Getting to grips with 2011 Part 1 (Tyres)

The change in tyres has been the biggest regulation change this year. Bridgestone decided to pull out of F1 and as we know Pirelli have now taking their place as the sole tyre manufacturer.

The rules about how many sets of tyres each team has hasn’t changed, they all still get 11 sets of slicks, 4 sets of intermediates and three sets of full wets. Also like last year there are four different slick tyre compounds of which two (the two compounds are decided by Pirelli) are brought to each race. They are the hard, medium, soft and super soft. What is different about the compounds is the way we the audience can tell which tyre a team is using. Bridgestone last year had a green stripe round the rim of the softer tyre so we could see what tyre a driver was on. This year however Pirelli are set to introduce a much more colourful method. On the side of each tyre are the words "Pirelli P Zero" and the colour of these words will be different for each compound. The super soft compound will feature red lettering, the soft white, the medium blue and the hard yellow. It is also reported that the intermediate tyres will have a red sidewall and the full wets will have a yellow sidewall.

For each race weekend each driver is allowed to use 2 sets of the harder tyre (referred to as the prime) and 1 set of the softer tyre (referred to as the option). One set of the prime tyres has to be handed back before practise 2 and the remaining of the three tyres after practise 2. For the rest of the weekend the drivers are free to use the rest of the 8 sets however they want but must use both compounds in the race at least once unless they have used a non-slick tyre in the race. The drivers who set a time in Q3 will as they had to last year start the race on the tyres they set their best lap on.

After the mainly one stop race scenario last year Pirelli have announced they will design their tyres to wear out quicker to produce more pit stops and add a greater strategic element. This has seemed to have worked as every driver has been complaining about the tyres wear rates. They have found that they go off extremely quickly especially the rear tyres which is to be expected as they are subjected to 750 horse power. This factor could play into certain driver’s hands like Jensen button for example and harm other drivers like Lewis Hamilton. But Hamilton may not have to fear that much from these tyres as each compound is harder than the same Bridgestone compound but they wear out quicker. This is a weird scenario and drivers who are good a putting heat in their tyres like Hamilton may have an advantage on the colder of days and those like Button who are not good at warming them up may be slower.

I think the tyres are the things that are going to throw up the biggest challenge for the teams. Changing from one manufacturer to another is not an easy feat. If we look back into the past we see that McLaren have a good record with changing tyres. In 2006 McLaren raced with Michelins and won no races but the next year they went onto the Bridgestone’s as Michelin pulled out and then got 8 wins and would have got the constructors title had they not been thrown out. So McLaren may have an advantage but they may not. We will never know till we get to Bahrain……….. Well if we are allowed to go. ;)

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