F1 News, Reports and Race Results

In a nutshell: which tyres for the Monaco GP?

The next race is for many the highlight of the entire Formula 1 season, as the teams check in to their Monaco hotels for a level of stylish glitz and glamour only the Principality can provide.

The Monaco Grand Prix will see the race début of Pirelli's brand new P Zero Pink hypersoft compound, which in testing has shown itself to be about a second a lap quicker than the ultrasoft.

The ultras will also be on hand for the race, as will the supersoft compound. The same line-up of tyre compounds will be on offer again to drivers at the next race of the season, the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

Monaco is well known for needing a high level of mechanical grip from the cars, while at the same time putting the least stress on a tyre of any track.

"We’ve tested the hypersoft in Abu Dhabi and Barcelona," explained Pirelli's head of racing, Mario Isola. "Of those two, Abu Dhabi is a better comparison to Monaco.

Ricciardo wants to see pink tyres at every race!

"There we saw that the hypersoft was worth about a second per lap than the ultrasoft, so we could see some more records broken this weekend.

"Nonetheless, the hypersoft is definitely a race tyre rather than a qualifying tyre," he insisted. "So it will be interesting to see how it adapts itself to the unique demands of Monaco, and what effect it has on strategy.

"Collecting as much data about it as possible in free practice will be particularly important. The drivers have all each nominated between eight
and 11 sets of hypersoft, so we should see plenty of running on it throughout the weekend - if it stays dry, of course."

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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.