Official Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli revealed the pace difference between their compounds at the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya and confirmed the differences are in line with expectations.
Although it is still a very early phase of the new 2019 F1 season, Pirelli confirmed that the tires behave according to expectations and that the differences between the components are between six and seven tenths of a second.
For this season, Pirelli decided to call their tyres with names from C1 (hardest) to C5 (softest), and during the F1 weekends, only three components will be used – soft (red), medium (yellow) and hard (white).
The difference between the C2 and C3 components is about 0.6 seconds, just like the difference between C4 and C5, while the difference between C3 and C4 is about 0.7 seconds.
The biggest difference is between the C1 and C2 components, between 0.8 and 1.0 seconds, but this difference is currently higher than it will be in warmer conditions because the C1 component works better at high temperatures.
“The track is not long [4655 m] so 0.7 seconds is a good figure if you take into account that we have targeted from 0.8 to 0.9 s,” Mario Pirelli’s Mario Isola said.
“So it could happen at some longer tracks.”
“Also, it is difficult to extract the performance from the C5 tyres in one lap of Barcelona, as the aggressive configuration and asphalt is rougher than last year.”
“The C1 component is a bit too hard for these conditions because it’s cold. I expect that when we get to this race [10-12 May] the difference between C1 and C2 will be smaller because C1 will work better and be closer to C2.”
2019 F1 PIRELLI COMPOUNDS PACE DIFFERENCE
C1 – C2: 0.8 – 1.0 s
C2 – C3: 0.7 s
C3 – C4: 0.6 s
C4 – C5: 0.6 s
2019 F1 PIRELLI COMPOUNDS WORKING RANGES
