Pirelli Tag

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Mercedes AMG Petronas drivers Nico Rosberg, and Lewis Hamilton have picked the exact same supply of tires for their championship showdown at Yas Marina for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Each of them will have four sets of softs, two sets of super-softs, and seven sets of the super sticky ultra-soft compounds for the weekend. The driver’s choices echo Mercedes’ boss Toto Wolff’s strategy of giving their drivers each an equal opportunity to claim the championship. Whoever wins will not claim the title by fluke ofRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The FIA has confirmed a number of rule changes for the 2017 season today. With new cars substantially different and faster than the current machines, the sport’s governing body has had to issue rule changes out piecemeal style, but we can glean some important information from today’s announcement. Power Units The power units themselves aren’t changing for the 2017 season, but how they are to be regulated will. Currently teams have been able to change multiple parts of the power units and incur grid penalties forRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Testing resumed today for Pirelli’s 2017 Formula 1 tires. This time the tests occurred in two locations and with two teams sampling the new rubber. Ferrari got their second look at the tires with Kimi Raikkonen trying them at Circuit de Catalunya in Spain, and Mercedes drafted in Pascal Wehrlein for the team’s initial impression of the compounds by turning laps at Paul Ricard in France. Wehrlein completed 134 laps, Raikkonen a few less on 111. The laps turned by Raikkonen will provide the more crucialRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer Haas F1 development driver, Santino Ferrucci, was given the opportunity to drive a Formula One machine for the first time on Tuesday during an in-season test at Silverstone in England. The 18-year old Ferrucci, who hails from Woodbury, Connecticut, signed on with the American-based F1 team earlier this season, as he continues a full season in GP3 with the DAMS organization. In a session that was hit with rain showers, the youngster completed 55 laps on the 3.660-mile circuit, logging enough mileage to qualify for theRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Following an investigation, Pirelli have come to the conclusion that Sebastian Vettel’s tire failure at the Austrian Grand Prix was due to debris. The four-time Formula 1 champion suffered a right-rear blowout along the main straightaway at roughly 200 mph while leading race before  hitting the inside wall and coming to a stop in the middle of the track near the entrance of Turn 1. Ferrari was running Vettel with the supersoft tire compound and had completed 27 laps when it failed, but the Italian tireRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Pirelli have revealed their three tire compounds that will be made available for the Malaysian Grand Prix in October. The three compounds selected are the orange-marked hard, white-marked medium and yellow-marked soft tires. It is the first time since Spain that the hard compound has been selected.  The 2016 rules state that drivers must have two sets on-hand, and are required to use at least one of them. A set of softs will be made available for the Q3 qualifying session, which will returned to PirelliRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Pirelli and the FIA have finally reached an agreement to keep the Italian tire manufacturer as Formula 1’s exclusive supplier until the end of the 2019 season. A deal had already been in place with Formula 1 Management for Pirelli to remain in the sport, but a testing plan needed to be agreed upon with the FIA prior to signing the contract. The agreement was to ensure that the Pirelli had enough track time to develop next year’s tires due to the wider specifications. The specificRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Over half a year since confirmation came that Pirelli would continue its role as the sole tire supplier for Formula One, contracts have been completed and plans are coming to fruition. Former Williams and Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado has served as tire tester for the Italian manufacturer as it researched potential compounds and constructions for the bigger, wider tires set to debut in 2017. Pirelli also confirmed that the first three teams to test the 2017 compounds will be the big three of Mercedes, Ferrari andRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Pirelli has revealed that their new ultra-soft tire compound will debut at this season’s Monaco Grand Prix. The ultra-soft tire is designed to be used at all streets circuits, beginning at the famous Monte Carlo race. Formula 1’s main tire supplier since the 2011 season, Pirelli will also have super-soft and soft compounds available to choose from. 13 sets in all are available to the teams. One of each compound will be set aside by Pirelli, which will see the super-soft and soft tires set asideRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor The second day of running in Barcelona once again saw Sebastian Vettel top the session for Ferrari. The four time champ lowered his best time from yesterday by two seconds after slapping on a set of Pirelli’s new ultra-soft compounds. Daniel Ricciardo had the second best time for Red Bull, also on the ultra-softs, but near 3/4th’s of a second behind the Ferrari. Sergio Perez validated Force India’s performance by putting in the third best lap of the day on the super-softs. Nico Rosberg took overRead More