The 2013 FIA Formula One World Championship is edging nearer and nearer and Pirelli have announced which rubber the teams will run during the first four races of the season.
The new Pirelli compounds shouldn’t provide us with the same drama that meant that the first seven races were won by seven different drivers.
The new tyres are different to the 2012 tyres, but much like the teams cars, it’s more of an evolution on last season.
The compounds this season are more aggressive and should provide a good balance to allow the racers on the grid to race and those who look after the tyres the chance to switch between race strategies.
But most importantly, the teams should understand the tyres more, avoiding the lottery of finding the sweet spot during the first half of last season.
For example, in Australia teams will be handed the new supersoft tyres, this is the first time the softest compound has been used at Melbourne. This will provide different problems to the teams which they haven’t experienced in past years.
With the harder of the two compounds being the medium tyre, this will mean a greater performance gap between the two compounds, leading to hopefully an array of different strategies.
A gap in compound types looks like it could be a familiar theme because jump to race four of the season in Bahrain and the teams will be handed sets of the hard and soft compounds, again providing a greater performance gap between the two options of tyres.
In Malaysia and China the teams will have tyres that are just slightly different, this is because in Malaysia the teams need the harder compounds to deal with the high temperatures, while in China the two mid-range tyres will be used.
Both sets of compounds must be used by every driver [unless it rains] and each team will receive six sets of the harder compound and five sets of the softer compound per race weekend.
Australia – medium, supersoft
Malaysia – hard, medium
China – medium, soft
Bahrain – hard, soft
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