Teams to get extra tyres for Spanish practice 06 May 2013
Formula One tyre suppliers Pirelli are to give teams an extra set of tyres for practice at this weekend’s Formula 1 Gran Premio de España 2013. The Italian company say they hope the move will encourage extra track action on Friday in Barcelona.
“As permitted by the current regulations, we’ll be supplying an extra set of prototype hard compound tyres for free practice, which will hopefully ensure that all the cars run throughout these sessions,” said Pirelli’s motorsport director, Paul Hembery.
“It’s something we wanted to do to encourage all the teams to run as much as possible right from the start, especially with the rookie drivers, to give fans the spectacle they deserve to see.”
As previously announced, Pirelli will also be introducing a revised version of their hard tyre in Spain, which is closer in its characteristics to the 2012 tyre. This will be the prime tyre for the weekend, with Pirelli’s medium compound as the option.
“This new tyre gives us a wider working temperature window - although it delivers a little bit less in terms of pure performance - but it should allow the teams to envisage an even wider variety of race strategies than before in combination with the other compounds, which remain unchanged this year,” added Hembery.
“This is a decision that we’ve come to having looked at the data from the first four races, with the aim of further improving the spectacle of Formula One. In fact this is almost a tradition with us now, as we also introduced a revised version of the hard tyre for the Spanish Grand Prix in 2011, which was our first year in the sport.”
Pirelli expect the medium tyre to be significantly faster and thus the preferred compound for qualifying, whereas the hard is likely to be the favoured race tyre.