Zero compounds, alongside the Cinturato intermediates and full wets.

Currently Formula One teams and drivers get to pick tyre compounds from the range of purple ultra-soft, red super-soft, yellow soft, white medium and orange hard.

For 2018, a tweak to the colours will see the new super-hard compound become the orange striped tyre, with the hard compound now painted up in ‘ice blue’.

At the other end of the scale a new hypersoft tyre has been introduced and this will be painted in pink.

In fact all of the tyre compounds in 2018 will be a step softer than in 2017, making each new compound the faster.

Pirelli Head of Car Racing Mario Isola told their official website: ?Compared to this year, when the tyres grew by 25% to fit a brand-new generation of cars, the changes for next year are less far-reaching. However, we?re pleased to present some important innovations with softer and faster compounds across the range: including the new hypersoft. We realised that, under the unique circumstances of this year, some of our 2017 compounds were perhaps conservative: the tyres we have created for 2018 addresses this, in line with the objective of having around two pit stops at most races. However, the fundamental design concept of the tyres hasn?t changed next year, preserving the attributes that all drivers have appreciated this year and allowing them to push hard from the start to the finish of each stint. The new range consists of faster tyres that should lead to even harder and more spectacular racing in 2018.?

And they have already proved to be a hit with Four-Time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton who sampled the new hypersoft tyre during the post-season testing session in Abu Dhabi.

‘We’ve got a good early understanding of these 2018 Pirelli tyres. On early impression, the new HyperSoft is the best tyre that Pirelli have produced since returning to F1. I found that the other compounds are still a bit too hard for my liking but we’re moving in the right direction. Hamilton told Sky Sports.

Former two-time Formula One World Champion Fernando Alonso also gave some positive feedback: ‘They felt good, I felt the performance was there and the degradation was under control, so generally I had a good feeling.’