Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsPirelli

Pirelli expects high wear levels at Monza

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Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery says notable level of wear and degradation are expected at the Italian Grand Prix.

When nominating its compounds for the final set of European races, Pirelli opted to go one step softer than usual at Monza, selecting the medium and soft tyres. Following the Belgian Grand Prix - where Sebastian Vettel's right rear tyre failed late in the race due to what Pirelli claims was it reaching the end of its wear life - Hembery says teams will have to be wary of wear levels in Italy.

“Monza is always one of the highlights of our season, with an incredible history and atmosphere," Hembery said. "We have the medium and soft compounds, a step softer than our nomination last year, which should be well suited to Monza and the emphasis on speed that this circuit always places.

"We’re expecting a fair degree of wear and degradation, so as always the work done during free practice will be very important when it comes to calculating the optimal strategy. With the two compounds potentially quite closely matched in terms of pace, this opens up a few options.

"The cars run low downforce at Monza and that actually increases the work for the tyres considerably under acceleration and braking, because with less force pushing down on top of the car, it’s the tyres that are providing all the mechanical grip. Allied to the kerbs at Monza, this provides our tyres with a wide-ranging all-round challenge, requiring consistent durability and performance."

Pirelli says it will release the full results of an investigation in to Vettel's failure at Monza this weekend.

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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.