Pirelli does believe some teams will try the soft tyre for this afternoon’s Formula 1 Sprint Qualifying at the British Grand Prix.
Drivers are gearing up for a 17-lap dash around Silverstone where there is total freedom on which compound to use and no need for a mandatory pitstop.
In Practice 2, it was noticeable many teams did or came close to running what will be a full race distance on the soft C3 tyre.
But equally, others also ran into trouble with blistering and not just on the red-striped rubber, so a critical decision lies ahead.
“It is difficult to predict if teams will use just mediums or also the soft,” Pirelli motorsport chief Mario Isola commented.
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“If you look back at the second Silverstone race last year where the soft compound we have this week was the medium, we have some drivers that were able to run a stint longer than the Sprint on the soft without the high degradation.
“We had for example Esteban Ocon, Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc, Lance Stroll, Raikkonen, Antonio Giovinazzi – they all ran long stints on the C3 compound.
“I believe that considering last year we had similar conditions in terms of temperature it is a good indication of what they can choose.”
Of course, with the soft tyre, the balance has to be made between possibly gaining places early on but then dropping back late on if degradation becomes an issue.
However, it is certainly more of a talking point than the Pirelli chief was expecting.
“Before coming I was more or less convinced that everybody was going to try and run Sprint on the Mediums, but now I am not so sure,” Isola continued.
“I think we will see a mix of soft and medium compound for the Sprint.
“If it happens it is obviously very interesting as with the new format everyone was thinking it would be the same compound for everybody, but maybe not.”
