Pirelli Preview - French Grand Prix
Everything you need to know from the Italian tyres manufacturer ahead of the eighthGrand Prix of the season in Le Castellet.
( palabras)
For the second time after its comeback on the calendar, the Paul Ricard cicuit in France will host a Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The first winner of the new era, since the last edition in 2008 (Felipe Massa at Magny- Cours) is Lewis Hamilton, who won with a one pit stop strategy, last year, and celebrated the victory with Max Verstappen, 2nd, and Kimi Raikkonen, 3rd.
For the first of five back to back races, Pirelli, the italian tyres manufacturer, has selected the the C2 compound as the hard, C3 as the medium, and C4 as the soft tyre. The selection is the same made in Australia, China, and Azerbaijan.
The circuit is 5.8 km long, one of the longest of the season; the track has been completely resurfaced last year, so that the tyres degradation is very low thanks to the smooth asphalt.
"Our tyre choice this weekend is slightly more conservative than the 2018 soft, supersoft and ultrasoft tyres that we brought to France last year, as the supersoft is no longer part of the 2019 range." Said Mario Isola, Pirelli's Head of Motor Racing. "Consequently, the drivers should be able to push hard from the start to the finish of each stint. Along with Barcelona and Silverstone, we used the thinner gauge tyres in France last year, so we can again make a direct comparison about how the cars have evolved from 2018. Although a large part of the circuit has been re-asphalted, it should not make much difference to the track’s characteristics. With this being only the second time at the circuit, teams still do not have a full complement of data, so we will see plenty of learning. We have already used Paul Ricard for testing this year, but that has been on a much shorter, separate configuration rather than the full grand prix circuit."
Here are the tyres selections per driver for the French Grand Prix.
The first winner of the new era, since the last edition in 2008 (Felipe Massa at Magny- Cours) is Lewis Hamilton, who won with a one pit stop strategy, last year, and celebrated the victory with Max Verstappen, 2nd, and Kimi Raikkonen, 3rd.
For the first of five back to back races, Pirelli, the italian tyres manufacturer, has selected the the C2 compound as the hard, C3 as the medium, and C4 as the soft tyre. The selection is the same made in Australia, China, and Azerbaijan.
The circuit is 5.8 km long, one of the longest of the season; the track has been completely resurfaced last year, so that the tyres degradation is very low thanks to the smooth asphalt.
"Our tyre choice this weekend is slightly more conservative than the 2018 soft, supersoft and ultrasoft tyres that we brought to France last year, as the supersoft is no longer part of the 2019 range." Said Mario Isola, Pirelli's Head of Motor Racing. "Consequently, the drivers should be able to push hard from the start to the finish of each stint. Along with Barcelona and Silverstone, we used the thinner gauge tyres in France last year, so we can again make a direct comparison about how the cars have evolved from 2018. Although a large part of the circuit has been re-asphalted, it should not make much difference to the track’s characteristics. With this being only the second time at the circuit, teams still do not have a full complement of data, so we will see plenty of learning. We have already used Paul Ricard for testing this year, but that has been on a much shorter, separate configuration rather than the full grand prix circuit."
Here are the tyres selections per driver for the French Grand Prix.
