Pirelli motorsport boss Mario Isola says his team would be open to changing the naming system of their current array of tyres following a request from Formula 1 bosses and the FIA.
This season, the Italian supplier expanded their range from five types of slick compound to seven with the inclusion of the new Hypersoft, being used for the first time this weekend in Monaco, and the Superhard which is effectively a backup tyre which now likely won’t be used.
However, with four different types of soft tyre, Hyper, Ultra, Super before the conventional Soft, some believe the system has become too complex for fans to understand, despite each tyre also featuring their own colour.
“We had a request from FOM and FIA to just call them hard, medium and soft, with three colours, the same colours and same names for all the races,” Isola explained.
“But obviously different compounds, because you cannot use the same compounds we use in Silverstone in Monaco or Suzuka.
“On a second level we will have compound A, B, C, D, E, F or whatever, and we will tell you that for this race, the hard is B, the medium is D and whatever.”
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Internal discussions are now taking place within Pirelli to decide what the best solution would be and it does appear possible the change could come during this season.
“I made a check with production and logistics, obviously we need to understand all the implications,” Isola continued.
“It is feasible because we produce a specific batch for each race to be sure that they all come from the same batch of production.
“So honestly to put a purple label or a yellow label or any other colour is not a big issue. It’s a possibility.
“For spectators, it’s probably more understandable, but you also have the possibility to go deeper in detail for technical information that we will continue to provide.”
