Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsPirelli

Ferrari and Mercedes differ on Bahrain tyre choices

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Ferrari and Mercedes have made notably different tyre compound choices for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

This year's regulations allow teams to pick ten of their 13 compounds for each race weekend without restriction, with three different tyre compounds available for each race. In Bahrain the same compounds as Australia are available, with Pirelli nominating the supersoft, soft and medium tyre.

With Pirelli making one set of mediums and one set of softs the mandatory race tyres - of which one set must be used - Mercedes has effectively not chosen any extra medium tyres despite the compound helping it win the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. Teams had to make their selections 13 weeks in advance of the race.

Ferrari, on the other hand, has selected three sets of mediums for the race weekend, with Mercedes having two more sets of softs than its main rival. Both teams have selected six sets of supersofts, though one set is solely for use in Q3.

The majority of teams have the same allocations for each driver, with only Toro Rosso, Sauber and Haas seeing differences between team-mates.

©Pirelli

Mercedes' Paddy Lowe praised the new tyre regulations for helping deliver an exciting first race of the season in Melbourne on Sunday.

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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.