Pirelli announces driver tyre choices for Melbourne

Pirelli has announced the tyre choices made by each team for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

New regulations see teams able to pick from three different tyre compounds, with an allocation of 13 sets per driver. Of those 13 sets, Pirelli will select two sets which have to be allocated for the race (of which a driver must use one set), while a set of the softest available compound may only be used in Q3. The other ten sets are free to be chosen by the teams, with drivers allowing different allocations.

The medium, soft and supersoft tyre has been nominated for the Australian Grand Prix, with Pirelli nominating one set of the medium and one set of the soft as mandatory to be available during the race, and one set of the supersoft compound for Q3.

Pirelli has now announced the full choices for each driver. Mercedes team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are one of only three pairings to opt for different choices within teams, with Hamilton opting for just one set of mediums and six softs compared to two sets of mediums and five softs for Rosberg.

Sauber's Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson also opt for slightly different allocations, while Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez also differ between their medium and soft allocations.

The full list of tyre choices by each driver is below:

©PirelliSport

INTERVIEW: Max Verstappen: The man in demand

FEATURE: Hello to Halo?

ANALYSIS: The two F1 pre-season tests in numbers

GALLERY: Pre-season testing

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

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.

Recent Posts

McLaren cashes in on the future, as 2026 F1 car sells for millions!

McLaren have always liked to do things quickly. But selling tomorrow’s car today sounds a…

4 hours ago

Ricciardo hints at racing return: ‘The itch is there’

Daniel Ricciardo may have closed the door on Formula 1, but it’s starting to sound…

6 hours ago

Steiner warns of ‘outliers’ and epic failures in F1 new era

Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner is bracing for fireworks when Formula 1 kicks off…

7 hours ago

Team boss Verstappen? He’d always run a clear No.1

Max Verstappen has never been shy with his opinions, and his latest take on team…

8 hours ago

Adrian Newey, the man who can see air

There are many in Formula 1 - beginning with Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll…

9 hours ago

Gasly backs Alpine’s long game: ‘Much brighter days are coming’

After a 2025 season defined by growing pains and technical pivots, Pierre Gasly is finally…

10 hours ago