Pirelli explains its “aggressive” tire choices for 2025

While Formula 1 heads to Barcelona this weekend for the Spanish Grand Prix, the end of the triptych of races that began in Imola is a first opportunity for Pirelli to analyze the data collected by its teams on the last two Grands Prix, in Emilia-Romagna and Monaco. On these last two tracks, the Italian manufacturer brought the three softest tire specifications of its allocation, with the aim of energizing the strategies. Pirelli will adopt the same strategy in Montreal, for the Canadian Grand Prix in two weeks.

"We are still waiting for Montreal, which will be an important race to better understand the C6 tire," as explained by Mario Isola, competition director of the Italian manufacturer. “We got some good information, especially at Imola. It was an aggressive choice, using the softest tire in our range. Ideally, I would like to have an even more aggressive tire, because in terms of lap times, the C6 is very close to the C5. For some teams, it wasn't a very easy compound to use, but that's quite normal; you have to understand the new compound when you bring it to a circuit. You have to get used to it; it was the same with the Hypersoft a few years ago. Everyone understood that there was potential, but they had trouble using it. I believe that in Montreal, we will have a real return, if it doesn't rain of course!”

Pirelli, which has been Formula 1's sole rubber manufacturer since 2011, also announced this weekend the tires it will bring to the Grands Prix until the summer break. At Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps, two circuits where the tires are put to the test, Pirelli has decided to adopt two different strategies. In Great Britain, the tires will be a notch softer than last year to force teams to make more pit stops. The same result is expected in Belgium, but with an inverse strategy, bringing the hardest tire in the range, the C1, then the C3 and C4.

“We measured the degradation and graining on the tires in the first part of the season. And with new simulations, we realized that we could use softer tires at Silverstone. It’s a good opportunity to push the teams to use a two-stop strategy. At Spa, the idea was different. There were the C2, C3, and C4 available. We decided to bring the C1 as the hardest tire, because by creating a big performance gap between the medium and hard tires, a team can play it safe by making only one stop with a set of mediums and a set of hards, but it will be slower. Alternatively, it’s possible to be more aggressive with a two-stop strategy, using the softs and the mediums. On paper, this strategy should be faster than the conservative choice.”

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