The supersoft tyre has been heavily favoured by all teams for next weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.
Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli confirmed the choices, which consist of the supersoft, soft and medium compounds, on Tuesday for the second race to be run on the streets of the capital of the Eurasian country, the same as last year.
Thermal degradation is the main concern around the circuit with two straights, including the longest on the calendar at two kilometres, where the cars will be reaching over 200mph (321kph).
The corners are very much within the characteristics of a city track for the first third, with a mix of slow 90-degree turns and chicanes, however, towards the end of the lap, a number of multiple high-speed kinks will certainly grab the drivers attention in the 2017 cars.
With overall tyre wear less this year, all the teams have favoured the softest allocated tyres since they started their own choices from Monaco.
That theme has continued again, though the main championship rivals, Mercedes and Ferrari, have both opted for exactly the same number of each compounds with eight sets of supersofts, four of the soft and a set of mediums.
Red Bull has chosen an extra set of mediums with one less soft after the team struggled with overheating issues last year.
After their strong outing in Canada, Force India, who had Sergio Perez on the podium in Baku last year, could well contend again and have gone more aggressive with nine sets of supersofts, three softs and one medium. The only other team to choose the same combination is the two Toro Rosso’s and Pascal Wehrlein in the Sauber.
Williams is the only other team to have a slight difference between their drivers. Felipe Massa has followed the Red Bull path, while Lance Stroll, along with Haas and Renault, have chosen the same number of each as Mercedes and Ferrari.
The most aggressive choices have been made by McLaren with 10 sets of supersofts, two softs and a single set of the medium tyres. This follows their pattern of trying to use the extra grip from the softer compounds to make up for their lack power.
The full numbers can be seen below:
