F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Pirelli: Soft tyre a potential gamble in Sprint Qualifying

Pirelli's medium tyre is expected to be the teams' default choice for Saturday afternoon's sprint race, but Mario Isola reckons a few bold drivers will take a bet on the soft compound.

The 17-lap mad dash, for which drivers will have a free choice of tyres, is set to take place in warm conditions which, coupled with Silverstone's high energy profile, should theoretically prompt teams to opt for Pirelli's more durable medium rubber.

But depending on how each driver has exploited Pirelli's allocation leading up to sprint qualifying, with everyone handed at the outset two sets of hards, four sets of mediums and six sets of softs, some drivers could choose to go all-in with the soft compound.

Isola points to last year's 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone as a case study for Sprint Qualifying.

"It is difficult to predict if teams will use just Mediums or also the Soft," said Isola.

"If you look back at the second Silverstone race last year where the Soft compound we have this week was the Medium, we have some drivers that were able to run a stint longer than the Sprint on the Soft without the high degradation.

"We had for example Esteban Ocon, Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc, Lance Stroll, Raikkonen, Antonio Giovinazzi – they all ran long stints on the C3 compound.

"I believe that considering last year we had similar conditions in terms of temperature it is a good indication of what they can choose."

Earlier this week, Isola felt convinced that the medium rubber would be the teams' go-to choice, but the Italian is now less sure that the yellow-rimmed tyre will prevail on Saturday afternoon.

"I think we will see a mix of Soft and Medium compound for the Sprint," he said.

"If it happens it is obviously very interesting as with the new format everyone was thinking it would be the same compound for everybody, but maybe not."

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

Sad Colapinto laments two crashes in one day in Sao Paulo

Williams suffered a bruising time on Sunday in Sao Paulo, with Alex Albon unable to…

20 mins ago

McLaren: No regrets over timing of Norris pit stop in Sao Paulo GP

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has insisted that the squad has no regrets about their…

2 hours ago

Williams' Boutsen hoists the mainsail in Adelaide

On this day in 1989, Williams' Thierry Boutsen secured his second F1 win when he…

3 hours ago

Horner: Max 'answered critics' with epic Sao Paulo GP drive

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner hailed Max Verstappen’s sensational Sao Paulo Grand Prix victory…

4 hours ago

Sainz left puzzled by double crash drama in rainy São Paulo

Carlos Sainz was left scratching his head after a disastrous Sunday at the Sao Paulo…

5 hours ago

Alonso pushed through agonizing pain to complete Sao Paulo GP

Fernando Alonso braved both physical agony and mechanical challenges in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix,…

6 hours ago