Pirelli: “It’s risky to go into Q3 with super soft tyres”;

During Thursday’s press conference, Felipe Massa and Daniel Ricciardo did not hide that they hoped to have a dedicated range of tires for Monaco in the future because the current range suffers from no degradation.

Pirelli, through its competition director Mario Isola, agreed with the drivers but explained the development constraints: « It’s not impossible, but to develop this compound, you must do it on a circuit with characteristics like Monaco. Testing this compound in Barcelona would make no sense. We need to find a circuit with very low abrasiveness, but for next year, we have other priorities. »

The Italian leader therefore acknowledged that it is technically feasible to complete the entire race with just one set of ultra-soft tires: « We had no degradation. Massa did 34 laps with just one set. The second stint was a long run simulation and the tire remained very stable throughout. »

Nevertheless, while it is almost certain that the entire field will make only one stop, multiple strategic options are available to the teams as they will be able to stop at any time to change tires.

Some might bet on a safety car caused by a collision at the start and thus quickly get rid of the super softs. But this requires setting the fastest lap in Q2 with this range, at the risk of not making it to Q3. Indeed, the performance gap over one lap between the two compounds is nearly seven tenths. With the tiny gaps in the midfield, a 5th place can quickly turn into a 13th place: « Doing Q2 on super softs? For me, personally, I think it’s a risk because the top 10 is very tight. If you make a mistake or encounter traffic, which is always possible in Monaco, you might not get through Q2 and end up 13th. Overtaking is so difficult here that it’s a big disadvantage. »

However, Pirelli was surprised that some teams (Red Bull, Williams, and Renault) chose to take only one set of super-softs and one set of softs to maximize the number of ultra-soft sets. Indeed, this sole set of red tires must be used in the race. What would happen if there was a puncture on one of the tires during free practice? The team in question would then be forced to use a set of softs that they have never tested over the weekend and which is much slower…

But even before the race, there may be several strategies regarding achieving the best lap in qualifying. Indeed, some teams might adopt the same strategy as in Sochi, namely doing an initial warm-up lap before really going for performance: « It’s not a problem of temperature warm-up because with super softs and ultra softs, we don’t have any issues getting them warm. It’s more about warming up the front and rear at the same time » concluded Mario Isola.

The qualifications will give us a first glimpse of who will want to adopt an alternative strategy.

From our special correspondent in Monaco