Pirelli reveals tyre compound options for first 2018 races

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Formula 1's tyre supplier Pirelli has announced which rubber compounds will be available to teams and drivers for the first three outings of 2018.

The company is expanding its range of compounds next season. Instead of five different tyres - ranging from hard to ultrasoft - there will now be seven alternatives next season.

Pirelli has added a new superhard tyre at the top end, and a hypersoft option at the other. However, neither compound will be making its début appearance in the first three races of the new season.

At Australia, teams will be able to choose sets of soft, supersoft and ultrasoft tyres. That's the same line-up that Pirelli made available for the 2017 season opener.

The Bahrain Grand Prix moves forward in the calendar next year and becomes the second race of 2018. The options will be the white-marked medium tyre along with the soft and supersoft compounds. Pirelli chose the same line-up for this year's race.

For the third outing of the year in China, Pirelli will be serving up the medium, soft and ultrasoft tyres. It means that they will 'jump over' the supersoft compound in Shanghai.

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Last year the tyres available for the race were mediums, softs and supersofts.

Drivers automatically get one set of each available compound. A set of the softest compound must be held in reserve for use in Q3. Drivers are then free to choose the rest of their 13-set allocation for the race weekend as they wish.

However their selection must allow them to use at least two different compounds during the race - unless it rains.

In total, only the yellow-walled soft compound tyre is being made available at all three races at the start of 2018. The medium, red-marked supersofts and purple ultrasoft tyre all get two outings each.

The tyres yet to get an opportunity to show what they can do are the superhard, hard and hypersoft tyres.

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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.