F1 News: Softest Pirelli tire to only be used at one more race

Pirelli has informed the teams of its choice of dry tire compounds for all ten races after the summer break. The selection, made in conjunction with the FIA and F1, includes several changes compared to last year, based first and foremost on data gathered so far. Let’s take a look, starting with the changes.

As from Zandvoort, we start with a step softer than in the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix: this time the tires are the C2 as Hard, the C3 as Medium and the C4 as Soft. Last year, when three quarters of the field only made one pit stop during the race, the tires in use were the hardest in the range, namely, C1, C2 and C3. This year’s new tire, the C6, reappears in Baku, which means the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is also taking a step on the softer side with C4 as Hard, the C5 as Medium and the C6 as Soft, so as to increase the range of possible strategies. Last year in Baku the slicks in use were the C3, C4 and C5.

In Spa, the rain meant it was impossible to fully evaluate the effect on strategy of skipping a compound, but missing a compound step will also be the case for two of the four rounds in the Americas, which are a feature of the second part of the season. In Austin, only the Medium (C3) and Soft (C4) will be in the same positions as last year, while the Hard is harder, (C 1 instead of C2). The same approach will be adopted the following week in Mexico City: Medium (C4) and Soft (C5) remain the same, while the Hard goes one step harder from C3 to C2.

A completely harder step has been selected for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, as last year it was clear that the C5 was not a viable race tire. Therefore, the trio of compounds is the same as in 2023, namely the C2, C3 and C4 as the Hard, Medium and Soft respectively.

The remaining five races all follow the same pattern as in 2024. For the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, as well as the races in Singapore, Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi, the C3 is Hard, the C4 is Medium and the C5 is Soft. For Qatar, one of the toughest races of the whole season as far as tires are concerned, the trio will be the hardest of the 2025 range (C1 as Hard, C2 as Medium and C3 as Soft).

“We decided to announce the compound choices for all remaining races in order to allow teams to prepare as well as possible for all the coming rounds,” explained Mario Isola, Pirelli Director of Motorsport. “There are some changes, made in consultation with the FIA and the championship promoter and they are based on an analysis of the data gathered and the simulation work. The choices are always made with the aim of balancing out the validity of the one or two-stop strategy, to increase excitement and deliver a better show. There is no single solution to achieving this, but without looking at the reality of the racing situation you can’t expect concrete answers.”

Changes for 2026

Pirelli is developing new tires for the brand-new 2026 cars that have a reduced front width of 25mm compared to the current rubber, with the rears 30mm narrower.

But the C6 compound in particular is likely to be very different from this year’s, which has produced tricky to extract the peak from over a single lap, with some teams electing to instead use the harder C5 tire for their crunch qualifying laps.

“We’re working on having a C6 in the range again [for 2026],” Pirelli chief engineer Simone Berra added.

“The point is we don’t want to have a C6 like this year where it’s difficult to extract the peak of grip, etc.

“So the idea is to have a proper delta laptime [between the C5 and the C6] and an easier tire to manage on performance runs, but still good tires for low-energy circuits.

“For sure if we’re going to validate a C6 compound, C6 will be the best candidate for Monaco.

“We will see, at the moment we’re not focused on a specific race, we are working more to reach our targets in terms of degradation.”