Pirelli debuts new hard compound tire in Germany

With rain at Silverstone scuppering plans to introduce the tire at the British GP, two sets of Pirelli's new hard compound tire will be made available to F1 teams on Friday at Hockenheim, on top of their usual quota of 11 sets for the weekend. The race selection, however, remains the medium and soft compound Pirellis.

Paul Hembery, Pirelli's motorsport director, explained: "The new hard tire is not too big an evolution but it has a slightly wider working range, which should make it easier for the teams to get the tires up to temperature and maintain them in the correct operating window.

"We're running them in Friday free practice only as with the championship so finely balanced, we feel that it would be unfair to suddenly alter one of the fundamental parameters that the teams have made a lot of effort to understand and get the most out of. But we enjoy a very productive dialogue with them and we will always take into account the wishes of the majority."

Hockenheim, which hosts the German GP in alternate years with Nurburgring, is therefore one of three new 2012 tracks for Pirelli — the others being Bahrain and the new US GP track in Austin.

Pirelli are confident that via computer simulation, mathematical modeling and its GP3 knowledge, Hockenheim should hold no fears for them.