Unusual decision: Pirelli has announced what tyres the drivers will run for the entire race weekend in Australia

The queen of motorsport returns to Australia after two years, and in the last few hours Pirelli has announced the compound and tyre hardness the drivers will run on for the entire race weekend. The softest specification is expected to dominate.

Formula 1 has entered a new season, and therefore a new era, with some major changes, both with regard to technical and sporting regulations.

One of the most significant changes is racing on 18-inch tyres, instead of 13-inch tyres. And it’s the 18-inch tyres that will be put to an interesting test at Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix on the modified Melbourne circuit.

“Compared to previous races in Australia, this year’s event will bring a number of unknowns at a circuit where the drivers have not raced for two years. Firstly, the circuit has been significantly redesigned to allow for easier overtaking,” explains Zdenek Vacl, Pirelli’s Marketing Director for the Czech Republic.

As a consequence, the new asphalt has been laid, which should be very smooth. This means that the track is likely to have low grip at the start of the race. However, the situation will change rapidly over the course of the weekend and any rain will mean an extremely slippery surface,” Vacl added.

For these reasons, Pirelli is taking a somewhat unusual decision. For the race weekend in Australia, the teams will receive two sets of the hardest specification tyres (with C2 hardness) and three sets of medium tyres marked in yellow (this time with C3 hardness).

Pirelli is thus skipping the C4 tyres altogether for this weekend and resorting to the lowest possible hardness – C5 – for the first time this season. This designation will be borne by the tyres of the softest specification marked in red. Teams will receive eight sets of these tyres.

Albert Park modification

For the first time since 1996, the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia, has undergone significant modifications. It is currently 5.278 km long and consists of fourteen corners.

This track will also be much faster than ever before due to the aforementioned modifications. This is evidenced by the 4 DRS zones for easier passing with two detection points.

But in addition to the detection points, you can also see the average speeds that drivers achieve in each corner, as well as what gear they usually shift into in that corner.

As you can see in the image above, the chicane consisting of turns 9 and 10 has been removed and replaced with a long turn. In addition, turn six is much faster after the modification, with significant widening on the inside of turns 1 and 3.

The penultimate corner has also been widened, where the drivers can choose between more tracks thanks to the improved banking and can again adapt their driving style more closely to this.

The last major modification was made to the former Turn 13 (now 11), which is now much sharper.

Sources