Formula One (F1)

“With Monaco always being one of the circuits that has the most noticeable degree of track evolution during the weekend throughout the year, it’s hard to draw many firm conclusions from the first two free practice sessions, although there is already some idea of the pecking order”

So far, there have been no safety car periods during the 2013 season. The tight confines of Monaco, with its never-ending Armco and very little run-off means that this is statistically likely to change. Along with Singapore, Korea and Canada, Monaco has one of the highest probabilities of safety car deployment all year, at around 80%.

It’s important to point out that these delaminations, which occur when the tread comes off, do not compromise the safety of the tyres as the core structure of the tyre is not affected in any way, helping drivers to complete the lap and to change the damaged tyres safely.

Alonso also set a new record by becoming the only driver to win the Spanish Grand Prix from a far down as fifth on the grid, demonstrating how tyre strategy can be used to gain track position.

Milan, May 6, 2013 – The P Zero Orange hard compound and P Zero White medium compound have been nominated for the Spanish Grand Prix, but there will be some changes to the tyres at the famous Circuit de Catalunya this year. The P Zero Orange hard compound has evolved, with the [...]

“After evaluating tyre performance over the balance of the first four races, we took the decision – in consultation with all of the teams – to change the hard compound from Spain onwards, as we did in Barcelona two years ago when we also introduced a new hard tyre for the rest of the season.”

It was fantastic to see such brilliantly close racing all the way down the field, from the start to the finish of the grand prix. To some extent this was down to the fact that there was only a small performance gap between the two compounds, meaning that we saw lots of different thinking on strategy.

“Bahrain was one of the very few circuits that was entirely new to us in competition last year, although we know it well from testing. It’s one of the most demanding tracks of the year for the tyres, mostly because of the high ambient and track temperatures”

The drivers began the race using a variety of different strategies, with many teams opting for mixed tactics between their two drivers. Jenson Button (McLaren), Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber), Paul di Resta (Force India), Sergio Perez (McLaren), Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) and Valtteri Bottas (Williams) all started on the medium tyres: the others started on the soft.

China puts plenty of energy through the front tyres in particular, due to the number of high-energy corners – such as turn one, which is almost a full circle – and the heavy braking areas, which causes weight to transfer towards the front of the car. The most stressed tyre is the front-left, with China featuring the heaviest braking seen all year.