Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsPirelli

Monza tyre selection 'way more sensible'

Pirelli has been praised for its tyre selection for the Italian Grand Prix having made a change this season compared to previous years.

Recent races at Monza have seen the medium and hard compound tyres nominated, but early this year Pirelli said it would go one step softer and bring the soft and medium to Italy. Sauber's head of track engineering, Giampaolo Dall'Ara, says the change is a welcome one which will improve the racing on offer.

“The Monza circuit is known worldwide for the impressive speeds the cars reach on the straights, which are the highest of the season," Dall'Ara said. "At the same time, this historic facility features challenging corners of every kind, from low-speed chicanes to flowing bends, such as Lesmo and Parabolica.

"The set-up has to take into account downforce levels more than anywhere else, so the engineers will target maximum mechanical grip with an accent on braking, traction and kerb riding.

"As for the tyre allocation, the medium and the soft are a way more sensible choice than the medium and hard we have had for years. They will open up new scenarios and the show will benefit from such a choice.”

The praise will be welcomed by Pirelli, with the tyre manufacturer heavily criticised by Sebastian Vettel after a late tyre failure during the Belgian Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg also called for change ahead of the Italian GP due to the high-speed nature of the Monza circuit.

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Click here for a look back at the 1971 Italian Grand Prix from Monza, when the top five cars were covered by just 0.61s.

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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.