Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsPirelli

Pirelli set for ‘rethink’ on 2016 compounds

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Pirelli motorsport boss Paul Hembery says the tyre manufacturer will need to “rethink” its tyre compounds in 2016 after a number of one-stop races.

The Canadian Grand Prix was a one-stop race despite the softest two compounds in the range being used, with Hembery admitting the tyres are proving too hard this season. After another one-stopper in Austria, the British Grand Prix was set to be the same until rain showers forced extra stops, and Hembery told F1i changes are needed.

“[One stop] was what everybody set out to do if it stayed dry, so that wasn’t really a surprise,” Hembery said. “For next season we need to make some changes because the requirement is two to three stops and clearly this year for a variety of reasons we’ve ended up with a lot of one-stop races.”

When asked if Pirelli would need to take a radical departure from this year’s tyres for next year, Hembery replied: “I wouldn’t say a radical departure structurally, no.

“But from a compound point of view we need to have a rethink of where we’re at because we’ve always said the brief is two to three stops and that’s the brief we still have. Of course, with the limitations we have on testing we’re sometimes going to get that slightly wrong one way or the other.

“We might have too many stops as we’ve had maybe in one season, and then maybe like this year we have been slightly conservative. So we need to do some proper testing with a relevant car and we can get it sorted for next year.”

F1i understands Pirelli is keen to bring in a softer compound than the supersoft next season to be used on street circuits such as Monaco and Singapore.

Click here for a lighter look back at some scenes from the British Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.