Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli has revealed they will introduce at least one new soft compound to their current range in 2018, with potentially as many as eight being homologated for next season.
In the wake of the new rules for 2017, the Italian manufacturer not only produced wider tyres for this year but also ended the intentional high degradation of their tyres, which they introduced when they arrived in 2011.
For some, however, this year’s rubber has been too hard and durable with most races only requiring one stop and the Hard compound itself only being used at a single race back in Spain.
It is already understood the 2018 compounds are to be more aggressive with a potential two-step jump softer compared to 2017, meaning the current Soft tyre could become the Hard next season.
That is to coincide with an additional compound being introduced which will be even softer than the current UltraSoft, which was brought in, in 2016. Pirelli has asked the fans to name the new tyre, which will feature the pink-stripes used in Austin, with the choices of MegaSoft, ExtremeSoft of HyperSoft put forward.
It is likely this tyre will only feature at circuits with very low degradation or grip, such as Monaco, Sochi and Singapore but may not be the only new compound as Pirelli Motorsport boss Mario Isola explained.
“We will have a range that is more usable, including the [new] hard, so we’ll have five compounds that are usable. We want to increase this range and this is the reason why probably we are going to homologate more than five,” he said.
“If you exaggerate the number it looks like you are confused. So we need to choose a number that is enough to give us the flexibility [but is] not too big.”
It was hoped Pirelli could continue testing their various compounds this week in Brazil before the two days of running was cancelled on safety grounds, after the attacks last weekend but the supplier will get the chance to gather data at the post-season test in Abu Dhabi in two weeks time.
