Pirelli eyes multiple stops at Australian GP

The new tires brought by Pirelli for the 2018 season should force the teams to review their strategies. While the opening is expected this weekend at the Australian GP, ​​the manufacturer of the F1 believes that teams should favor a multi-stop strategy, even if the Melbourne track is not very abrasive.

“The Barcelona tests have already given us an indication of the milestone that has been reached in terms of performance of the 2018 cars and tires., comments Mario Isola, competition director at Pirelli. This should now be confirmed through the different conditions traditionally offered by this stopover in Australia. This parameter also represents the great unknown, because the weather in Melbourne can vary at this time of the year, going from cool and humid weather to very hot weather. »

“From what we have observed so far, the greater softness of the new rubber could lead to one or two stoppages, compared to one last year. As always at the first Grand Prix of the season, many questions remain, but we hope the race will be exciting and strategy will play a major role.”, confirms Mario Isola.

Last year, the most common strategy was to compete in a first stint on ultra-soft tires before switching to soft compounds for the end of the race. These strategies could however be disrupted by possible showers. The teams will have soft, super soft and ultra soft tires available.