Pirelli puts its hard tyre in storage until Suzuka

Pirelli brought out its hard tyre for the first time this year in Barcelona, but after the odd installation lap the compound was quickly pushed aside by teams.

Pirelli's initial pre-selection called for the hard tyre to be used at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone but those plans are likely to be shelved after this weekend.

"If you look at the natural deadline it was before the race in Barcelona, last Thursday," said Pirelli racing manager Mario Isola.

"We decided to postpone the choice until after Barcelona, to give to the teams more information on the performance in Barcelona.

"The process is usually that we make a proposal that we agree with the FIA. Obviously we have to have an internal meeting and decide."

In the past, the hard compound has typically been used in Malaysia, Japan and Brazil.

"We are planning to use the hard in Suzuka," said Isola.

"The other high severity circuit was Sepang, but last year with the new surface Sepang was less abrasive.

Many drivers were critical of Pirelli's conservative tyre selection for Spain, wondering why the SuperSoft compound which had performed well in pre-season testing had been left out.

"It [the super-soft] was OK in that condition with those loads," explained Isola.

"Now we are we with an estimation of the loads of the pre-season test, with a temperature that is different.

"Some years we have much higher temperatures here, so we have to consider this and that's why I don't have the feeling to say yes, I would go one step softer.

"Honestly, this is too aggressive, so we didn't want to oblige the teams to have this compulsory aggressive selection."

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