How Pirelli’s controversial new tyre will form the Monaco GP and past

On-track overtaking in Monaco is a uncommon commodity – drivers have been complaining in regards to the narrowness of the streets when Tazio Nuvolari was in his pomp.

Certainly, we reckon the final time the world’s biggest drivers graced the principality with a real move for the lead on something aside from the primary lap was in 1985, when Michele Alboreto elbowed his well past Alain Prost at Sainte Dedicate at first of lap 24. Pit technique and incidents account for many adjustments of place right here.

Final 12 months, a purple flag after a three-car shunt on the opening tour enabled the whole discipline to carry out the required change from one tyre compound to a different through the hiatus. The outcome was a processional tyre-management plod wherein the points-paying positions labored out in grid order.

“I believe at one level we have been going slower than System 2,” stated Oscar Piastri, who completed second to Charles Leclerc.

No person wished to pit once more and lose monitor place so, though the sector was circulating at a decreased tempo, there was little or no overtaking tried as a result of tyre administration took precedence. In February, the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council rubber-stamped a proposal from F1’s stakeholders to require all drivers to make use of not less than three units of tyres within the Monaco race, successfully making it a two-stopper at minimal.

This can be a sticking-plaster answer at finest, and never one which shall be utilized to different races because the chances are groups would merely converge across the similar pitstop timing. For there to be strategic selection, quite a lot of totally different choices with potential upsides need to be on the desk – and that’s the reason Pirelli has such excessive hopes for the brand new C6 tyre, created with road circuits like Monaco in thoughts however deployed for the primary time at Imola final weekend.

For the time being, the number of three totally different dry-weather compounds Pirelli brings to every occasion is drawn from adjoining members of what was, till final weekend, a five-compound household. If the C6 could be rolled out at extra grand prix weekends than initially meant, it opens the potential for ‘skipping’ compounds so there’s a larger efficiency differential between them.

“Groups all the time discover a method to apply a method on one cease,” stated Pirelli motorsport boss Mario Isola final weekend. “We try to push them to have a two-stop technique as a result of it is higher, it is extra motion, extra unpredictability, and higher races.

“However, with the three compounds which might be so shut, they all the time attempt to use the onerous and the medium to maneuver to a one-stop.”

Compounds being too comparable is a matter that has cropped up earlier than, however has develop into extra of an element this 12 months after Pirelli made changes to make them extra resilient – as a result of drivers demanded to have tyres they might push on for longer. This has led to fewer races with offset methods the place drivers on more energizing tyres on the finish of a race chase down those that have opted to stay it out on older ones.

For the reason that compounds are homologated and can’t be modified in-season, the one choice is to seek out different methods to make use of those that exist already. Pirelli plans to run recent simulations for the approaching races based mostly on knowledge gathered on the most recent rubber through the opening rounds.

This, reckons Isola, will allow Pirelli to “see if there may be any answer, like, to skip one degree, to have a tough that’s more durable – so if you wish to use the onerous you’re penalised by the lap time. You may push however it’s slower.

Mario Isola, Racing Supervisor, Pirelli Motorsport, on the grid

Photograph by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Pictures

“And we have to perceive if, with this technique, we encourage a few of them to maneuver to a soft-medium selection for the race – that may be a two-stop race on this case, and if you wish to keep on one-stop medium-hard your tempo is decrease than the opposite.”

The place the C6 is available in, and why Pirelli wished to strive it at Imola as properly, is to facilitate that unfold of efficiency. When the brand new compound was first mooted as a good softer choice than the present C6, it was anticipated for use solely in Monaco and maybe Las Vegas – a sooner road circuit however one with decrease ambient temperatures because the race takes place at evening. Now, Pirelli is bringing it to Canada and speaking about Baku, Singapore and even Mexico.

However first it wanted to be examined in race situations at a venue aside from Monaco, for causes Pirelli chief engineer Simone Berra defined final weekend.

“Amassing the knowledge for the C6 in Monaco was not likely vital,” he stated. “Monaco is a specific circuit, you may have graining simply due to the graceful Tarmac and low-speed corners and all these sorts of conditions.

“For us it is actually essential to gather knowledge right here [Imola] for the C6, additionally for the choice for the second a part of the season.”

Imola was a proof of idea to see if the C6 may deal with corners that put extra vitality by means of the tyre. The important thing lesson up to now appears to be that it has a pointy efficiency peak so, at a circuit like Imola with quick, flowing corners, thermal stresses construct up shortly and it may slip out of its optimum efficiency ‘window’, even over the course of 1 lap.

Sergio Perez, Crimson Bull Racing RB20, Max Verstappen, Crimson Bull Racing RB20, within the queue to go away the pits

Photograph by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Pictures

The medium-compound tyre then turned theoretically the higher qualifying selection, however utilizing it required earmarking units for the race. Whereas it is a strategic component that doubtlessly provides curiosity, it is understood that the stakeholders’ most well-liked route is to have differentiation between compounds and potential race tempo relatively than this type of ‘jeopardy’.

“Wanting on the outcome right here [Imola],” stated Berra, “we will, for example, consider higher if it is too dangerous or not likely. For instance, for Singapore we’re desirous about bringing the C6, and likewise beginning to leap compounds.

“So for instance, bringing C2, C4, C6 at some circuits to strive one thing totally different, or C3, C4 and C6, to attempt to differentiate strategic approaches.”

For this, the C6 must be on the very least a superb qualifying tyre. However not less than it’s been extra profitable already than a earlier try so as to add a softer step to the tyre portfolio.

Again in 2018, below a special naming regime, Pirelli launched a ‘hypersoft’ tyre in Monaco, and the unintended consequence was a largely processional race wherein drivers tiptoed spherical throughout their stint on the brand new compound. Having a minimal of two stops will not less than imply this 12 months’s race gained’t pan out precisely the identical manner.