F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Pirelli primer: which tyres for the Australian GP?

The main fact to know about Pirelli ahead of this weekend's season-opening Australian Grand Prix is that all teams will race in 2020 with the same tyres as last year, a first for the Italian company in F1.

Pirelli also brings to Melbourne the same compounds as in 2019: the hard C2, the medium C3 and the soft C4, a selection that worked very well last year at the fast Albert Park street circuit which is mainly about traction and braking.

"Tyre-wise, the drivers should be well-prepared for Melbourne, as they have exactly the same selection as last year, so there should be plenty of relevant data," explained Mario Isola, Pirelli's head of F1.

"Perhaps the only question mark concerns how these tyres perform on the 2020 cars, which have already proved to be a lot faster than their predecessors, but plenty of information about this was gathered at pre-season testing in Barcelona last month.

"In the recent past, Australia has been a one-stop race for most drivers, and for now there's no reason to think why it should be different this year, which marks the start to the end of an era: the final season of 13-inch tyres in Formula 1."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney

Recent Posts

Wolff: Antonelli’s Austin win ‘the best race he’s delivered’

Toto Wolff has obviously had a front-row seat to Kimi Antonelli’s remarkable rise – one…

5 hours ago

Norris admits McLaren now only ‘fourth fastest team’

Lando Norris delivered a blunt assessment of McLaren’s declining competitiveness after Sunday’s disappointing United States…

6 hours ago

F1i Driver Ratings for the 2026 United States Grand Prix

Oliver Bearman, Haas (DNF) – 3/10 A thoroughly miserable afternoon for the young Briton in…

8 hours ago

Lucky Prost leaps into second F1 world title

F1 fans witnessed a dramatic season finale on this day in Adelaide in 1986 when…

10 hours ago

Hamilton rues Ferrari set-up error after understeer nightmare

Lewis Hamilton believes a set-up error on his Ferrari that instilled “massive” understeer made life…

11 hours ago

Alonso blasts ‘very low’ driving standards after Albon clash

Fernando Alonso delivered a stinging verdict on the quality of racing at the back of…

12 hours ago